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

by Madhuwanti Saha
See full article at Exchange For Media

May 23, 2016 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tinder's Competition In India

EXCHANGE FOR MEDIA - Apr 26 - Taru Kapoor is focusing on establishing Tinder in India. The 97% growth of its active user base in India over three months and 400% increase of app downloads over the last year explains Tinder's strategy to open its first international office in Delhi. Close behind is TrulyMadly; launched in 2014 whose market share is 2.5%. Another homegrown app built in 2014, Woo has 2.5M users. QuackQuack has 1.3M users. Ravi Mittal, founder, QuackQuack says, "Our focus has been more on the casual side of dating." TrulyMadly only considers Tinder as its main competition. Woo's marketing strategy focuses on social media. For QuackQuack, simple banner ads have been effective for driving good ROI till date. TrulyMadly, Woo and Tinder have also invested in events.

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by Nirmala Ganapathy
See full article at StraitsTimes

Apr 28, 2016 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Indians Embrace Dating Apps

STRAITSTIMES - Feb 28 - Tinder started gaining traction in 2013, opening an office in India last month, while Indian dating apps like TrulyMadly, Woo, and Floh.in - which all promise a more lasting relationship - have since gained attention in a country where over half of the 1.25B population is under 35. The apps are popular with those between the ages of 18 and 34. TrulyMadly has 500k active users. Tinder has seen more than a 400% increase in downloads over the last year. Over the last six months alone, it has gone from 7.5M to 14M swipes every day. Another app, Woo, grew from 10k users in its first month in the southern city of Bangalore to 2M subscribers across the cities when it launched in 2014. It promises "connections not swipes", targeting those aged 25 and above.

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by Shephali Bhatt
See full article at Brand Equity

Feb 28, 2016 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Is Tinder Copying TrulyMadly's Marketing Strategies?

BRAND EQUITY - Feb 17 - Nine out of ten brands copy the one successful player's strategy. You ought to copy smart not to get sued. Indian dating app TrulyMadly feels that Tinder has been copying its initiatives ever since the dating app started in India.

Allegation #1
In Nov '15, TrulyMadly teamed up with restaurants to provide offers to its users to encourage them to go on a date, called Datelicious. In Jan '16 Tinder India announced a similar offer with Zomato, called 'Tinderlicious'.

Allegation #2
In Aug '15, TrulyMadly started speed dating. In Jan '16, Tinder tied up with Food Walk India for #DinnerWithStrangers initiative.

Allegation #3
Tinder recently did a video with content creators The Viral Fever (TVF) titled 'Eat, Pray...Swipe'. "It was the same script that TVF had pitched us first and my content team had rejected it", claims TrulyMadly. To say Tinder is copying TrulyMadly by getting TVF is stretching it a tad. Also, speed dating originated in Jerusalem in 1974. So, none can claim copyright for the idea. Sumesh Menon, co-founder & CEO of Woo (yet another match-making app) thinks Tinderlicious is just happy coincidence. "They are a big company, globally. We look up to them. But I feel Tinder is just taking shortcuts", says Sachin Bhatia, co-founder & CEO of TrulyMadly.

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by Sunny Sen
See full article at HindustanTimes

Feb 18, 2016 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Changing Trends In India

HINDUSTANTIMES - Feb 14 - 2M people are on TrulyMadly, hoping to find a partner. There are many who are on the lookout for a casual relationship, a one-night-stand, or maybe to date for a few months. Less than a decade ago, this was unheard of and people usually met in a social environment or at the workplace. Dating apps like TM, Woo and Tinder are bringing about a tech-revolution of sorts in the world of dating. "We are not promising or helping find love, we are making people meet. Close to 80% of the singles on our app is in the age group of 18-26," said Sachin Bhatia, co-founder and CEO of TM. India has 250M singles according to recent census data. Since 2001, the number of unmarried women between the age of 20 and 29 years has gone up by 60%. Marriage is not the priority anymore, and the millennial generation wants to be with someone they know or are in love with and with people that share their interests, hobbies and profession. "Youngsters are not so much driven by the social fabric; they don't want to outsource their relation to parents," Sumesh Menon, co-founder and CEO of Woo, which too boasts of 2M users. Both Woo and TM claim to be for serious relationships and for singles.

