Just hours before New York City started to slow down to New Year celebrations (I hope) at home, Alexandar Dimcevski was walking around the supermarket, wondering how he became the final villain of the 2020 COVID-19.
“We were canceled by the liberal media,” said Dimcevski, just days after news of his invitation-only party planning app, Vybe Together, generated new fears that users were turning to clandestine social media apps to celebrate in indoors on New Year’s Eve, while the virus spreads across the United States “Apple took us down in a matter of hours. But we will be back. “
While Los Angeles recovers from its most severe wave of COVID-19, with 10,000 deaths in LA County and a county resident now dying every 10 minutes from the disease, Vybe Together has become the face of technological scene opportunism and recklessness. of nightlife when New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz tweeted details about an earlier version in circulation.
“We didn’t have a voice, we didn’t have a channel to express our side of the story,” said Dimcevski. “Within hours,” he said, “the articles had headlines that were not true.”
Vybe Together, in its brief life available to residents of New York and Miami, has joined a circle of ticket sales sites like Eventbrite and social media platforms that, intentionally or unintentionally, facilitated the types of influencer’s mansion parties , hip-hop shows and raves that city officials believe contributed to the latest deadly increase. Vybe Together was built before COVID-19, but, more than most others, it used its outlaw intent openly as the disease increased.
On Friday, just before New Year’s Eve, the app – which allowed users to host and host meetings for chosen candidates and private indoor parties as a way to “catch their rebel” – was no longer available on any app platform important, and TikTok canceled his account.
Before the Vybe Together website was updated with a brief mea culpa (“Our intentions are for people to enjoy small meetings in their apartments, NOT illegal parties”), he had a “What about COVID” section explaining his approach to the pandemic : “We are aware that Covid is a major health problem for the country, our communities, our friends and family. … Having parties on a large scale is very dangerous. That’s why we don’t support that. But Vybe is a deal, with no big parties, but small meetings. We could be living, at least a little during those times with Vybe. “
While no more than a few thousand users successfully downloaded the app, and its founder claimed that those users organized “no more than two or three” events a week, he quickly achieved any notoriety that his elusive owners had longed for.
“I admit, we didn’t brand him,” said Dimcevski, when asked if he understood why, while hospitals filled with patients hosted gift shops and ran out of oxygen and supplies, people were outraged by the app’s premise. “We didn’t allow many people to be part of this. We understand that now is not the right time to enter the market. “
Even though Dimcevski’s company won the app store guillotine for its obvious threat to public health, he didn’t consider himself the worst criminal out there.
“If people want to throw illegal parties, they go to Eventbrite because you can remain anonymous,” he said. (Eventbrite was the local box office platform of choice for parties ranging from rap shows to orgies during the COVID-19 shutdown in LA.) “There was nothing illegal about our app, it was just for small apartment meetings. They can be anything from board games to twerking with the girls next door. “
Beverly Hills’ La Scala restaurant tested the waters of an indoor NYE clandestine party; an infamous Los Angeles party series called Spanky’s had similar plans. A Christian singer-songwriter, Sean Feucht, drew dozens of counter-protesters as he led his unmasked fans into a super-sprawling potential singing along through vulnerable homeless camps in Skid Row and Echo Park.
The new city rules state: “All public and private meetings and events with people from more than one family are not allowed, except for outdoor religious services and outdoor political expression.”
But many residents and city officials fear that apps like Vybe Together are taking home party culture even further into the underground on big nights like New Year’s Eve. Los Angeles County supervisor Hilda Solis told The Times: “From what we’ve seen with so many people who have attended meetings and travel, we remain very concerned about another increase on top of the current increase.” Mayor Eric Garcetti wrote in a tweet: “Los Angeles, my message couldn’t be clearer: don’t meet with anyone outside your home today. Do not host or attend a party in person. Do not travel. Virtually celebrate and welcome the New Year with the people in your home. Stay safe, save lives. “
Dimcevski (a previously excluded LinkedIn listed him as a New York University graduate and a native of Sweden) seemed torn between taking advantage of the newfound global attention and backing down on his app’s sudden reputation. He did not give further information about himself or Vybe Together, unless the application was based in New York and which, perhaps surprisingly, he said he received funding two years ago from a New York state technology grant program. “This is the crazy part, because they gave us some money,” he said. “But nobody’s been in touch yet.”
The app, he said, never worked in LA, the global heart of influencer culture. The parts that Vybe Together facilitated would have violated public health orders here if they had been. But Dimcevski said that as soon as Vybe Together comes out of the app store’s prison, he will want to try again – the site asks fans to stay in touch for the planned return.
“We would never tolerate illegal parties. Great underground raves, no, no, no, ”said Dimcevski. “It was only for the coolest people in the city. We were using the app’s process to find out if you had the sauce. “