The Indian Dating Story

I met a long lost friend Amar through a social networking site, Orkut. We caught up on zillions of things that each of us has been with involved with all these years. I came to know that he got married 2 months back. But what sprung my attention was he met her wife through a dating site.

I am aware of zillions of sites scattered across the Internet, on dating. But never merited my attention as I dismissed them to be as one of those frivolous sites to lure web traffic. But here in front of me was a live example of a dating couple turning into real life partners.

It then dawned onto me that may be I was missing on observing a big cultural trend here. My overt attention could be surprising for many of you as online dating is already an accepted phenomenon. But the relevance with respect to India is what got me interested. It reminded me of Thomas Friedman's path breaking analysis of how Internet has been instrumental in flattening the world. This time it was flattening culture. India, where dating before marriage is not the norm and matrimonial sites have been traditionally popular than, this trend definitely merits some investigation.

So with that in mind, I geared myself up to turn into a web reporter and follow this story closely.

Googling on Indian dating sites, gave me this:

Results 1 - 10 of about 5,660,000 for Indian dating sites. (0.15 seconds)


Now for some facts:

• The dating sites In India have surfaced only in the last 3 years, whereas matrimony sites have stayed for almost a decade now.
• 51% of online users are registered to a dating and friendship sites rather than marriage websites.
• Dating becomes the 10th most popular activity online conducted by Juxt Consult.
• Dating is 3 ranks ahead of matrimonial site with 48% of online users using the service.
  

We might be all gung ho about the online dating scene in India, but in reality online India is yet to break away from the age old mould of social conditioning. The Indian youth is only venting out its adventurous curiosities on dating sites, but when it comes to marriage, they seek solace from the more traditional and proven matrimonial services.

This explain the huge overlap between dating and matrimonial services. Almost 37 percent of Internet users are into both the activities. 72 per cent of the people who are into dating and friendship online are also registered with matrimonial search sites.

With these facts in hand, it would be too early to harbinger the dating future in India. But yet, it has caught up fast and in no time this tech savvy and MTV fed young demographic will turn this around.

My friend Amar has already added fillip to this Indian dating story.


(Facts gleaned from online research company: http://www.juxtconsult.com/press_room/press_release/india_online_2007.asp)