 "Dating app happn")
Paris-headquartered dating application happn announced its brand refresh globally. This is of significance to India as it’s the largest market for the dating app. Happn’s India membership stands at 37 million.
With a total user membership of 135 million globally, the dating app also announced its shift from just being a dating app to a social networking app. With the new features and changes in rebranding the company is expecting to double its user base by next year.
What this revamp means is that instead of being bombarded with random requests from potential dates, now users can find potential friends based on mutual interest. This could be going to a particular bar, restaurants, sports, events and others.
This new feature, also called as CrushPoints, will be available in a select few cities in India like Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and New Delhi.
“It will allow singles to add to their profile a selection of favourite places, divided into 6 categories: events, bars, restaurants, sports, culture and outdoors. At happn, we consider that the place people meet (before the crush but also after the crush) is an integral part of the experience and therefore of the story of you and your Crush,” said Karima Ben Abdelmalek, CEO and president, happn to Business Standard on a video call.
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The app which use geo-location to connect people, has most of its users in the metro cities. Though Abdelmalek is hopeful that more users will join the app as it supports local languages like Telugu, and Hindi.
Since the app uses geo-location it means users can get to know other people only within a certain radius. “We have seen that people are not just looking for partners and eventually get married. These days users are looking to just find people and then connect on common interests.
Like its competitors Tinder and Bumble, happn too is free to download and use. For more premium features one can take a subscription of Rs 599 per month and Rs 1,299 per year.
When asked about user verification and authenticity of users on the app, Abdelmalek said that being a European firm they follow all the rules associated with the GDPR and privacy is on the top of the charts.
“To make sure we do not have fake profiles we make use of AI and ML to make sure that users are verified. happn's mission is to bring about encounters in real life, in complete confidence thanks to technology and by always being as close as possible to your daily life and your habits,” she added.
