I saw a few adds for Travel Buddy website and checked it out. Too many pretty weman, and anyone who used Tinder or happn will notice that the website is fake. No way woman would write first, espacially to me.
So that website is cheap and predatory, just like freemium games. But it doesn't have to be like that, the only reason this services have negative reputation is because their initial deception.
What if they keep all the money making practices and the core, but play on the idea and remove the deception. For example: website where you can get connected to a bot, and you score points if person you are talking to thinks you are a bot, and vice versa.
I think it's a good idea because if you go to my HOME page and check the "message" button, it says that you are talking to service AI, but in reality, I have a wix App, and I can respond to any message from my phone. It's tons of fun to talk to a person, who thinks you are a computer. They are super excited every time you make a joke, even bad one. And genuanly surprised when you actually understood what they are asking.
So how about making it into a real thing. You chat with someone until you are sure that they are bot. After, they score points if you are wrong, and you can continue chatting if you want.
Those free games and fake websites exist because aside from deception, they do have entertainment value (not that kind, the chatting kind), and if they embrace it, user can know exactly what it is, and still they will be able to make a big buck.