NEW YORK, March 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- AYI "AreYouInterested?", which is owned by SNAP Interactive, Inc. (OTCBB: STVI), is pleased to announce the launch of several new and exciting 'social' features today designed to integrate a user's friends into the online dating experience. Specifically, AYI users will now be able to view the friends in common when looking for potential dates, search for singles through their friends, and search for singles with mutual or related interests.  With over 65 million installs on Facebook, AYI continues to strengthen its position as a leader in the 'social dating' space.

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As one of the very first dating applications to launch on Facebook Platform in 2007, AYI has a history of being an innovator in the online dating industry and the launch of these innovative new features only further underscores that track record.  With more tools available to help singles connect online, AYI believes it is responding to a shift in the online dating landscape and by redesigning its site over the last several months by moving towards 'social dating.'  This transition is complete today with the full integration of friends and interests into the AYI user experience.

What makes AYI uniquely positioned to be a leader in the social dating space is its existing scale on Facebook with millions of users that have Facebook-connected profiles.  Since the majority of AYI's users are Facebook connected, AYI is able to provide a robust experience and deliver a significantly large number of search results, which allows singles to discover users with similar or related interests as well as mutual friends in common.  These social features enable AYI to offer singles all over the world enhanced functionality to help them meet and connect with other singles in a meaningful way.

SNAP Interactive CEO Clifford Lerner says, "AYI has always been a progressive and innovative dating site and we believe these social feature launches really raise the bar in the dating space.  Historically, there has been a large disconnect between the way singles meet online versus in the real world.  Offline, singles commonly meet through friends and interests.  That same experience really hasn't been possible online – until now.  Our deep integration into Facebook Platform coupled with the significant scale of our interest and social graph puts us in the unique position of being able to integrate friends and interests into online dating in a meaningful way.  It also provides singles with an online dating experience that more closely mirrors the way singles traditionally meet in the real world."

Lerner continues, "We have been making a big bet on Facebook Platform ever since 2007 and that investment has allowed us to build up a scale in our interest and social graph that we believe is unmatched in the online dating industry.  This is extremely significant because the social features we've launched require an unusually large amount of users and data in the database in order to deliver meaningful search results and create a worthwhile and positive experience for users.  We believe it would be very costly and challenging for new entrants and even existing large competitors to build up any kind of similar scale when it comes to friend and interest results, which are core elements to the social dating experience."

AYI is also announcing important enhancements to its interest search. With over 1 billion structured interest data points, AYI is introducing robust interest searching in order to deliver more relevant matches for singles. AYI's structured interest data enables users to find singles with mutual interests along with related interests as well.  These new features combined with real-time updating of AYI user profiles via Facebook's Real-time API shows that AYI continues its history of innovation and its status as a leader in the 'social dating' space.

Lerner added, "Introducing friends into the online dating experience makes dating online more efficient as well as a lot more fun.  Your friends know you better than anyone and by connecting with friends of friends, your friends can pre-screen potential dates for you as well as expose you to a brand new set of people you're likely to get along with.  We believe that meeting through your friends will mean better matches and fewer bad dates, as users will no longer have to encounter traditional online dating pitfalls such as worrying about stale pictures or inauthentic profiles.  The recent launch of Facebook Graph search only further validates our transition to integrating friends and interests into the online dating experience. "

Initially, the new features will be available on AYI.com and the AYI Facebook application, with a mobile rollout planned for later this year.

About SNAP Interactive, Inc.

SNAP Interactive, Inc. develops, owns and operates online dating and social networking applications for social networking websites and mobile platforms.  SNAP's flagship brand, AYI is one of the largest social dating applications on the Internet with over 65 million installs, and offers a completely integrated Facebook, iPhone, Android and Web application. SNAP was recently ranked the 36th Fastest Growing Company in North America on Deloitte's 2012 Technology Fast 500™. For more information, please visit http://www.snap-interactive.com/, its blog at http://blog.ayi.com/, on Facebook at facebook.com/SnapInteractiveInc and on Twitter at @SNAPInteractive.

The contents of our websites are not part of this press release, and you should not consider the contents of these websites in making an investment decision with respect to our common stock.

Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc. iPhone® is a registered trademark of Apple Inc.  Are You Interested?® is a registered trademark of SNAP Interactive, Inc.

PR Contact:
Kayla Inserra
Kayla@specopscomm.com
919-601-2247

IR Contact:
Denise Garcia
IR@snap-interactive.com

SOURCE SNAP Interactive, Inc.