Tinder tests an option in India to make users feel more secure | Technology
The Indian version of Tinder has introduced a new tool for users to have greater scrutiny and control over the conversations they have with the users they contact. The option My move (My step), selectable in settings, allows women that only they can start the conversation with users with whom they have had the famous Match. Normally, the application allows any of the parties to start sending messages once they have been accepted by dragging to the right
As reported by Reuters, this new control tool is being tested in India with the aim of expanding its use to other countries. "We are a platform based on mutual respect, consent and choice," Taru Kapoor, general director in India of the company that owns the application, Match Group (MTCH.O), told the news agency. The company reports that the objective of the new option is for users to feel more secure when using the platform. India is the world's largest market for applications of this type and a country shaken by sudden outbreaks of social conflict.
In the last decade, complaints of rape by the Indian authorities have increased by 88%; making the Asian country the most insecure in the world for women according to the latest report of the Reuters Foundation. Although no case had the well-known dating app as a channel, other modern messaging platforms have been a source of citizen violence. Between April and June, WhatsApp was immersed in a series of lynchings that caused around twenty deaths across India. The root of the public beatings was a bulletin broadcast by messages and videos; sent repeatedly by this messaging network. At the request of the Indian government, Facebook, the company that owns WhatsApp, decided to inform its users when the message had been forwarded to more than five contacts.
Both WhatsApp and Tinder have immeasurable expansion potential in India; where only 25% of its 1,250 million inhabitants have access to the Internet but a space in which the network, mobile phones and their applications expand rapidly. Despite the problems of connection, its inhabitants are the ones who use the most messaging applications in the world, and the well-off classes of cosmopolitan cities like Bombay or Bangalore make India the largest market on the planet in Tinder users. This platform, which has a global average of 3.8 million users, had the largest number of active Android customers in India last August, according to the market analysis firm, App Annie.
Data published by The Wall Street Journal They stress that the number of men using Tinder in India is much greater than that of women. So the new option of the platform will give users greater choice, according to company manager Taru Kapoor: "My Move gives women more autonomy to choose how to handle their matches and gives them power to control their experiences. "
However, Tinder is not the first dating app with this tool. Its commercial rival, Bumble, founded by Whitney Wolfe (also co-founder of Tinder) already has this variation by default, allowing only users to start virtual conversations. Both companies are involved in litigation because the other partner in Tinder, Match Group, blames Bumble for copying his slide model to the right or left to accept or reject users. Currently, Tinder is the third highest revenue application in all categories if profits are combined through Google Play and iOS.
