Frimake, the application designed in Toulouse that breaks loneliness
Born in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), the application is intended as a vaccine against social isolation. His remedy: organizer of activities to make friends. In the space of 2 years, it has more than 120,000 members across France.
7 million people are in isolation according to April 2021 figures from the Fondation de France. They were 4 million in 2010. A scourge that affects young people and seniors. The health crisis has obviously not helped the situation.
Sensitive to this cause, well before the pandemic, the Toulousain Alae Elhayyate had the idea of creating “frimake“, contraction of “Friend’s makers”.
It’s crazy to see how far we are from each other, how extremely complicated it has become to make new friends or just to exchange with neighbors. We indulge in our overly virtual lives and yet we all agree that “likes” will never replace real human interaction. It was really time that digital was no longer part of the problem but rather part of the solution”
Alae ElhayyateFounder of Freemake
Concretely, Frimake is a free application that allows you to meet people in small groups around real activities or in video.
Each user”is free to propose the activity of his choice, whether it is a sports trip, a barbecue or even to meet around a game of cardsexplains its designer.The application also offers the possibility to the organizer to choose with whom he wants to share his activity: evening exclusively between women, stroll between parents, selection of an age group,….”.
The platform is aimed at everyone, from “16 to 79 years old”.
Of course, Frimake is not the only friendly dating app. But his concept seems to seduce. Launched in early 2020 before the first confinement, it now claims 120,000 users including 25,000 in Toulouse.
“More than 1500 activities are offered each weeke” complete Alae Elhayyate.
February 2021, Frimake works with several student associations such as the FNEB (National Federation of Students in Exact Sciences) or theAGEMP (General Student Association of Midi-Pyrenees). The objective is to fight against the social exclusion of young people.
Alae Elhayyate is also in discussion with universities and the Ministry of National Education to help students forge social ties lost after 2 years of pandemic.
For the future, the founder of Frimake and his 10 employees are finalizing the second version of the application scheduled for March 2022. A Premium account is also planned to financially sustain this social and human initiative.