It is better than nothing, but is not scalable. We at nothing_here building a tool which will help fight loneliness online. (I have removed the link, not really trying to sell anything to anyone)
Most of the people simply don't have the possibility to gather around and talk about their life/problems. It is becoming a luxury to have a live talk with a real person.
I am sure that the above mentioned organization is doing great job helping people, but the answer to your question why it is not scalable is that such approach can help only to a very limited amount of people. Why ?
Because: - meeting in person is not always possible - meeting in persion is not always desirable - it is limited only to local areas
2) Undesirable? Please elaborate.
3) Transportation widens local for the rich to a wide area for few day trips, which is a scheduling problem. For a day trip, mark a circle with 8h travel diameter. It is relatively far, yet here we are, anonymous in cities.
2) it is hard to discuss many (if not most) personal issues in personal or in group meetings. Suicidal thoughts, depression, life advice - you cannot simply go out there and discuss all these during your first/tenth meeting with a person in private.
This discussion started not because your product idea is bad, but rather because your pitch included trying to tell us that what this Danish group has been doing is not scalable, even though they are doing it since decades with great success. This felt like saying it is somehow the wrong approach.
I think you can add to society with such a chat app, but there is a lot of indication that quality personal interaction is superior, and there are many many groups, even anonymous consulting etc, who have tackled these issues for decades! That clearly is scale, look at AA.
For example, one may also say that non anonymous and close connections, the opposite of what you offer in your app, is precisely the point of this Danish initiative, and your app really targets different issues. In that view, your comment seemed rather flippant. When pitching your app, you probably avoid seeming ignorant of the actual issue at stake.
Best of luck to you
For physical and mental health, we need real face to face connections, in person and not online. Young people use many chat apps and even topic based groups and sites, set depression and health problems keep increasing.
The more we are in front of a screen, the harder it is to actually be with others. And this is what we need as humans.
I think you just have to look at how people treat each other online vs irl when not necessarily friendly (ie. work) to know that spending time face to face is essential for healthy social interaction.
I really do think that our body has a different physical reaction to being close with others. We are monkeys, basically. Lonely monkeys dont do well.
Improving on your original point in this way will take it from what it is now (an advertisement, IMO pretty undesirable) to what it could be: Informative and helpful to those suffering from what the news article purports this company addresses.