Swiping Right on Small Towns

Even as US-based dating apps stumble, made-in-India apps are getting it right in smaller cities by helping youngsters navigate social dynamics

- SAMIDHA JAIN

This September, 29-year-old Shweta from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh was nudged by her friend to try out QuackQuack, a dating app.

In her first tryst with online dating, she found quite a few young men in her town, with whom she struck up virtual conversations. About a month ago, she found a great match, and she has been dating the young man since. “We are considering a future together,” says Shweta, who was on the lookout for a serious relationship right from the beginning.

Although she has succeeded in finding a match, other hurdles remain. Shweta’s father is a government employee, and “I know half of Bareilly, and the entire city knows me,” she says.

This means meeting up with her date without being spotted by any of her friends or relatives is a tricky task. Consequently, they have not met up as often as they would have liked to.

Meeting up with his dates is also a concern for 28-year-old Hemant, a resident from Mau in Uttar Pradesh. Not having found suitable matches on Bumble, the young man moved to QuackQuack, where he matched with a young woman in Varanasi, about 100 km away, and went to meet her. In the four years that he has been on the app—many of his friends are too—he has dated women in and around Mau as well. But this has meant travelling several kilometres to an eatery outside the city, where the pair—especially the woman—would not be spotted by those they know. Varanasi has proved to be more convenient, since it is a bigger city and he is an outsider there.

“QuackQuack has a lot of users from small towns with whom I can match. It wasn’t the case when I was using Bumble,” says Hemant. He has also befriended women in Azamgarh, with whom he continues to chat, more in a friendly way than romantic.