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Lulu (formerly Luluvise) was a web and
mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...
for iOS and Android that allowed female users to make positive and negative evaluations of male users on the basis of their romantic, personal, and sexual appeal. The app allowed only female users to access the evaluation system, and evaluations made through the app are attached publicly and anonymously. In 2015 the app moved away from Facebook, and currently only allows registration via mobile phone numbers, for both male and female users. Lulu describes itself as "a private network for girls to express and share their opinions openly and honestly" about the weaknesses and strengths of the manners, appearances, spending habits, and career ambitions of their male acquaintances. The company's expansion of its user base focuses heavily on recruiting
undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...
members of American all-female sororities, which commentators describe as reflected in the "app's linguistic and visual design
hich Ij () is a village in Golabar Rural District of the Central District in Ijrud County, Zanjan province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq ...
is visibly influenced by US sorority culture." The app has been highly controversial, and the functionalities offered by the app are frequently described negatively in the popular press as "sexist and objectifying", "nonconsensual", and "shallow and mean". Although female users cannot write their own comments to avoid bullying, the company's harshest critics hold that the pre-selected terms used within the app for evaluations in the form of
hashtags A hashtag is a Tag (metadata), metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the Number sign, hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo sharing, photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a fo ...
are instrumental in "reinforcing completely horrible stereotypes", accuse the site of tolerating a
sexist Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...
double standard A double standard is the application of different sets of principles for situations that are, in principle, the same. It is often used to describe treatment whereby one group is given more latitude than another. A double standard arises when two ...
, and liken the "candor" for which the app aims to a form of public
harassment Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, and it is characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and ...
. The company's founder, Alexandra Chong, refers to the app's functionalities as "provocative" and "ground-breaking" and the website holds that the multiple-choice nature of evaluations creates "a safe and positive place for girls and guys". The company has also been accused of inappropriate use of Facebook accounts' user data. Lulu does not query male Facebook users for their consent in integrating their profiles in the app, and at the time of its release the product caused notable social "recoil" and received significant negative coverage in the press for its violation of Facebook's policies on the use of user data. The company notes that its data collection policies are now in compliance with Facebook's Platform Policies. Also, it points out how users who have unwittingly been incorporated into Lulu's databases may contact their support center for the removal of their personal data. Lulu was sold to Badoo in 2016 and discontinued some time later.


History

Lulu was created by
Alexandra Chong Alexandra Chong is a Jamaican entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of Jacana, a global cannabis company. Jacana cultivates, develops and distributes medical cannabis internationally and in a historic move, it was the first company to export Ja ...
, a Chinese-Jamaican/Canadian from
Ocho Rios Ocho Rios (Spanish for "Eight Rivers") () is a town in the parish of Saint Ann on the north coast of Jamaica, and is more widely referred to as ''Ochi'' by locals. Beginning as a sleepy fishing village, Ocho Rios has seen explosive growth ...
and former Jamaican tennis Olympian who studied at
Appalachian State University Appalachian State University (), or App State, is a Public university, public research university in Boone, North Carolina, United States. It was founded as a normal school, teachers' college in 1899 by brothers B. B. and D. D. Dougherty and th ...
and received her
LLB A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...
from the
London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
. She has stated as her inspiration a "really funny" Valentine's Day date she went on in 2009, after which she wanted to be able to discuss details with her female friends without sharing information on Facebook. In December 2011, after stints at Upstream and
The Corporate Executive Board Company CEB, formerly Corporate Executive Board, now a part of Gartner, was a company providing best practice research, benchmarks, and decision support tools to business leaders in HR, Finance, IT, Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Strategy, R&D, Pro ...
, she launched Luluvise.com, which was succeeded in January 2013 by Lulu, then as a private, invitation-only app for female users at
Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...
and the
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
. In February 2013 the app was released nationally in the US. By April 2013 the app had 200,000 men listed and rated. In November 2013, the app was covered by ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', at which point the company claimed more than a million users. ''
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
'' magazine reported in November 2013 that the average rating for male users on the app's 10-point numerical scale was 7.5 points.


Current features

Female users answer multiple-choice questions about a man’s sense of humor, manners, ambition, commitment level, and look and style. Results are converted to a 0-to-10 rating, which constitutes a guy’s “score”. Unlike other review-based systems, they cannot add their own comments. Male users on Lulu can add photos and hashtags to influence female users' opinion. They can edit any detail on their profiles, see their average score, how they perform across 7 categories, and which hashtags girls they know use to describe them. They can also acquire a subscription to see a more detailed breakdown of their scores. Lulu has a
online automatic self-removal tool
that allows both male and female users to delete their account at their request and "blacklist" their mobile phone numbers. Their Support Cente
also mentions
the inclusion of agree and disagree buttons let girls weigh in on the accuracy of each review. In 2014 Truth Bombs was launched: an anonymous forum where users can anonymously share their doubts and opinions about relationships and sex. In 2015 the Private Chat feature was added to the app as a main feature, allowing women “to make the first move”: female users can invite men they are interested in to a one-on-one conversation via their profiles or Truth Bombs.


