Sounds like a bad idea. Paying someone to spend time with you - if you are lonely, you need real friends and not someone that will hang out with you for money. That is depressing. Its like after an hour, "bro, that is $50, bye". You shouldn't call this "meet new friends", just "hire people to do jobs". Sorry, this is very depressing.
This is a tricky one. The concept is interesting, but the use of the terms "friend" might be the hangup for me (in the marketing material). This is like volunteering + money. While I'm sure charities want volunteers badly, paying them no longer makes them volunteers. Friends who are paid, aren't friends. I do like the 'local guide' aspect or an 'extra set of hands', but labeling people as friends just doesn't work for me. That said, I have a board game that is just gathering dust, but I guess I will need to wait a group of people who actually want to play.
@walterareid I agree, hiring a local guide sounds better than hiring a friend. They could show you the cool spots that only locals know about, and it wouldn't be weird to have a drink with them at their favorite watering hole.
Interesting idea - the social tour guide angle is cool. What stops people from using it for things like prostitution? (Or do you guys care about that use case?)
