If you are finding love, chances are that you might stumble upon a like-minded person. Thanks to the growing technology and a plethora of dating apps and portals.
If numbers are to be believed, Chandigarh too, like any other urban-populated city in the country, doesn’t hesitate in finding love in the virtual world.
“Chandigarh is among the second most active dating city in non-metros after Ahmedabad,” informer Ravi Mittal, founder and CEO of QuackQuack.in
“The urban Indians do not want to go the traditional way of finding a partner; hence they look for a platform where they can find a like-minded person. The dating apps and sites give them that platform,” said Nitin Gupta, founder and CEO of Vee (getvee.com).
Understanding the inhibitions of the people, many apps let you come to the platform only after verification through your social networking profiles. “Users can only get on our platform after verification through their Facebook profiles,” informs Gupta.
Floh, whose tagline reads working on the model of connecting singles in the real world, takes it a step further. “Floh conducts a real, in-depth telephonic screening and then hand-pick members,” informs Siddharth Mangharam, founder and CEO of Floh
“Quackquack.in screens all profiles on various parameters to ensure only quality profiles are accepted. Our team of moderators approves profiles after duly checking for photos and content posted on their profile. We also have algorithms in place to check for spam and abuse, which helps make the experience of matchmaking clean and pleasant,” informed Ravi.
Whatever the case, people have their own set of inhibitions when they join a dating platform.
“Many girls don’t wish to chat due to the fear of meeting fake people online, “says a user, who wished not to be named.
“My experience of using a dating app wasn’t great. I found more fake profiles than genuine. And after some time, I stopped using them,” a 21-year-old B.Tech graduate, Sunil said.
But there are many who have had some pleasant experience using these apps. “I have been using TrulyMadly for quite a long time now and my experience was pretty good. I was able to meet girls with whom I shared common interests,” said Arun (name changed), a 26-year-old local businessmen.
“Girls liked my profile which turned out to be a great boost for my self-confidence,” he said, adding, “But these apps still have a long way to go. A machine cannot be exact. It’s the same with these apps.”
32-year-old Pooja (name changed), is quiet happy to have joined Floh. “My experience with Floh has been great since I joined it two years ago. I have made great friends on the platform. They organise events like wine-tasting, rock climbing etc, that help you know the people better,” she said.
“I haven’t met a partner but have met people who can turn out to be potential partners in the future,” she added.
26-year-old, Abhinav (name changed), an app developer from Chandigarh, was really lucky as he met the love of his life through the app Vee.
“I started using Vee 6-7 months ago as my parents frequently popped up the marriage question. I didn’t want to go the traditional way. I heard about the app through Facebook and thought of trying it out. I started chatting with 5-6 women and I eventually got in touch with my fiancé, who is from Panchkula. We took it forward and connected over Facebook and within six months we were engaged.”
“What I liked about Vee was that it’s based on mutual-like model. Whosoever I met with on the app, I had something in common with them,” he added.
“Most Chandigarh users go for looks as the primary attraction. On a secondary note, work is given importance along with interests,” informed Ravi.
“Our users from Chandigarh are also among the top cities where fitness is a priority as most users’ profiles mention they exercise regularly,” he added.
A similar trend was also observed by Woo. According to Clickscore, a month analytic report by Woo, 52% of the app users from Chandigarh were fitness junkies and gym goers.
“Chandigarh people prefer finding a person from Chandigarh itself, “informed Nitin Gupta.
“Also students in Chandigarh want to date students while professional prefers professionals,” he added.
Click here to read the coverage as it appeared on (Hindustan Times)
