Will TrulyMadly.com help reduce divorce rate in India?

After helping couples to plan the best honeymoon trip through their portal Makemytrip.com, the trio of Rahul Kumar, Hitesh Dhingra and Sachin Bhatia are all set to disrupt the match making market by launching TrulyMadly.com.

The founders had heard many prospective grooms cry about not being able to find the right partner. "Within our own network, we had at least 300 odd singles looking for the right match. There was clearly a gap in the market in spite of leading players like Shaadi.com, Bharatmatrimony.com and Jeevansaathi.com," said Kumar.

According to Dhingra, the platform is for new-age professionals and ensures that they find their partners based on their intelligence and interests rather than based on caste, creed and family background. The portal is also an initiative to remove that awkwardness among users in looking for a partner and does not encourage parents to put up CVs for their children.

Last January, the founders set themselves on a mission to disrupt the $100million online matrimonial services market in India and launched the platform this month. They conducted a survey of 2,000 couples and 50 relationship experts (mainly psychologists) to understand what keeps them together and 3,000 singles to identify what the current generation looks for when it comes to selecting a partner.

On the basis of the feedback, compatibility algorithms of personality attributes of the couple responsible for a long-term successful relationship were formed, also ensuring credible profile base and a host of features revolving around privacy and safety of users. "The basis of the matching process is completely dependent on the views and preferences of the participants, their reactions to situations, everyday issues, as well as their expectations. It is possible to find love online without getting stalked or swindled and that is what we bring to the table," said Kumar.

In the context of establishing credibility, Dhingra said, "Fake profiles are a big issue with most dating and matrimonial websites and our process will ensure that only verified profiles will be visible on the site. Efforts have been made to develop a 'trust score'. So, if you share your phone number, connect Facebook and LinkedIn to your profile and provide a photo identity card, your trust score shoots to 70%. The more you open up to the portal, the more privileges and access are given to the user. An address and employment proof can help users earn the remaining 30% score." But how difficult is it in India to fake this? "Fake profiles are easy to spot and the system junks it at the onset," Dhingra claimed.

As of now, all the communication between the prospective couple is routed through the portal which charges Rs 100 per communication per person. "TrulyMadly is a subscription-based service and we've gamified the payment process; so members can earn credits to use on the site," said Kumar adding that they may consider adding a chat box on the portal.

Speaking about their plans, Kumar shared, "In parallel we are working on the mobile app and will be in a position to launch the same next month. TrulyMadly is targeting the urban and semi-urban singles between 21 and 34 years of age. The long-term vision is to make this predominantly a mobile business. We will launch the iOS and Android app next month. In 2015 we hope to take this to SE Asia. Right now, we have our office in New Delhi with a team of eight experienced professionals in the field of technology and psychology."

To conclude, Bhatia said, "TrulyMadly seeks to combine the advantages of technology with a human touch, to convert probability to possibilities and get people exactly what users are looking for and make the search for true love easier and more fruitful than ever before." Will TrulyMadly.com help reduce the divorce rate in India? Let's wait and watch.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)