Pawan Gupta, Co-founder and CEO, Shares Betterhalf’s Matrimony Journey: Growth, Strategies, and User Insights

The pandemic brought about big changes in how people approach relationships online. Matrimonial websites witnessed notable changes as individuals sought connections in an altered digital landscape. Betterhalf, a prominent player in the Indian matrimony scene known for its AI-powered matchmaking, emerged as a notable example.

In a recent interview with Pawan Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Betterhalf, we gained valuable insights into the platform's journey. From navigating the pandemic-induced challenges to implementing unique strategies, Pawan's words shed light on Betterhalf's strong commitment to creating real and meaningful connections.

Now, let's take a closer look at Pawan's responses, which offer insights into Betterhalf's journey and the strategies that have driven its growth in this transformed matrimony landscape.

StartupTalky: What were the key reasons behind the growth of matrimonial sites during the pandemic?

Pawan: The impact of the lockdown on COVID-19 had been noticed greatly on matrimonial websites with their huge growth. Several matrimonial sites have witnessed huge growth in their customer bases. During the pandemic, most people were limited to their houses and spent more time browsing online matrimonial sites to find the right match.

1. Special offers provided by the Matrimony apps during lockdown
2. Launch of new services to make matrimony apps more attractive and informative, like horoscope matching, wedding planning, pre-bridal dieticians, and lots more.
3. We realized the value of love and companionship.

StartupTalky: What new strategies and campaigns are implemented by Betterhalf to cater to the growing number of users?

Pawan: The new strategies and campaigns implemented to cater to the growing number of users are:

1. Viral tweet campaign
2. Celebrity Sheeba Chadha as Asha Ji campaign
3. Wedding planning as a service

StartupTalky: What did the growth numbers look like for the key metrics (DAU, MAU, conversion rates, and revenue growth) during the lockdown?

Pawan: Our growth metrics include:

• Revenue: Grew from $75,000 to $200,000 per month in 12 months.
• Userbase: Monthly 3L MAU to 1M in 12 months
• Paid user retention: 12 months to over 26 months
• Renewal Rate: Grew from 30% to over 50% in 12 months.
• Total Marriages Till Date: 15,000+

StartupTalky: Which new features contributed to the growth of the Betterhalf matrimonial website?

Pawan: The new features contributing to the growth of Betterhalf are:

1. Asha Jii: WhatsApp Chatbot: To humanize its AI-backed matchmaking process for urban Indians, the company has introduced Asha Ji to deliver a personalized experience in helping users choose their perfect match. The Whatsapp interaction is portrayed by the face and voice of Sheeba Chadha to deliver a relatable conversational tone to help users feel connected.
2. Wedding planning services in Bengaluru: The Betterhalf app now offers complete wedding planning services to its customers, including venue booking, wedding photography, decoration, catering, makeup artist, wedding loans, etc.
3. Tech-enabled matchmaking ring: Perfect PaiRing works by gauging the wearer’s body’s responses to estimate if they’re an ideal match for them. Betterhalf’s algorithm makes an assessment, and the wearer gets a detailed compatibility chart on their phones with a compatibility percentage telling them if they’re their ideal match.

StartupTalky: Any insights around the target audience of Betterhalf during the pandemic? What was the demographic of the newest registered user profile?

Pawan:

• Women: 25%
• Men: 75%
• Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities majorly, followed by others.

StartupTalky: What measures did Betterhalf take to counter the rise of fake profiles during the pandemic?

Pawan: At Betterhalf, we make privacy our top priority. It is the core of the way we have built the product so that anyone who chooses Betterhalf can fully trust us and render their focus on building meaningful connections in search of a life partner. We promise not to compromise our subscriber's privacy. We have designed our product keeping their privacy in mind.

With the amalgamation of various experts in the fields of legal, security, engineering, and product design, we make sure that no decision related to your privacy is taken without your consent. We strive to be transparent while processing your data. We understand that insufficient information and overly complicated language are common issues in companies’ privacy policies.

So, as a result, we have taken a different approach: we have formulated our Privacy Policy and other documentation in much simpler language, just to give you a better and clearer picture of our practices. We make sure your personal information is secure. We have allotted different teams to keep your data safe and secure. We constantly update our security to enhance the safety of your personal information.