When Tinder made hooking up as easy as the flick of a finger, many homegrown dating apps followed, all trying to transform how young Indians find love. More than four years since these apps flooded the market, traditional matrimonial websites remain the preferred choice, underlining the fact that when it comes to marriage, young Indians are less likely to push traditional boundaries. This is borne out by the fact that sites such as bharatmatrimony.
Some of them have been acquired by larger firms or have shut shop. A dating app generates revenue when users opt for paid services such as accessing more profiles, sending messages or curated emojis. In contrast, matrimonial websites offer a chance to find a partner for marriage, making them more successful in attracting subscriptions. Typical dating app users are, however, in their late teens to mids and many are not even looking for committed relationships. Sometimes, they log in to these apps just to find friends.
That more than half the population is below 25 years made these dating appsβwith TrulyMadly leading the chargeβconfident that they had a significant advantage over matrimonial sites when they began. Most dating apps were targeted at the young, urban Indian. These apps gave consumers a platform to experiment with relationship options that might not end in marriage, but offered flexibility in the form of flings, short-term relationships, companionship or love.
But even the best of them have struggled to make money, although matrimonial sites continue to enjoy double-digit revenue growth. TrulyMadly Trulymadly Matchmakers Pvt. VC showed. Our main company Truly Madly Pte. We have cut down our team from about 50 people to 15 members. We have removed the advertisement model because that was falling flat for us.
The company has realigned and now we are only focusing on the subscription model. Frivil, another dating app, was acquired by shaadi. In comparison, matrimony. Similarly, Info Edge India Ltd, which runs jeevansathi. Also, the dating market is overcrowded and most apps end up offering identical services. A user can always switch from one to another if the features offered are not affordable. Data from app-tracker Sensor Tower shows that Tinder has consistently been the top grossing app in the lifestyle category for the past three months, whereas Truly Madly has been juggling between the 15th and the 16th spots.
