QuizUp Trivia App Adds Tinder Strategy To Win Back Users

QuizUp was once just a hot (and indeed, extremely popular) mobile game for trivia. Now, the app wants to not only be your favorite trivia spot but also help you make friends and potential lovers.

A new version of QuizUp released Thursday has been over a year in the works and greatly expands the app's social elements. For example, instead of being matched with a random opponent based on your availability and category interests, QuizUp users can now choose a partner based on gender, age and location, as well.

"We don't think of QuizUp as a game anymore; we think about it as a social network based around interests," Thor Fridriksson, founder and CEO of Plain Vanilla, the studio behind QuizUp, told Business Insider. "The game is a part of that experience, but that trivia game isn't the only activity that people can do in those communities."

The new interface of the app has taken on elements akin to those on dating app Tinder. When looking for an opponent, in the People section of the app, users will see a card for each available player (defined by your filter settings) that includes an image, activity level and mutual interests. A user can choose to Play, Follow or Chat someone or simply swipe left, like on Tinder.

Players can select to keep their profiles private if they so choose.

There are over 1,200 trivia subjects, and each one has its own interest-based chatrooms. Users can click on a comment to like, comment or instantly play a game with another user. QuizUp made a video to explain the social elements:

"Turns out you can actually make friends with people interested in the same stuff as you," one player says in the video.

QuizUp has 33 million users, but only 5 million are actively monthly. Although the mobile games market is worth $5.2 billion just in the U.S., users fleeing interests and competition from other apps make staying sticky difficult. But that's not to say competition from dating apps, estimated to be a $2.2 billion industry, is easier with leaders like OkCupid, Tinder and Hinge.

But by combining these two massive billion-dollar markets, QuizUp is hoping to take the reins back on the market. Currently, QuizUp is free to download. But the company told Business Insider that future moneymaking strategies could include promoted content as seen in social networking apps Twitter and Instagram.