Get Hinged! Singles and India's newest dating app

It seems no discussion about the dating app Hinge can occur without the mention of Tinder its stiffest competitor Justin McLeod Hinge CEO knows that and seems to have taken it in his strideJustin Mcleod CEO and founder of Hinge with Sameer Kapadia its India CEO PicSatyajit DesaiTinder didnt even exist when I launched Hinge in 2011 but this is how it is now I like to think that Tinder is the MySpace of dating while Hinge is the Facebook of the space he says emphaticallyBetter than TinderOn Thursday McLeod and Samir Kapadia the apps India CEO launched the app in Mumbai after raising 21 million in funding Currently the app is present in London Toronto and 34 US citiesTo come back to the app and Tinder of course ndash they look similar users swipe right or left depending on whom they like The difference however is in the detail ndash in who actually pops up on your screen While people whom Tinder matches are usually strangers Hinge matches people within the social networks you have built over timeThe apps algorithm connects you with people you or your friends know It works on the lines of meeting a friends friend at a dinner party which in the real world too is where potential matches happen often says McLeod Kapadia likens the app to bumping into that girl you saw at a friends wedding but never spoke toA users profile shows their first name and last names initial hometown educational and work details height ethnicity and 16 photographs which the app pulls from their Facebook profileMcLeod and Kapadia arent fans of dating websites and apps that make users fill out lengthy forms to determine preferences According to the duo Hinge works on the principle that an app cannot know more about you than yourselfThe app is here to help you get in touch with people who are a bit more credible than their forms people whom your friends could vouch for You meet people organically says McLeodLove through friendshipMcLeod first thought of Hinge when he hesitated to join dating websites in the US and was looking to meet new people Trawling through online forums to meet someone wasnt my idea of romanceI wished to meet somebody whom I shared something in common with mdash the schools we went to the people we hung out with some common social and cultural groundhellip What I wanted in short was a curated introduction which is what Hinge offersHe disagrees that connecting people only within their social networks limits the dating pool We connect singles separated by two or a maximum of three friends An average Indian Facebook user has 500 usersSo if youre single 500 friends can help you make connections with a couple of hundred singles they might be friends with and so on explains McLeod Hinge he adds is somewhere in the middle of dating websites and apps which require a lot of work but throw up irrelevant people like Mashup in the US or those that need no work and throw up hoardes of matches without much of a filter Hinge hits the sweet spot of social he addsMcLeod decided to launch the app in India because it is Facebooks largest market after the US mdash 112 million Indians use it mdashand Hinge relies on the social network website to connect users But how India dates today is just as much a reason to be here he says Kapadia feels that between matrimony websites like Shaadicom and toocasual ones such as Tinder singles who are looking for something meaningful have fewer avenues beyond OkCupid and none when it comes to meeting people through friendsDesigns for IndiaThe duo vehemently denies having used any other dating app For now anyway their dating life has taken a backseat they claim as they need to crack the code when it comes to launching Hinge in other metros and eventually in TierII Indian cities over this yearWe do not know what the sociocultural challenges will be like The version of the app we have launched in Mumbai is the same that singles in the US use But were sure meeting that special someone through friends feels the same everywhere they say with wide grins