Marriage in India is considered to be a serious issue (well actually an important one). You need to be really strong if you want to remain single. The moment you are done with your education there is a pressure on you to get married or atleast fix the person. This increases as you see your friends and people around you getting married.
However the existing solutions are not able to help the current generation as the old market players have become conventional/ out-dated and there lies an element of embarrassment in getting enrolled at these sites. Simply put, I think the whole ‘e-meeting your partner’ has to undergo the paradigm shift of being perceived as a love marriage as against an arranged one to click with our generation.
Hence we launched a new website matchmecupid.com. It is aimed at young professionals, where parents are not involved. If you are interested then fill the form, we don’t want someone else doing this for you.
We are trying to bring in a matrimonial platform which is not scary and people want to try it out.
This has been started by me and 2 other friends.
Do have a look https://matchmecupid.com/ and your feedback is welcome!
Mandeep
Sridhar V
I think this idea is good and has potential. However, there can be some criticism (not from me) but in general:-
– This site may be seen as a dating platform and could have some resistance. Resistance may come from customers, investors, etc.
– You are projecting it as a platform where the guy and girl get to meet and connect. However, the forum is also seen as a matrimonial site. The same site being used for Dating/Relationships as well as Matrimony is something that people my object to.
– There is a possibility of seeing complaints, issues, etc. related to the site from users if they feel insecure about spammy messages, trouble makers, etc.
These criticisms could be addressed based on feedback and using the right positioning and setting right expectations.
In my personal view this is a wonderful idea with good potential. I agree with the issues of parents listing their sons/daughters details on matrimonial portal. In typical arranged marriages too though people encourage their kids to talk, the interference of parents and relatives is bothersome. In some families the guy/girls has to go through the ordeal of a stress interview by the parents or oldies. For people who want to directly interact with someone this is a good place or forum.
Although it may not please traditionalists it can work for liberals (both arranged & love marriage schools of thought) assuming it allows the use of the account only by the guy/girl. You need to somehow communicate that this is a personal platform for guys & girls to connect (themselves) and strictly not their reps (parents, siblings, etc.
sahil khurana
yes we do but the age limit should be lowered . i am still not 25 mam!!!
Mandeep Kaur
Hi Sridhar
Thanks for the revert and your comments are encouraging!
Prime reason we started with the website is that there are alot of single people particularly in late 20’s and early 30’s who are looking to get married but they are disappointed with the profiles they see on traditional space. These days we see alot of inter community, inter religion marriages also happening, particularly in metros. Singles want to meet like minded people and hence we want to offer them a new portal to connect.
Let me answer a few of your (critical )points.
1) Each member profile is screened and seen if it will be a fit for our members. There are times we get profiles of guys who are looking for dating. This is our responsibility to inform the person that his profile is not fit for our members and hence we can’t make him a part of the community.
2)We don’t allow members to directly interact with each other. Each member has a relationship manager who will look for profiles for the member. You can exchange your views about each match (profile) with your manager. Hence there are no spam mails.
3) The website can be seen as dating site but there is a thin line between dating and marriage, yes you are right that some might not see a difference. But we are hoping they do 🙂 Hence we are ensuring only serious members come aboard.
Mandeep Kaur
Hi Sahil, how about waiting for a year or two?
sahil khurana
hmmm that can be thought of, even i need to loose a bit. still can suggest to my friends.
Mandeep Kaur
Thanks Sahil..That would be great!
Sridhar V
Thanks for your detailed answers. Though I’m not an expert in this, and just shared some of my views as well as generic views.
The idea of a relationship manager connecting people looks quite different. But it may take sometime for people to get used to this system (unlike the direct interactions).
Anything that is new, radical and disruptive will see challenges or resistance, but if the need is well served I’m sure the initiative will succeed overtime. If we go back to mid-late 90’s, very few people thought online matrimonial will work, but some players started it and overtime it has been successful. Wish you all the best.
Mandeep Kaur
Thanks Sridhar!
Sarsij Nayanam
Do we need a new matrimonial site? Yes! Certainly we do. And my answer is based on my experience with the existing matrimony sites where I was registered till a couple of months ago and when I came to feel that this is an inhuman way of match making – some algorithm is generating recommendations for me, and that too in an acutely mechanical manner. And as a consequence of which I used to get so many phone calls, that, at one point of time I had un-register myself from all such websites.
And after the whole experience, I just got a feel that – There is a certain need for a better matrimonial site in near future, and I am sure someone will create it sooner than I believe.
Now, coming back to this business idea – well, here are my thoughts…
I liked these few points:
#1. By invitation only. [It certainly helps control the filth, though a costly exercise if you are adopting manual intervention for verification. But a serious customer would pay for such things].
