This Paris-based Dating Startup Wants to Make a Big Splash in India If you believe in serendipity, then you should use Happn says Global Trends Officer Claire Certain
By Aashika Jain
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Entrepreneur India caught up with Claire Certain, the Global Trends Officer of Paris-based dating startup Happn. Here's an excerpt of the conversation.
Q) I want to know from you what is Happn looking to achieve with India?
A) Happn has been launched a year ago in India and we have been very successful since then. So we are very happy and our ambition is to enable users to find the people who have cross pathways. Because the app is like in real time. So it shows you the profile of the people you cross path with in real time, within a few hundred metres and it makes a lot of sense in big cities such as Mumbai or Delhi or Bangalore.
Q) What sort of interaction do you see for Happn happening in India? Are there any stats that boast of some sort of exemplary user behaviour that you see in India?
A) It's very interesting because we recently ran a survey amongst habitants in their 20s in their 30s and in their 40s, and it turned out that 77 per cent of them declared that they have used dating app or website at least once in their life. So could be another service than Happn but they do use dating service so they are quite familiar.
Q) The general perception is Happn is not very popular in India, is it true?
A) Yes, it is very popular in India. I believe it very convenient because in big cities you're so crazy all the time running after time because you don't have enough. And you're busy and you are connected on your device and then you are disconnected from your direct environment and that's what we do and I think it's a great tool for Indian users.
Q) Give me two reasons why an Indian millennial or an Indian person looking for a nice partner should get on Happn?
A) There're those people you see who are mis-potential, misconnections and we don't like misconnections. I think it's very bad so if you want to avoid that you should use Happn. And it's very safe so it doesn't show exactly where you are? It just shows your first name and your age. So it's safe it's convenient. And if you believe in serendipity then you should use it.
Q) how do you intend to make things HAPPN for people in India?
A) What we are doing in India is we are growing the number of users that we have for a year now. We are collaborating with influencers and we're looking for always new ambassadors and spreading the word.
