Matchmaking app Matrimony.com said that it has launched a platform called RainbowLuv which lets users look for serious relationships, unlike casual matches offered by online dating apps.
An LGBT community member approached the company’s chief product officer during a conference meeting urging them to open up matchmaking for the LGBTQIA+ community. The business opted to build the new platform, which took nearly two years to launch, after recognising the demand gap and attending numerous seminars with the LGBTQIA+ community. “So, 8-15 million is the addressable market where people might be looking for a life partner from this (LGBTQIA+) community. Also, smaller markets have bigger potential because cities like Mumbai and Delhi have their local LGBT chapters (meetings) where people catch up. But in smaller cities, it is restricted. So, we expect it (new platform) to get more accepted in the smaller cities,” said Arjun Bhatia, chief marketing officer, Matrimony.com.
Indian matchmaking app, Matrimony has over 45 gender identities, 122 orientation tags and 48 pronouns. “This is going to make life easy and a lot of people will get educated both from within the community as well outside,” he said.
Bhatia said that the new platform is similar to their other matrimony apps which let users give detailed information for their profiles. In addition, the platform has added an objective in the profile which mentions the reason behind the proposed relationship. “Some members of the community had said that whatever is available on the market are people looking for hook-ups. So, they (LGBT community members) asked us to add the objective aspect in the profile to specify that a user is looking for a steady relationship,” he said. Then there is government-approved ID verification. “The reason behind this was that the community told us there is a lot of discrimination they face and are subjected to abuse which can be reduced if there is such a verification process,” Bhatia said.