Guwahati, Feb. 12: In this season of love, there is more happening, or shall we say mingling, in the virtual world with singles in the Northeast, making the most of online dating apps for that "hearty" connect on St Valentine's Day this Saturday.
Ever since a number of dating/matchmaking apps came up last year, youngsters in their late teens and twenties have adapted "smartly" to a facility that can be downloaded for free on their cell phones.
TrulyMadly, a leading online dating app, for instance, reported that the number of its members from the region has swelled to thousands within months of its launch in August.
Interestingly, the male:female ratio of users of the app in the Northeast stands at 40:60 as against a countrywide ratio of 60:40 in favour of men.
"TrulyMadly's promise of the safest online dating experience is perhaps the biggest reason why more women are keen to explore online dating through our app to meet that special someone," Hitesh Dhingra, co-founder at TrulyMadly, said.
The top five cities for TrulyMadly in the region are Guwahati, Agartala, Shillong, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia in terms of the number of users.
The users' identities and cell phone numbers are verified and hence these dating/matchmaking apps offer a safe platform.
"The highest adoption to this format is seen among those in the 22-26 age group - a segment that always wants a secure social discovery platform for meeting interesting singles," he added.
Agrees Devadeep Saikia (name changed on request), a 26-year-old engineer from Dibrugarh, who seems to have found his match two months after using TrulyMadly, an online dating app launched last year.
"Thanks to the app, it seems I have found my date. I wish to go steady after meeting her on Valentine's Day," he told The Telegraph.
Apart from free usage and safety, factors such as convenience and flexibility are wooing many like Janvee Baruah (name changed) to online dating. "There is an option of blocking people as well, which I like," Janvee, a science student from Upper Assam, says.
Woo, a matchmaking app, has experienced three times the number of sign-ups and two times the number of matches this month.
"Meeting a life partner can become a real struggle in our increasingly busy lives and providing a solution to this validates our daily effort, as our users write back their success stories," says Sumesh Menon, CEO and co-founder of U2opia Mobile, the company behind Woo.
ClickScore, a monthly analytics report from Woo, had observed that people from Assam are more active on the app and that 75 per cent of its users from the region are from Guwahati.
According to the estimates of TrulyMadly, 25 per cent of conversations are initiated by women.
Asked on the region-specific trends, Nitin Gupta, founder and CEO at Vee, a dating app launched in July last year, says: "The Northeast has a more open-minded and accepting culture in terms of young relationships. Gender equality in adoption of Vee has been consistently observed, a positive reflection of the empowered nature of the Northeast Indian woman,"
The new-age Valentine's Day is all about meaningful conversations that are supplemented by "saying it with flowers", he says.
Vee has launched a brand campaign for Valentine's Day called #beingsinglesucks. "The campaign, currently running on the Vee Facebook page, touches upon the feeling of how you need someone to talk your heart out to," he adds.
Among other dating apps, Tinder, Thrill, Desi Crush and Singles Around Me are registering substantial sign-ups this season.
So with love in the air and network, it's time to say a "Appy" V-Day!!
