In a world where the pub is a distant memory, the youth centre has been gentrified into a juice bar, and remote working means your only office buddy is a houseplant, loneliness has become the new pandemic. A whopping 40% of adults aged 16 to 29 feel lonely 'always, often or some of the time', according to the Office for National Statistics. Enter the paid social club, a concept so logical it makes you wonder why we didn't think of it sooner: pay a subscription, and an algorithm - not you - decides who you'll meet.
Nicola Gunby, co-founder of Cliq, a platform aiming 'to bring people together through shared interests and real-world experiences', laments the state of modern socialising. 'The first place people in their 20s and 30s turn to when trying to make friends is Facebook groups,' she says. 'But they've ended up becoming a noticeboard for people who've, say, lost their dog or want to sell their bed.' Indeed, nothing says 'genuine community' like a lost dog poster.
Enter the saviours: platforms like PLY (People Like You) and Agora. The mechanics are simple: they match users based on interests, lifestyle habits, and profession, then an algorithm decides which events you should attend. Because clearly, you can't be trusted to pick your own social calendar. The ideal outcome? You show up, make connections, and leave with plans to meet again - or at least a goodie bag to soften the blow.
PLY's memberships start at £19.99 a month, dropping to about £9.99 for longer commitments. Founder Karen Harris defends the price tag: 'When you do things for free, people often don't turn up.' Ah, the classic 'I paid for it, so I must go' psychology. She claims it takes an average of three events 'to find your person', which is either a heartwarming promise or a concerningly specific statistic.
Agora offers a mix of pay-as-you-go and subscription options, which founder Sahil Shirazee says makes things more accessible. In two years, it has hosted over 300 events and claims to have helped form hundreds of friendships. That's a lot of matchmaking, and a lot of potential for awkward small talk.
Charlotte Johnson, 29, from Hertfordshire, appreciates the flexibility: 'A membership fee would make me feel pressured into attending so many events every month.' She prefers paying per event, which 'encourages me to go if I've paid for it' - because nothing says 'authentic connection' like financial obligation. She was pleasantly surprised by a recent brunch that included a take-home goodie bag, and has since signed up for a pottery event. Because nothing says 'I'm serious about friendship' like a hand-thrown mug.
Not everyone is convinced. Shirazee admits he still gets asked why people should pay to meet each other. His answer: if you want to solve loneliness and create communities 'as quickly as possible', you need to ensure the people cracking this issue 'are able to not only get compensated, but grow'. Because friendship, like any good startup, needs a revenue model.
Harris rejects the notion that people are 'paying for access to strangers'. 'You're paying for a system, for structure, that makes connections much better,' she says. Free socialisation, she argues, relies on a host or facilitator, whereas at PLY events, 'interaction is peer-to-peer, without a facilitator moving you forward'. So you're paying for the absence of a party host - revolutionary.
Free events still exist, and some prefer them. Giovanna Giusi, a 28-year-old primary school teacher, says she can't always afford paid social activities, so she appreciates a mix of free events like hikes and paid ones with instructors. She notes that paid events 'make it possible to offer experiences that couldn't realistically happen for free, such as workshops with instructors, private classes or activities that need a venue'. Because someone has to pay for the pottery studio.
Despite this being their entire business model, organisers hope paid socialisation isn't the norm forever. Shirazee says, 'In the long run, I don't want Agora to exist,' because 'meeting people is so natural' it shouldn't rely on an algorithm. But in the meantime, he's expanding to other cities next year. Because if there's one thing more natural than friendship, it's a scalable subscription service.