MOSCOW – The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!
Actually, with the volume of sex apps emerging from Russia these days, it appears the Russians want everyone to be cumming. From apps that help users find one-night stands to fetish dating to facial recognition and physical sensation, Russian app developers are determined to penetrate the adult entertainment global market in a big way.
Of course, global markets represent the lion’s share of adult app sales in a country where distribution of pornography is a felony. Even in quasi-adult realms, Russian developers can make more money abroad than they can at home. The online dating market, for example, is worth about U.S. $50 million annually in Russia; in the U.S., dating brings in an estimated $2.5 billion.
Here are a few Russian-developed apps to watch.
NEWPL
Text-speak for “new people,” NEWPL is a dating app for those who like to walk on the wild side. The software connects fetish enthusiasts, swingers, role-players and BDSM fans with other like-minded adults based on shared erotic desires. Users set up profiles — photos not required — spell out their kinks and go to work finding matches.
The app also can be used as entertainment in its own right. Steamy stories, “true confessions” and interactive sexual fantasies also are part of the mix.
A beta version of the location-specific software launched in Moscow in December. The developers expect to expand to New York later this year.
Pure App
A graduate of the Lisbon Challenge accelerator program, Pure App officially launched in 2013. Since then, it’s gone through several iterations before settling comfortably into its current niche: a paid service that matches strangers for “quickies.”
The location-specific app is intrusive: In order to set up a meeting, users must enter their telephone number, email address and Facebook information, plus upload a selfie. Matches have only one hour to arrange a tryst; at the 61-minute mark, all the data is deleted … or so the developers say.
Pure’s developers also say the app is popular in Moscow, New York, London, Los Angeles and Mexico.
ToTouchMe
Due to launch in Russia, the U.S. and Europe at the end of January, ToTouchMe employs haptic technology to transmit tactile sensations. The app requires a touchscreen device with a vibro engine (like the Apple iPhone7 and many Samsung phones). While they chat, users may reveal parts of each others’ images by touching the screen.
Though not “adult,” per se, the app shows potential for use as an ancillary revenue-generator in phone sex and similar environments.
FindFace
By far the most controversial app to arise in Russia so far, FindFace employs law-enforcement-grade facial-recognition technology that allows users to identify strangers in a crowd. The software, which boasts the world’s highest accuracy rate at 73.3 percent, was meant to help people make new friends or follow-up with someone they met at a gathering but don’t know how to contact. Because it’s designed to work with Russia’s Vkontakte social media platform, in theory FindFace means like-minded adults should have no trouble locating each other.
In practice, though, the app has become a useful tool for stalking.
For now, the app works only with Vkontakte, but rumors continue to swirl about developing a similar product that will search Facebook.
