India has emerged as online dating app Hinge's second-largest market outside the US in terms of downloads, with the country becoming a focus for the company, according to a top executive.
"The user base in India right now is our third largest in terms of monthly active users. And so it's a really large user base for us," said Hinge chief executive Jackie Jantos in an interview with Mint.
The Match Group company is betting on India’s growing pool of singles to drive its next phase of growth, even as Gen Z grows fatigued with online dating. India’s dating-app market, valued at about $550 million in 2025, is projected to nearly double to $1 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research. Globally, the market is expected to grow from $10.7 billion in 2025 to $17.9 billion by 2033.
In August, Match Group chief executive Spencer Rascoff said on the company's Q2 earnings call that India has become an “important expansion market for Hinge”, due to “already strong organic growth."
India bet
Hinge has been in India for a little over 10 years without promoting the app, Jantos said, and growth has been organic, driven by users who found partners. Globally, the app has 15 million monthly active users.
India is where the company now feels it has the right product and safety tooling to push growth. For the first time, Hinge is spending on marketing in India.
“We work with creators when we go into creator marketing. From marketing perspective we don't leverage our owned hinge social channels,” said Jantos. “We think the best way to engage with younger audiences, singles looking for love is through channels they're following, individuals that they trust.”
The move marks a shift for an app that has so far relied largely on word-of-mouth growth in India. The company is now looking to turn that existing user base into a larger growth opportunity.
Jantos took over as CEO after the company's founder Justin McLeod stepped down in December 2025 to launch an artificial intelligence-based matchmaking app called Overtone. The company raised $16 million in seed money in July this year from FirstMark Capital, Pace Capital, and Match Group.
Private investors are hoping that AI-based matchmaking apps will replace the swipe-based mechanics that were popularized by Tinder upon its launch in 2012. As a result, US venture capital firms have backed several startups, even though most remain very early.
Some examples of AI-based matchmaking apps in the US include Ditto, which raised $9.2 million in February in seed money, San Francisco-based Known has raised $9.7 million and Sitch, which has raised $7 million in funding so far.
Dating fatigue
Hinge's India push comes as dating-app companies face a broader challenge: keeping younger users engaged as some report fatigue with online dating.
It is also part of Match Group's broader push into Asia, as the company looks for new avenues of growth beyond its more mature markets.
Match Group’s share price has fallen by nearly 60% since it relisted on the Nasdaq in 2020, after separating from its parent company IAC, which also operates a number of businesses including publishing, home services, and hospitality.
Rival Bumble has had a worse fate, with a 96% drop in share price since its listing in February 2021.
“AI has accelerated execution across product development life cycles, enabling us to move faster and execute against an ambitious second-half roadmap designed around how Gen Z wants to connect,” Match Group CEO Spencer Rascoff told investors in an earnings call in August this year while talking about Events, an in-person vertical of Hinge’s sister dating app Tinder.
“Our internal research shows that nearly half of singles aged 18-29 want to share in-person experiences with people who could become closer connections. Yet, for a generation that grew up online, making that transition into real life can still feel hard. That is why we are doubling down on more social, lower-pressure ways for users to connect in real life. Our Events feature is an important component of that strategy.”