

Jilted in the U.S., a Site Finds Love in India - credo
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/business/20ignite.html?ref=business&pagewanted=all

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arn
I'm impressed with how they committed to it. I guess they couldn't ignore it,
but still, opening an office in India and spending considerable amount of time
there when they weren't familiar with the culture at all.

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intended
From experience at my firm, I suspect that they are going to commit a whole
lot more than the current rotating system they are considering. Setting the
culture and attitude of the firm/division will mean they need to be here 24/7
dealing with their recruits and all the randomness that they will encounter.
For example, several people who joined our firm later asked for leave, since a
family member was drastically ill. Shortly after that they left the firm.

There are some major cultural differences they will have to watch out for. For
example "Yes I'll do it" often means "I will give it a shot" as opposed to
"Yes I will take personal responsibility to get it done.". Building a firm
culture that believes this and will stop at nothing to get it done takes a LOT
of work.

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intended
I wonder if insights on dating habits in Delhi would transfer across India.
The marketing rule that I read is that India is not one market (monolithic
India) but many hundreds (state, district, culture, region, language, etc.)
I'd love to know how effectively dating insights from one region transfer to
the others.

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pieceofpeace
Dating is generally considered a 'dirty thing' outside metros. Urban India is
mostly monolithic. The real differences are only seen in semi-urban and rural
regions. And yes the sub-cultures are quite varied but that doesn't mean there
is no pan-Indian identity to which you can market. Understanding the
differences and similarities is the key if you want to reach the majority of
the billion plus population.

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intended
Yeah western style dating is pretty much taboo if not anathema to most parents
in the rural areas. Should be fun monetizing that market, their site seems to
fit a niche ideally suited for this. I'd love to see how they monetize
services when (and if) they are dealing with the semi-urban areas; maybe they
can tie up with a mobile service provider to have their services paid for as
part of their mobile phone bill.

When you say Urban India is monolithic, are you meaning to say that all urban
life is generally similar in India?

If so I would point out that the Metros in India differ significantly. I'm a
Mumbai/Bombay native, and have family in Delhi and friends all over the
country. From their discussions and lifestyles, each metro is quite unique and
even more so, in the context of male-female interactions.

For example Delhi has been described as bastion of MCP behavior universally,
especially by the women who live there. It could be a bad sample, but that
view contrasts strongly with the better reputation for female safety that
Mumbai, and (afaik) Bangalore enjoy. This leads to major differences - I know
someone who moved here from Delhi, and wouldn't travel alone post 8:00 pm for
a long time. (Delhi people, please correct me if I am wrong, or something is
being missed). At the same time, Delhi-ites seem to have a lot more cultural
activities going on than Mumbai. Since space is also not at a premium in
Delhi, it also has places like Bookstores that are sorely missing in Mumbai.

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muhfuhkuh
I wonder if this kind of quirky growth mirror's orkut's strange path as
Brazil's largest social network (though, some people say it's popularity there
is simply because it's easier to pronounce for Portuguese speakers than either
Facebook or Myspace).

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alextp
As a brazillian, yes, there are lots of points in common. Also, orkut is
pretty much dead now among my social circle; facebook has pretty much got all
users of orkut and some more people who wouldn't have joined orkut (like
parents and grandparents of the orkut generation).

As far as I know when orkut came around here there was simply no other social
network with a significant number of brazillian members. Myspace was just too
complex to understand, I think, and part of the annoying things of early
orkut's design (you had no news, so had to keep checking your friends' and
comunities' pages out to see what was going on, which fostered a whole cyber-
stalking culture of checking people out) really clicked with a lot of the
demographics.

I think more than by analogy that the dating market over here is also
underdeveloped, and there is definitely demand for something that caters more
closely to the brazillian forms of dating (which are different from the
european forms of dating, and from the indian).

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jonas_b
Care to eloborate how the Brazilian dating market differs from the European? I
would be very interested to know more.

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alextp
I'm not sure about the market, as it doesn't seem to be explored, but the
culture is certainly different.

First and foremost, we don't have the concept of a date in the same way, and
we don't have the concept of a pick-up bar/pub either. As far as I can tell,
most people would be really unhappy with posting their face and names on a
butcher's shop-like website, in the same way that most people wouldn't want to
admit they're out there looking for dates (it makes you seem lame) while
flirting a lot.

The interaction patterns between people and specially couples are different,
so it's hard to say what would work over here, but outside of the gay market
it certainly doesn't seem to be a traditional dating site.

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maxklein
It's not a good idea for the founders of the site to move to India. They will
get bogged down with cross-cultural issues, the pressure they will bear would
be intense, and they will only be able to observe a tiny part of indian dating
culture.

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edcrfv
I saw the $10 to $45 price listed as subscription charges in the article. I am
curious as to how their membership subscriptions numbers are..

Also I have seen their ads on many sites and the ads had a AdultFriendFinder
feel to it.

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a5seo
Sweet, a typo in the NYT: "who is charge of Web development."

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sagarun
I am from India. Just tried this website, Its cool except constantly asking
for my credit card which is kind of irritating.

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known
99.9999% marriages in India happen based on your _caste_
<http://www.communitymatrimony.com/>

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train_robber
Too high a number you quoted. Even arranged marriages don't necessarily mean
from the same caste.

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smallegan
"Next month, Ignighter will open an office in India and hire a dozen local
employees. The company has stopped developing its American site, though it
remains online." I'd hope these employees aren't developers. If so I'm pretty
sure I know how this ends...back in NYC with a team tasked with fixing the
mess it has become.

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jayzee
HN is not the place for such bigotry.

