TrulyMadly Made in India…..for India

It is heartening to see a bunch of consumer facing internet and tech businesses that are built keeping in mind the Indian consumer and our unique needs and expectations. Zomato, Oyo Rooms, ZipDial etc are made specifically for India and in India.

When we first thought of TrulyMadly, we realised that while girls and boys in both cities and smaller towns, were open to dating online, they were looking for a safe way to do so and more importantly meet new people based on interests, mutual likes and common aspirations vs just looks and location.

With this insight in mind, we built a verification layer to ensure that only bonafide singles get on the app and we match based on a unique compatibility algorithm that we built keeping Indian nuances in mind. This unique proposition has helped us become the No 1 dating app in the country, with over 2M downloads and the ‘go to’ app to discover, chat and meet new people.

Building something for India means listening to what our members have to say and keeping them at the centre of the product and communication. We regularly organise sessions with prospective users called ‘Dhabay Pe Charcha’, at campuses and BPOs to gain consumer insights, bounce of new product ideas and communication cues. Product features like Social Endorsement for verification, Profile Sharing by girls were ideas that came from these sessions. Similarly, Boy Browsing, UnSingle, Man Parade were thoughts gleaned after talking to members.

Unlike the US, India is not a homogenous society and therefore most ideas don't catch like wildfire throughout the country. Therefore execution and communication has to be nuanced, cultural and social context for each state / geography has to be taken into account. This makes a national rollout both complex and challenging. Our Unsingle Mixers do extremely well in some parts of the country, while the UnSingle Comedy Tour does better in other parts. But yes, the core product features built around safety and privacy, especially for women, resonate across cities and towns.

Another aspect of ‘Made in India’ that excites us is building something in India that can be launched in other countries. We have always accepted international products, be it Facebook, Twitter or WhatsApp and not created products of our own. The opportunity now, especially with increasing mobile penetration is to create India specific apps and products, which will also find global adoption. We feel that our focus on verification and compatibility will resonate well globally, especially in S.E Asia. That seems to be the next frontier for us.