Dating is translated into Russian – Kommersant FM
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Russians have become more active in using domestic dating apps. As the Mamba company told Kommersant FM, the service’s audience in 2023 increased by 20% compared to 2022. The high pace was affected by the departure of the largest foreign players – Tinder and Badoo. In addition, supply on the market has decreased due to new legislation.
At the end of November last year, the Supreme Court declared the “International Public LGBT Movement” extremist. According to State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein, there was no talk of introducing censorship or government interference in the personal lives of citizens. The measure is designed to prohibit propaganda and the involvement of new people.
Some services were forced to close, says Yaroslav Sergeev, an independent expert in the field of dating application development: “All Russian players who were present on the market in one form or another at the beginning of 2023, plus or minus, retained their positions. This is LovePlanet – an old man from the 2000s, a relatively young application Tabor, adult dating services Boo and Pure. An important aspect is political risks and the fight against LGBT people. This market share in dating was about 20-30%. All top applications have removed the possibility of such dating.
I think this year some kind of youth dating should appear, which does not exist in Russia now.
It could be something based on question-answer mechanics. It goes viral very well among young people and allows you to collect traffic. Or, for example, video services, but they are much more difficult to implement and moderate. One way or another, there are unoccupied niches in the Russian market, and they will definitely be filled. Competition will intensify and the threshold will rise.”
A number of domestic online services planned to develop abroad. As Kommersant FM found out, the Teamo.ru service, after the migration of Russians to neighboring countries, was going to invest in promotion in the markets of Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia. Mamba allocated about $6.5 million for the development of the application, including in Europe. But after experiments, the company decided to focus on only one Asian country, said Andrei Bronetsky, CEO of the dating service:
“I can’t boast of success yet. In order not to be scattered between several countries, we have chosen one market for ourselves, which we will pump in 2024. In order to fully enter the market, you need to invest in it. These amounts are measured, of course, not in tens, but not in one or two million dollars. Depending on the country and the size of its market, investments may vary. The most expensive, of course, is the US market. Second place is taken by Japan, even Tinder has not entered there. The Chinese market is closed. Further along, roughly in the same range, are wealthy Germany, France, the UK, and very close to them are the markets of India and Indonesia.
We choose an Asian country as our priority. There are no political risks and the market is less competitive. Before this, we tried to develop in Turkey, but encountered some difficulties. On the one hand, users are willing to pay, and you can make money in this market. On the other hand, we do not fully understand the mentality, and it is very difficult to attract the female part of the audience.”
Domestic developers launched Twinby, another service that has become popular among Russians, last summer. The startup managed to raise 150 million rubles. investments. The money was mainly spent on marketing and promotion, shared co-founder and managing director Veronika Yakovleva:
“It’s not just Tinder that has left, but the entire Match Group holding, which includes many dating services. The market was absolutely not ready for this. There were established players and niche applications (VK Dating, Mamba, etc.), and the audience began to rather abruptly try to distribute itself among them. There are corporations that have attracted mainly an older audience due to the fact that they have web services; a younger audience has gone, for example, to the niche application Pure.
Our service was technically and strategically ready to be competitive. Now the dating market in Russia has about 11 million users, and 20% of it belongs to Twinby; at the moment the number of users has exceeded 2.4 million people.
We set ourselves a rather ambitious goal – to take the place of Tinder, not only in terms of brand recognition and brightness within the market, but also in terms of revenue.”
According to a study by Statista, in 2022 the profit of the dating industry in Russia was estimated at $38 million. At the end of 2023, industry income amounted to approximately $43 million.
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