#2. Real people making a match. [If you are doing such things manually, I am impressed.]
Things which I didn’t like
#1. Invite Friends. [Really! Would I want to invite my friends to this portal where I am searching for a life-partner? I doubt it! Imagine someone telling it to the whole world that he has joined Bharat Matrinomy on FB, won’t it look funny? Also, I have a serious doubt that this would invite the filth in your system.]
#2. Eliminating parents from the process.
Things I am still confused about:
#1. How different would it be from other sites, when you say that you will help people interact through your platform. Every portal claims the same. How are you different from them?
#2. Privacy is compromised at some point of time. And this is something which is no rocket science in the present day. How do you ensure that you are different? Can you illustrate something to the customers? [It is a very funny incident that the moment I got registered at one of the matrimony sites, surprisingly I started getting mailers from most others…I wonder what was that and how did that happen….worst part was that, not only my email address was compromised, even my details and my family details were circulated to all the portals. I seriously don’t understand this piece of the business model.]
Mandeep Kaur
Thanks Sarsij! Its good to know a person who is going through this process. We hope you get your match soon.
I have tried to answer a few of your critical points.
Hope it answer a few of your queries 🙂
sahil khurana
hey mandeep!!! this time no joke i was having chat with a female friend, who is working in some mnc, she just turned 24 and her parents want her to settle.she is fine with idea too, i told her about your site,for her it was good concept that instead of searching wide number of people it could narrow her search.
but there is problem from your side.,,,turning 25!!!. i seriously suggest you to bring the entrant age to 24 and i have reasons to support that too.
1. mostly in our country one who is pursuing the higher education like m.b.a, btech medical. are over with their first rounds of study are over by 22-23, though time is changing, but parents want their girl child to settle by 24 as that is high time for them. i believe that in metros there is change in such thinking, but as most population resides in tier 2 and 3 places.and whatso ever crowd of work force who actually turn into professional belong to those areas majorly.
2. it will open up to large number of probable clients as 24 itself is no kiddo age, it will be in fact increasing your chances of survival more,one year can do wonders for you.(take it on serious note).
3. stick to your professional concept, thats good as for entrepreneur class there are plenty of them who are most interested in deal rather than perfect combination, so i just advise you to decrease the limit to 24, and if you disagree on the point can counsel people, ask your close one,, ask your “mom”. or girls turned 24 want to marry , how upset they will be knowing that it’s about turning 25!!
and above all i am not professional so that not gonna help me in either ways even if its 24 or not, but for your project it can do wonders and i have full faith in that, and anyhow it can’t affect you anyways.
so think about it and and me know the decision so that i could tell her and many more like her that you are making people marry who are 24..!!! take care. gn
Rajat
I agree with Sridhar that it might become a dating platform. But then I also agree that we need to resolve some serious dating issues in our country. I think most of the youth now wants to move away from the arranged marriage stuff. More dating platforms should come up, and i dont mean online ones, but rather physical meet ups (by invitation only) where people can meet and interact and carry forward discussions.
Amit Dang
We definitely need something like this because the current ones,where I have enrolled myself, have over 90% fake profiles.
Mandeep Kaur
Yeah, we are hoping to make a difference in this field.
Amit Dang
Dear Mr. Vijay,
Broadly speaking, websites like jeevansathi.com and bharatmatrimony.com, out of 100 interests expressed…almost around or over 90 are never seen only. I mean this is just not possible that the person who is actively looking for a partner just don’t see even the interests sent to her/ him.
Amit
Mandeep Kaur
Well I don’t have no’s to say 90% of them are fake, but I understand the point he is trying to make.You express an interest in a guy/girl and you just don’t hear from them. The job is tedious. We went through the process for my sister and all these sites had guys who were not even graduates (even after setting a filter they used to express interest). The problem with these sites is that there are too many profiles and even if the site has the right one, the profile gets lost.
Amit Dang
Hi Mandeep,
What I meant is that one can get to know as “how many people saw your interest” or “when was the person logged in last time”. Now I don’t understand the point that I can make out that the person logged in 2 days back but how the hell the person did not see my interest?:)
I’m sure all such websites have a back end auto-application which keeps on running to make such things.
Sad state of affairs but hopefully yours once should be somewhat different:)
Best of luck
Mandeep Kaur
Hi Amit
I get your point. Well we are trying to make a difference. Currently our aim is to increase awareness so that the number of members goes up.
Thanks for your best wishes!
Manish Grover
After helping people to meet their life partner, do recommend http://www.shaadimagic.com to plan their dream wedding 🙂
Mandeep Kaur
Hi Manish, sure will do that 🙂