Acquisition by Badoo

In February 2016,
Badoo Badoo is an online dating-focused and social networking application. Founded by Andrey Andreev in 2006, Badoo originally launched as a web product. It has headquarters in London. In 2012, the app was launched in the United States and later beca ...
acquired Lulu and removed the app's ability to rate men.The infamous app for rating men doesn’t let you rate men anymore
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Controversy

The stock phrases and "coy euphemisms" used within the app in the form of
hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a form of user-generated tagging that enable ...
s to evaluate users' male acquaintances have been noted by ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' to evoke "stupid cookie-cutter men who can't feel or think and can be summarised in a few sassy phrases of cute girl-talk", highlighting concerns that the app violates the bounds of social propriety and could be used to debase the social standing of users of whom it contains evaluations. Lulu states that it aims to "unleash the value of girl talk" to empower its female reviewers. Columnists dispute the app's stated aim to help "girls to make smarter decisions on topics
uch as Uch (; ), frequently referred to as Uch Sharīf (; ; ''"Noble Uch"''), is a historic city in the Pakistan's Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province. Uch may have been founded as Alexandria on the Indus, a town founded by Alexander the Great during I ...
relationships", arguing that the " Lisa Frank girly fun" of the app and its pre-selected review terms prevent the service from meaningfully addressing a substantive topic such as
dating abuse Dating abuse or dating violence is the perpetration or threat of an act of violence by at least one member of an unmarried couple on the other member in the context of dating or courtship. It also arises when one partner tries to maintain pow ...
or
sexual assault Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally Physical intimacy, sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or Coercion, coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their w ...
.
The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...
praised the app for “...making dating safer for women”. Critical reactions such as in ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' note the a
sexist Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but primarily affects women and girls. It has been linked to gender roles and stereotypes, and may include the belief that one sex or gender is int ...
double standard A double standard is the application of different sets of principles for situations that are, in principle, the same. It is often used to describe treatment whereby one group is given more latitude than another. A double standard arises when two ...
regarding the app: "If Lulu existed for men to rate women," columnist Kelly Clay notes, "it's likely that
Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
would probably reject it from the app store." ''
The Daily Barometer ''The Daily Barometer'' is an independent campus newspaper of Oregon State University (OSU), in Corvallis, first established in 1896. Beginning as a monthly magazine, it was for many decades a daily newspaper subsidized by and targeted to OSU' ...
'' likewise suggested that the app is degrading to both men and women, concurring that: "If there was a man’s version of Lulu, women would absolutely not stand for it." ''
Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
'' described the app as "creepy" and noted that " welcomed sexual commentary isn't a compliment, it's harassment." ''Forbes'' notes that Lulu "has enabled female
millennials Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s a ...
to think that digital revenge is acceptable ... and provided them a sleek platform to slander men." In May 2013, a "Shut Down Lulu" petition was created on
Change.org Change.org is a website which allows users to create and sign petitions in an attempt to advance various social causes by raising awareness and influencing decision-makers. The site is a US-based for-profit company and claims to have 551 million ...
by a man named George Orlin. This petition gained over 700 supporters. Lulu attracted attention after its release for how its initial collection of male Facebook users' data was at the time in violation of Facebook's Platform Policies. The public nature of the app's negative evaluations has also sparked concerns that the evaluations could potentially be libelous in nature. According to the libel laws of the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
, observers note that it "could well be construed by a judge in a court of law that n evaluation on the apphas 'lowered he male Facebook userin the minds of right thinking members of society'". In response to such allegations, a Lulu representative responded at the time that they "have good legal counsel and guidelines in place" and "also have a takedown policy", and the site notes that its present data collection does not violate Facebook's Platform Policies. Lulu's terms and conditions likewise have referenced how "uploading or posting information about other individuals might encroach on the data protection rights of those individuals".


See also

* DontDateHimGirl.com, a site frequently compared to Lulu which once had a similar (now-defunct) rating system for men *
Online reputation management Reputation management, refers to the influencing, controlling, enhancing, or concealing of an individual's or group's reputation. It is a marketing technique used to modify a person's or a company's reputation in a positive way. The growth of the ...


References


External links

*{{Official website, https://onlulu.com/ IOS software