Medium - YouTube Series Are Trying To Rewrite Indian Dating

A woman in an uncomfortable, toxic relationship breaks up with her boyfriend just before they take a trip. Her friend convinces her to go online to find a date, who turns out to be a charming, kind, considerate man who has also been looking for commitment.

This is the story line for a popular YouTube series called Yours Cupidly, produced by a channel called Shitty Ideas Trending (SIT), founded by Indian actress Chhavi Mittal. The eight-episode series was made in collaboration with the dating app OkCupid. The finale aired on November 5th and gathered over 200,000 views in a few hours.

Similar themes run across a variety of short films and videos on the platform.

Digital video series are trying to coax India out of its traditional system of arranged marriage — but they need to rewrite perceptions of dating apps. However, the fantasy is an important one to sell because the digital space for dating and marriage in India is a multi-billion-dollar business.

Until recently, much of the market was cornered by matrimonial websites where parents created profiles for their children and looked for potential spouses. The internet was only a tiny technological tweak to a centuries-old process.

Over the past few years, though, numerous dating apps have started finding a foothold in India. In 2015, Tinder reported 7.5 million daily swipes in the country and TrulyMadly, one of the older, homegrown dating apps, has over 5 million subscribers.