Online Personals Watch: News on the Online Dating Industry and Business

The Future of Matrimonial Sites in India

MEDIANEWS4U - Matrimony.com's founder and CMD, Murugavel Janakiraman, is reflecting on the future of his company in light of recent reports that Match Group is considering investing in Shaadi.com, an Indian matrimony site, and InfoEdge's acquisition of the dating site Aisle through JeevanSaathi.com. Janakiraman notes that while dating sites have been around in India for about a decade, they haven't generated the expected revenues and have realized that matrimony sites are where the money is. He also observes that women are increasingly taking the decision to marry into their own hands and that the younger generation wants equality in marriages. Janakiraman believes that communication and design are the keys to successful marriages and plans to host webinars for couples to educate them on this. The company is committed to serving its audience and building a long-lasting organization that can evolve beyond the founder's involvement. Matrimony.com also has a growing wedding services business, including Wedding Bazaar and Mandap.com, and recently launched RainbowLuv for the LGBTQIA+ community.

by Gokul Krishnamoorthy
See full article at MediaNews4U

See the top news on Matrimony.com              See the top news on Shaadi
See the top news on Jeevansathi                    See the top news on Aisle

Match Group to Invest in Indian Matrimonial Site Shaadi

ECONOMIC TIMES - Match Group is in advanced discussions with Shaadi.com for a strategic investment in the Indian company. The exact financial terms and arrangement are yet to be ascertained. Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal didn't respond to queries. Match Group said that it does not comment on speculation. In an interview to a business daily in Sep last year, Mittal had said the company was planning to go public in the next fiscal year. Mittal is the founder and CEO of People Group, which runs the matchmaking site.

by Anumeha Chaturvedi
See full article at Economic Times

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com

Anupam Mittal Shares How He Managed to Raise Funds in Early Days

MASHABLE - From chasing VCs to becoming one, Mittal has become more than a matchmaker. His Shaadi.com venture is India's largest matchmaking platform, where Mittal constantly innovates with shifts in times and technologies. His gig as a Shark at the popular business reality Shark Tank India has made him a household name. Mittal laments that back in 2006 when he first stepped out to raise funds for Shaadi.com, there were hardly any VCs in India. He packed his suitcase and went to Silicon Valley, where all the Private Equity biggies and VCs were huddled. But it was way tougher than he could imagine. Mittal doesn't reveal the name of the first VC but says that the process took 4-5 months and they could garner the required funds.

by James Paul
See full article at Mashable

See the top news on Shaadi

Shaadi.com Pitches Itself as a Serious Dating Platform in the US, UK, Canada and UAE

AFAQS - The matchmaking segment in India is growing at a fast pace. According to Statista, the market volume of matchmaking will reach $302M by 2027. The revenue will grow at a rate of 0.91% (annually) between 2023 and 2027. And, the number of matrimonial platform users will increase to 29M by 2027. One of the big players in the market is Shaadi.com, which was founded in 1996 by Anupam Mittal. It also operates in Canada, UAE, the UK, and the US. In India, Shaadi positioned itself as a matchmaking service, as families are involved. Globally, Shaadi positions itself as a serious dating platform.

by Yash Bhatia    
See full article at Afaqs

See the top news on Shaadi

Shaadi Launches Live Speed Dating Events

EE - Shaadi, an Indian matchmaking company is launching Shaadi Live, online speed-dating events. Shadi Live will give singles an opportunity to meet ~10 potential matches over a 5 minutes video call each. The event will happen every 10 days and will last one hour. 

See full article at EE

See the top news on Shaadi

The Pricing Puzzle of Dating Apps

A MEDIUM FOR MEDIA - How companies make money off dating apps that are 'designed to be deleted'. Some elite apps like Raya and Lox Club work on memberships. Market leaders Tinder, Hinge and Bumble operate on a "freemium" model. A paying customer is statistically more likely to find a successful match and, as such, has no need for the product anymore. Freemium pricing hooks customers, then lures them to top-ups and premium features. ARPU for dating apps has been steadily increasing, but paying customers represent less than 10% of the total for Tinder (and are below 5% for Hinge and Bumble). Advertising revenues account for a very small portion of revenue. i.e. 3% of revenue for Bumble. Hinge has done away with advertising altogether. Innovative monetization modes include
a. Offerwalls - Users complete virtual tasks for tokens that act as a proxy to premium services.
b. Data Swaps - Virtual tokens used to unlock features in exchange for permissions to sell data to third-parties.
c. Unlocking individual matches - e.g. shaadi.com users create profiles for free, but Shaadi charge them on successful matches.

by Zarir Marfatia
See full article at A Medium for Media

Mark Brooks: How do you think dating apps should monetize in the future? Please join the conversation on this topic, on this Swell. Your opinion matters. Please voice it here. ;-)

Shaadi.com's Brand Journey

AFAQS - Pioneer of the match-making industry in India and the world's largest matchmaking service is celebrating 7M success stories. To mark this occasion, Shaadi.com has launched a multimedia campaign that involves a short film featuring founder Anupam Mittal who quirkily re-enacts the company's 20 year journey.

