During its first four years, Tinder, the popular dating and hookup-facilitating smartphone app, largely ignored everything west of the Pacific. Tailoring the service to varied local dating rituals in Asia was deemed too challenging for the fledgeling company. For example, premarital sex is frowned upon in the Philippines, arranged marriages are commonplace in India and sogaeting blind dates arranged by friends is the norm in Korea.
But that has changed. Over the past two years, the company has been strategizing a way to expand in the region, where millions of single people have never tried a dating app. To win over Asia, Tinder is reinventing itself. The strategy seems to be working. A generation ago, women in South Korea were pressured to get married and start having children in their early 20s.
It was typical for families to spend small fortunes on match-making gurus to set their child up with someone from an equal socio-economic background.
The way young Koreans have traditionally found romantic partners is sogaeting, where a mutual friend sets two people up on a blind date, or meetings where groups of friends all hang out together and pair off.
The atmosphere is changing, though. After leading an independent life while studying abroad in Hong Kong, Choi moved back to Seoul recently and said the old-fashioned match-making traditions felt inapt. About five years ago, a number of Korean entrepreneurs were watching the meteoric rise of Match in the U. Homegrown apps like Amanda and Sky People started attracting millions of subscribers.
