Dating app Hinge forays into Asia with India launch

Mumbai, March 23 (IANS) Move beyond traditional online dating, try Hinge! The app, which is popular across Britain and the US for keeping "dating real", is now available in Asia, where the launch has begun with Mumbai.

Hinge, which was introduced in the US in 2014, has been launched in Mumbai and will soon be available in other cities across India.

The app claims to be a smarter and simpler way to connect with the people you might have eventually met through friends.

Using Facebook as the base to find people who are in your extended social network, Hinge uses social proximity to create matches, as opposed to geo-location. Next, Hinge takes that pool of people and curates daily potential connections -- based on your behavioral preferences, such as the careers you tend to like.

Hinge also learns your "types" overtime.

"We're focused on keeping dating real. That's why we've leveraged 'social' to create a dating experience that feels much more like meeting through friends in the real world," Justin McLeod, CEO, Hinge, said in a statement.

How does it work?

"By pulling profile information from social networks like Facebook, Hinge seamlessly displays validated details like education, workplace, mutual friends and other details that can help determine if you're interested in meeting up," McLeod added.

The application comes with a reputation as it set up 35,500 dates a week in the US only. The application matches have helped translate into 1,500 relationships with its overall global presence in 29 markets in 2014.

"Hinge's goal is to make the journey, along with the destination, an enjoyable and fun process," McLeod added.

The application is available on both iOS and Google Play Store.

Its launch in Mumbai saw a bevy of celebrities including Ayan Mukherji, Mandira Bedi, Narendra Kumar, Riya Sen, Abhishek Kapoor, Sameer Dattani and Amrita Puri.