In just a few years, India became the world`s fastest-growing dating services industry, growing much faster than other top markets, including the United States and China.
According to data presented by OnlyAccounts.io, India will see over 82 million users in the dating services segment in 2023, or four times more than just five years ago.
Indian Dating Services Industry Growing 6x Faster than US or Chinese Markets
In India, where arranged marriages are still common, dating apps have revolutionized relationships. Today, the large majority of young people in the country rely on dating apps, showing India’s rapid development accelerated by the growing technology access, especially smartphones.
According to Statista Digital Market Outlook, roughly 20 million Indians used dating apps just five years ago. This figure surged by a massive 293% since then and hit 82.4 million in 2023. Statista expects another 33 million Indians to try their luck with dating apps in the following years, pushing the total user count to over 115 million by 2027.
The growth of the Indian dating services segment is even more impressive when compared to other top markets. Statistics show the Indian market is growing six times faster than the US or Chinese dating services industries, the two largest globally. The US market saw its user base increase by 65% between 2018 and 2023, while the Chinese market grew by 51% in five years. As the next two dating markets by size, Japan and the United Kingdom saw 38% and 36% user growth in this period, respectively.
The Statista data also show India will become the world`s second-largest dating services market by 2027, with roughly 35 million more users than the United States.
Indians to Spend Almost $400M on Dating Apps This Year
Although Indians can choose from a variety of available dating apps, QuackQuack remains their top choice. The Statista data show around 16% of all dating app users in the country prefer QuackQuack, the number-one app in the market. Tinder ranked second with a 14% share. Cupidabo, Happn, and Bumble follow with 9% and 8% shares, respectively.
The surging popularity of dating apps in the country has helped Indian dating services revenue to jump by nearly 50% in the past years. In 2023, Indians will spend almost $400 million on dating apps, up from $270 million just four years ago, showing a considerable increase in a country with much lower purchasing power than Western countries.
In comparison, Americans will spend six times that value on dating apps, or over $2.4bn. China follows, with roughly $1.5bn in revenue.
