Dating app Woo has acquired Los Angeles based dating app DUS. DUS focuses on the South Asian community in the US, UK and Canada, and the acquisition will allow Woo to expand to these countries, among others.
Post acquisition the DUS leadership team will work at Woo on growth strategy and customizing user features. Woo currently operates in the Indian & Indonesian market, and this acquisition will let it offer services to the Indian community world over. It mentions that it will add new features like community outreach etc., for these customers. Note that Woo recently raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Matrix Partners and Omidyar Network.
Launched in July 2014, Woo offers features like TagSearch letting users search by attributes like college, hometown, political leanings etc. Other than this, the platform works pretty much like Tinder, letting users swipe through images of potential partners, although it allows sending someone a direct message before both parties ‘Like’ each other. Just like Tinder, the app offers paid features to revisit skipped profiles and other features like unlimited likes and the ability to see who visited the user.
Competition: In January last year, US based mobile dating app Tinder launched operations in India, its first international office. Other than this, apps like TrulyMadly, which raised Rs 35 crore in funding, OkCupid (also owned by Tinder parent Match Group), iCrushiFlush, Matchify (acquired by Matrimony.com) and Plenty of Fish etc. also operate in this space.