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Feb 14, 2016 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Business Of Dating Apps Is Disrupting Indian Culture

QUARTZ - Oct 1 - Tinder launched in 2013 in USA. Two years on, India is Tinder's top market in Asia. There are ~7.5M swipes in India each day, according to Tinder's spokesperson. Tinder users in India also send the most messages per match globally. The success of Tinder has encouraged several Indian entrepreneurs to launch dating app such as Woo or TrulyMadly. But the new dating apps are focusing more on women's safety and long term relationships. In March 2015, TrulyMadly raised $5.7M (Rs35 crore). This year has already seen several other dating apps raise funds. In July, iCrushiFlush had raised an undisclosed amount. In November 2014, another dating app Vee raised $1M.

by Shelly Walia & Itika Sharma Punit
The full article was originally published at SBS, but is no longer available.

Oct 01, 2015 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dating Venture Truly Madly Goes App-only

TECH CIRCLE - Sep 2 - Indian dating service Truly Madly has stopped registrations and dating activities on its website. 98% of its members were using the site on their mobiles. Truly Madly was started in February 2014 by Dhingra, Sachin Bhatia and Rahul Kumar. The startup raised ~$5.6M in Series A funding from early stage investors Helion Venture Partners and Kae Capital in March this year.

by Varun Arora
See full article at Tech Circle

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Sep 03, 2015 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Young Indians Embrace Dating Apps Despite Social Taboos

ASSOCIATED PRESS - July 7 - Indian dating app market has exploded in recent years, with more than a dozen companies operating in India such as Woo, Thrill, TrulyMadly, HitchUp and DesiCrush. In India, half of the 1.2B population is younger than 25 and smartphone sales are projected to surge 67% this year alone. Dating is still widely seen as a social taboo in India, "it is very difficult to get girls in India to start using a dating app," said Sachin Bhatia, co-founder of India's TrulyMadly. "We realized verification, security and privacy are very important" to women, Bhatia said. TrulyMadly encourages men to upload copies of their IDs, or to verify their phone numbers. The app Thrill sidelines up to 35% of male users, without telling them, to a so-called "phantom zone" where they can still log on and view others' profiles, but can't make contact and are invisible to other users.

by Rishab R. Jain
The full article was originally published at Denver Post, but is no longer available.

by Sulekha Nair
See full article at First Post

Jul 08, 2015 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Indian Online Dating Startup TrulyMadly Raises $5.6M

FIRST POST - Mar 2 - TrulyMadly, an Indian-origin online dating and matchmaking app with ~200K installs, has raised Rs. 35 crore ($5.6M) in their first round of funding from Helion Venture Partners and Kae Capital. Co-founded by Sachin Bhatia, Hitesh Dhingra and Rahul Kumar, TrulyMadly launched its app in August 2014. TrulyMadly mobile app lets singles discover each other through shared interests and personality profiles. TrulyMadly 's app allocates a ‘Trust Score’ to each new user; a higher Trust Score increases the number of potential matches for a user. Users can boost their Trust Score by getting their phone number and photo ID verified. All users need ~30% Trust Score to use the app.

This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Mar 02, 2015 | Permalink | Comments (0)

TrulyMadly Launches Android App

NEXT BIG WHAT - Aug 11 - TrulyMadly has launched a new android app with a hot-or-not style of functionality. The company boasts a profile verification system, that assigns a Trust Score to encourage users to further authenticate profiles, and a Values and Adaptability Test, that depict users views on lifestyle preferences and potential partners. An iOS version of the app is set to launch in October.

The full article was originally published at The Next Big What, but is no longer available.

Aug 12, 2014 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dating Sites In India Work On Online-offline Hybrid Model

NDTV - June 19 - Varsha Agnihotri started "Footloose No More" four years ago. The site screens all applications, and then hosts a curated meet-up for new members. Users can't use the site just to meet people online - if they miss three Footloose events in a row, then their membership is revoked. Another Indian dating site is Truly Madly which is like eHarmony. Most dating sites has to be tailored to meet the needs of the Indian market. Simply bringing international ideas to India has not been very successful. These sites brand themselves as working on a "relationship management model" which is about getting to know a client on a personal level.

by Rohan Swamy
See full article at NDTV