Indian dating app marries US dating app. Here’s why this cross-cultural union rocks

Photo credit: Pixabay.

Time was when Indian techies in the US were much in demand in the marriage market. We’re not sure if it will be the same after Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigrant workers – including a reversal on allowing spouses to join H-1B visa holders.

But the United States has over 4 million people who have their roots in India. They like to stay connected with their motherland. And that includes online dating across borders, especially for those on the hunt for spouses from back home.

Our goal has always been to promote freedom of choice when it comes to dating.

This is the hypothesis behind popular Indian dating app Woo’s acquisition of Dus, a dating app for the South Asian community in the US. “While originally designed for India alone, we quickly realized that our platform had a global appeal for Indians internationally to form a connect back to their homeland,” says Sumesh Menon, co-founder of Woo.

Dus CEO Shawn Sheikh concurs. “Our goal has always been to promote freedom of choice when it comes to dating, along with generally helping Desis meet each other. The Woo acquisition will provide us with the resources to continue to do just that.” (‘Des’ means country in Hindi, and ‘desi’ refers to people or things of Indian origin.)

Indian-Canadian comedian Jus Reign, one of the co-founders of Dus, calls it “the brown Tinder.” Apart from being a catchphrase, it suggests an affinity with the cultural sensibilities of the South Asian community, where dating is a stigma. Privacy and safety have therefore been priorities of Dus, which was started in 2015.

See: 4 of India’s dating apps that aren’t Tinder (and when to use them)

Photo credit: HD Wallpapers.

Woo, born in 2014, has a similar orientation, aimed at giving women in particular the opportunity to make connections outside the construct of “arranged marriages” or marriage-oriented, objectified portals such as Shaadi (which means marriage in Hindi).

Dating apps were slow to gain traction in India, despite generating a buzz. India’s first Tinder-like app, DateIITians, shut down after a five-year run. But several others that came in its wake, like TrulyMadly, Dil Mil, Frivil, and Woo have been riding on the growing popularity of mobile dating, with the boom in affordable smartphones over the last couple of years. Tinder itself has found love in India.

See: Another shutdown. This time, it’s India’s first Tinder, after a 5-year run

But challenges remain in bridging the gender gap in India. New data shows, for instance, that less than a quarter of Facebook users in India are female. Gender imbalance on the internet makes online dating harder.