TBW
Social networking platform web app
A revitalised branded dating and social networking platform with a twist, replacing outdated legacy software.
"Spectacular team with a getting-things-done methodology and the skills to pull off even the most demanding jobs."
Revamping a legacy web platform
Our client came to us with a long-standing dating site that was showing its age, plagued by slow performance, technical debt, and dwindling revenue. The original platform, built in 2006, was increasingly difficult to extend, and its outdated infrastructure was stalling growth and innovation.
Instead of patching over a brittle system, we rebuilt the platform from the ground up using modern technologies and best practices. This ground-up approach drastically reduced the time and cost of future feature development while positioning the platform for long-term stability and scalability.
The new mobile-friendly web app was optimised for modern user behaviour and quickly turned engagement around. Within two years, TBW saw a 500% increase in users and an extraordinary 1,800% growth in revenue. Mobile traffic also nearly doubled, jumping from 24% to 41% of total site visits.
Want to build a web platform like this?
Services delivered
Technologies used
- PHP - Symfony
- JavaScript
- MySQL database
- AWS cloud infrastructure
- Realtime - websockets
- PayPay payments integration
- Recurly recurring payments integration
Highlights of the bespoke web platform
User search & recommendations
- Bespoke user recommendation algorithm to present the most relevant user profiles, increasing engagement
- Advanced search enables fine-grade filtering on tens of dimensions, allowing users to find exactly what they are looking for
- Online presence indicator increases user interaction
- Users can interact directly from the search results, boosting engagement
Rich user profiles
- Highly detailed user profiles help users find their perfect match
- User profile moderation system helps to keep the platform safe, by requiring a moderator to approve any public profile changes
- Ability to see who has visited your own profile, giving the opportunity to make the first move
- Account visibility options to control what profile information is public, enhancing privacy
Realtime private messaging
- Social media sign-in options allow quick, frictionless account creation via Facebook, Google, or Twitter
- Automatic user safety features blocks potentially harmful messages
- Realtime messaging and notifications increases re-engagement with the platform
Monetisation through subscriptions
- Freemium model allowing free use of the platform, with paid subscriptions for additional benefits
- Repeat revenue through subscriptions, integrating with Recurly
- Allows building up a large userbase via free accounts, essential for a social platform
Behind-the-scenes and other top features
Not all heroes wear capes. These behind-the-scenes features don't have screenshots, but form an important part of the project.
Automated promotional and account emails
Enable targeted outreach to improve user re-engagement through timely messages.
Subscription and payment integration
Secure recurring billing via Recurly and PayPal to provide regular revenue with low friction.
Real-time messaging
Websocket-based realtime infrastructure delivering instant messages and notifications.
Analytics and performance insights
Build-in tracking of user behaviour and marketing effectiveness helping to optimise the user experience, adoption and conversion.
Want to develop a bespoke web platform like this?
"Spectacular team with a getting-things-done methodology and the skills to pull off even the most demanding jobs."
- 100% UK-based
- Complimentary scoping call
- At-a-glance feasibility analysis
- No obligation high-level proposal
- Work with an expert to evolve your idea
Project outline: revamping a legacy web platform
The TBW team approached us with their existing dating platform, established in 2006, with the goal of vastly improving the user experience, retention and revenue. While the platform was profitable at the time, revenue was declining at around 35% a year. The existing software possessed a large amount of technical debt, resulting in slow page load times and many bugs. Adding features to an aging platform was becoming a costly and time consuming process.
Being a social networking site, the feature-set required was very rich. It was to include: real-time messaging and notifications; a responsive design that allowed for mobile users and web users to communicate with ease; a voting system to allow users to vote for their favourite person to be featured; e-commerce with free/premium user accounts; it was to be linked up to a WordPress site that served as a news portal that provided easy content management for the admin staff; a custom administration panel that allowed staff to approve user profiles and provide customer support; and automated emails for a wide-range of customer service functions.
Investor mindset approach
The team wanted to make major improvements to the legacy software, which would have been time-consuming to implement due to the technical debt.
We identified the opportunity of rewriting the software from the ground up, taking advantage of modern technologies and best practices, in a similar amount of time to making the proposed improvements on the legacy software. The new software would also reduce the costs and timelines of implementing new features in the future, further improving the value of the investment.
Success of the web platform
Having support for mobile-friendliness in the design was a key factor in the decision to improve the platform, allowing the site to be opened up to a much wider audience. The new platform saw total mobile users rise from 24% in May 2013 to account for 41% of traffic in August 2014.
TBW achieved revenue growth of 1,800% in two years from May 2013, as well as winning multiple awards. The site saw a 500% increase in users, as of November 2015.
Want to build your bespoke web platform?
Looking to develop software that's greater than the sum of its parts?
Send us a message