This is why India right swiped Tinder ❤️

Welcome to the 35th edition of the GrowthX Newsletter. Every Tuesday & Thursday I write a piece on startups & business growth. Today’s piece is going to 94,400+ operators & leaders from startups like Google, Stripe, Swiggy, Razorpay, CRED & more

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Matches used to be made in heaven, not anymore 😇
Yes, we are talking about Tinder today ❤️

Fact - Tinder owns an 85% online dating market share in India.
The 8 year-long story of Tinder in India needs to be told.

You must be wondering🤔
Shaddi.com & Jeevansathi’s of the world were the go-to app for conservative families. How did a country like India, with dating as a taboo, become a Tinder market?

Short answer

→ Growing income.
→ Smartphone penetration.
→ Exposure to global culture.
→ Migration to metro cities.

Long answer

Tinder did the homework right.

Understanding the nuance around adoption.

In India, it was no different. The brand kicked off operations by breaking the taboo around dating & female safety, and they did so through massive influencer activities.

One of their first viral projects was a web series collaborating with TVF called Tinder Qtiyapa.

🎯 Tinder hit the nail with the early adopter market, who influences the social trends, at least in the millennial metro audience.

Solving the user fears.

Do you know what was the biggest challenge Tinder faced in India was? Users shying away from being discovered by their friends, relatives, or family.

Nobody wants their family to know they're on Tinder, right - one can only imagine the social taboo in a nation like ours.

🎯 Tinder launched a feature that lets you block your contacts 🤯

Shaping the behaviour.

Being in a business where people are your product, Tinder had to take extra caution. The good thing about Tinder is they didn't just do good on the marketing; they solved for Indian products too.

In a country where the male: female ratio is screwed, solving for sexual harassment was essential to solve for user experience, especially for women. Tinder's core loop is simple: Get more females → more men join → get matches → more women refer Tinder, & the loop continues.

🎯 Tinder launched Are You Sure? (AYS?) a new feature that makes users think twice before sending potentially offensive or inappropriate messages to their matches.

Monetisation, early on!

Everyone believes India is a lower appetite to pay market. Not true for dating. Tinder kicked off monetisation early on - this helped them put the money back into growth.

Tinder first made its users curate their feed by answering a set of questions, making them trust & value results even more. But then, put most of its great features like rewind, super like behind a paywall.

🎯 Result? a little over 8% of users go premium in 15 minutes 💰

A kick you out of the park pricing page

Users get super apprehensive when they have to pay. Tinder knew it and solved for it. Tinder's go-premium pop-up is clubbed with a copy that talks about that one feature that can make or break your next move.

Know who swiped right. Don't let X go. The brand has used creative copy to create mind-blowing curiosity, making it impossible for users to overlook.

Tinder understood the assignment & how. From a 'smooth as butter' user app on-boarding journey to safely planting feature-based up selling opportunities, it looked that this was a perfect match between the users and the Match Group.

That’s all for now. Hope you loved this issue.

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Would mean the world to us ❤️