Gfendr: the Airbnb of sex workers

Screen Capture, http://gfendr.ca/

QMI agency

Friday, 30 march 2018 12:46

UPDATE
Friday, 30 march 2018 12:46

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Sex workers can count on a new technological tool that promises to increase their security: the application Gfendr, described by its founders as the “Airbnb for sex work”.

Launched in early 2018, the application is aimed at both sex workers and clients who seek their services.

“We realized that sex workers had no application, dedicated tool for resolving the security problems that they encountered : of the clients are violent or things like that”, has explained in interview to the program “9 hours”, Melissa Desrochers, co-founder of Gfendr.

After doing a market study and found forty sex workers, we worked on the development of the platform.

“It is an application that is mid-way between the applications, dating and the economy of sharing. It creates an application that is a kind of Airbnb for sex work. The goal is to centralize information about clients to give to sex workers to help them make better choices,” said Ms. Desrochers.

“The sex worker, when it receives the offer, is able to see that it is a client that has five stars, another three-star, with another that it was not… It is therefore able to assess, navigate to avoid the risks. It reduces the harm in giving more information,” said Simon Leduc, also a co-founder of the application, stating that the last count state of the 109 000 sex workers in Canada.

Mr. Leduc adds that, according to a british study, only 44% of sex workers to screen clients in advance.

“It is a platform based on trust. The customers, knowing they will be evaluated, will have a tendency to adopt a better behavior, and vice-versa. The workers can also be assessed. There is also a way to report behaviors deemed inappropriate,” adds Melissa Desrochers.

The cases of juvenile prostitution, human trafficking, violent behaviors, and fake profiles can easily be reported via the Gfendr, an application that the founders want to keep it “clean”.

The platform is to this day used by 1850 people, including 700 sex workers.