Tinder sets up Delhi office, gets ready for big India push

January 6, 2015, NewsCrunch

Tinder, which is already a market leader among dating apps in India, has set up an office in Delhi, its first international base outside USA.

Taru Kapoor, who has been overseeing Indiaoperations, will shift to Delhi.

Tinder hired Taru in August 2015 to boost its India presence. An IIT Delhi alumnus, she also has an MBA from HarvardBusinessSchool. She spent two years as an investment analyst with Sequoia Capital India and another two years as an associate at the Boston Consulting Group.

CEO Sean Rad describes Indiaas one of the core markets of Tinder in a statement, reports The Times of India. Taru says Indiahas the largest, most dynamic and vibrant populations in the world.

What this means is in the coming days Tinder will get more marketing visibility and may be some local customisation including Indian language support. Along the way, it will also try to monetise its reach. It already sells a premium service.

Tinder is present in 196 countries in 30 languages and makes 26 million matches daily. But it is mum on its Indiausers, who seem to be in striking number and growing fast.

In November Tinder had said its Indiadownloads had grown by 400% but without sharing the absolute numbers.

Half of India’s huge population is under 35 and a good chunk of them use smartphone, which is Tinder’s target audience.

US dotcoms, which are banned from China, find an attractive alternative in India. Facebook has the second largest base in India after USA. Twitter, Linked and others have grown rapidly.

Tinder wants to follow their footsteps.