Location-based dating apps are popping up all over Asia, from Thailand to China. India’s smartphone-toting youngsters are not left out of the flirting fun . Perhaps the best-looking dating app in India is Thrill, which has an app for Android with an iPhone version in the works.
At a time of huge tension and controversy in India over misogyny and women’s safety on the streets, Thrill app makes a strong statement on its site with the tagline “Women in control; men, make the cut.”
This is also a reference to how Thrill app works: women are free to join at any time, but guys have to apply to join, and the female user-base gets to vote them up – or down. Men who make the grade get to join the free service. The app requires third-party login via Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter as some sort of vague attempt at ensuring real IDs.
Chatting up angel investors
According to Indian blog TechCircle, Thrill has secured an undisclosed amount of venture capital seed funding this week.
As a company, Thrill is actually incorporated in Singapore, founded by Josh Israel and Devin Serago in November 2012. But the team is heading to Delhi to set up an office for the startup business.
Thrilling or not?
Rather than using ‘likes’ or ‘upvotes’, the app lives up to its name by focusing on its ‘thrill’ metric. If someone catches your eye for whatever reason, you can use the on-screen slider to give them a higher thrill rating. Two people who do the same to each other will be matched up.
The app only hit the Google Play store last month and doesn’t seem to have broken past 1,000 downloads yet, but it’s still early days. There are monetization plans being made, such as paying for a greater number of daily matches, or perhaps other things like paid promotion of profiles.
Thrill for Android is here.
(Editing by Anh-Minh Do)
Indian Dating App Thrill: “Women are in control, men gotta make the grade”
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