See full article at Afaqs

See the top news on Shaadi

Shaadi.com Is Looking to Enter Into Matchmaking for LGBTQ+

BUSINESS INSIDER - One of the biggest matchmaking platforms in India, Shaadi.com, is on a hunt for new business opportunities, according to the company's founder and CEO Anupam Mittal. Shaadi wants to launch two more products. "We are planning to launch something in January, which will tilt the entire industry on its head and open up a lot of avenues for us. This is a completely new way for finding a match," Mittal said without revealing further details. Mittal also said that the company will be looking forward to entering the matchmaking arena for the LGBTQ community or people living abroad.

by Kritti Bhalla
See full article at Business Insider

See the top news on Shaadi

Matrimonial Sites Are Doing Well

NEW INDIAN EXPRESS - June 11 - As meeting people has become difficult during the lockdown, matrimonial sites have launched video calling and Weddings From Home services. Murugavel Janakiraman, founder and CEO, Matrimony.com, said there has been a 25% increase in the number of registrations on their site during the lockdown and even on a quarter-on-quarter basis, they are reporting double digit growth. According to Adhish Zaveri, Senior Director - Marketing, Shaadi.com, the matchmaking industry has done well in the past year or so. "During the first wave, the engagement on Shaadi.com was up by 30-50% YOY. We also saw a 35-40% uptick in new members signing up."

by Binita Jaiswal
See full article at New Indian Express

See the top news on Matrimony.com
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Homegrown Indian Dating Platforms

FORBES INDIA - Dec 23 - The online dating industry in India is worth $323M, and the country is the third-largest revenue generator, after the US and China. Although foreign dating apps were the first to create a significant mark in India, homegrown apps are now witnessing a slow and steady rise. These include Aisle, Truly Madly or HiHi. They are positioning themselves as means to look for longer-term relationships. But they still lag far behind older match-making platforms. Beginning with Bharat Matrimony (matrimony.com) in 1997, online platforms to look for life partners is now estimated to be worth $260M, with some of the big players being Matrimony.com, Jeevansathi.com and Shaadi.com. According to Statista, the number of registrations on Matrimony.com were 40M as of FY20, up from 18M in FY14. From having ~10% market share in 2010s, they now have 50% market share.

by Aishwarya N.K.
See full article at Forbes India

Shaadi.com Wants Women to Be in Control

EXCHANGE4MEDIA - Dec 14 - Shaadi.com has launched its latest campaign called 'Pressure Hatao, Shaadi.com pe aao' that addresses the pressures women face in their matchmaking journey and empowers them to take control of the situation. Some of the 'Pressure Hatao' moments highlighted in the campaign are:

• The pressure of saying no to a proposal that has come via extended family
• Awkward questions asked by extended family members
• The pressure to impress the boy's family
• The pressure to get married early

To further amplify the message Shaadi.com is partnering with influencers to share their experiences on the pressures they have faced on their social handles to get the message out far and wide.

See full article at Exchange4Media

See the top news on Shaadi  

Shaadi Study: 81% Women Want to Take Control of Their Matchmaking Process

TIMES OF INDIA - Dec 8 - A recent study by online matchmaking service Shaadi.com has revealed that 81% women want to be more independent and take control of their own matchmaking process. This is primarily because of the pressures in traditional matchmaking. 54% of women experience lack of privacy when it comes to choosing their life partner through a traditional setup.

by Rishabh Deb
See full article at Times of India

Muzmatch Expands Ethnicity Filters

SALAAM GATEWAY - Sep 29 - In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US, several dating and matrimonial platforms pledged to remove their ethnicity filters in a bid to fight discrimination.One of them is Indian matrimony website Shaadi.com. The company ditched its skin tone filter in June 2020. The site previously asked users to declare the colour of their skin using options such as "fair", "wheatish", and "dark". Other companies have defended their continued use of ethnicity filters, such as Match. Muzmatch removed all its colour-focused groups, such as Black/African and White/Caucasian and added choices such as European or West African. According to Muzmatch, ~52% of matches on the app are between members of different ethnicities. UAE-based Muslim matchmaking app Veil say that the app's twelve ethnicity/nationality search list options are based on Veil's user feedback and common search data. The company does not plan on making any changes to those areas.

by Heba Hashem
See full article at Salaam Gateway

See the top news on Match.com                    See the top news on Muzmatch
See the top news on Shaadi                          See the top news on Veil

Shaadi.com Claims a 35-40% Surge in Users During Covid

AFAQS - Sep 14 - According to Shaadi's director of brand marketing, Adhish Zaveri, the company saw a 35-40% surge in its customer base. Zaveri credits this hike in users to the extra time at hand, given the work-from-home routine and loneliness. The site sees most number of active users during early morning hours and late evening - post 7 p.m. This, Zaveri says, hasn’t changed pre, or post, pandemic. So far, the platform has organised five virtual weddings, two of which were done on Facebook Live and were attended by 250K people virtually. Later, in June, Shaadi.com introduced 'Shaadi Meet' - a video calling feature for premium members. 500K calls were made in the first week.

by Ananya Pathak
See full article at AFAQS

See the top news on Shaadi

Matrimonial Sites Are Innovating During the Pandemic

QUARTZ INDIA - July 13 - The pandemic is forcing many industries to innovate and come up with ideas that help them stay relevant in the "new normal." On June 22, Shaadi.com, one of India's most popular matrimonial sites, launched a video calling feature. On the first day of the launch, the service was used by ~75K users, and on the next day, ~100K people tried the feature. In less than a month, ~500~ users have made video calls on Shaadi.com. Bharat Matrimony and Jeevansathi.com have also witnessed significant traffic to their video calling service.

by Hiren Mansukhani
See full article at Quartz India

See the top news on Shaadi
See the top news on Jeevansathi
See the top news on BharatMatrimony