Matrimonial Websites and Matchmaking Markets

How matrimonial sites like Shaadi.com and BharatMatrimony turned matchmaking into a business, how they use subscriptions, and what economists learn from marriage market data.

Finding a spouse is a matching problem.

Traditional matchmaking

Families, relatives and matchmakers traditionally arranged marriages, and newspaper classifieds listed matrimonial ads.

Online platforms

Shaadi.com, BharatMatrimony and Jeevansathi launched in the late 1990s-2000s.
Community-specific sites cater to castes, languages and religions.

Business model

Free profiles, with paid subscriptions to contact matches.
Premium personalised services.

Economic research

Studies of matrimonial ads and sites reveal preferences, such as the strong role of caste in partner choice.
A study by Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and others found caste preference remained strong even among educated users.

Matching theory

Economists Lloyd Shapley and Alvin Roth won the 2012 Nobel Prize for work on stable matching, which helps explain matchmaking markets.

Dating apps

Dating apps like Tinder and Bumble also grew in cities.

The premium plan

A family pays for a premium matrimonial subscription to contact more profiles and get personalised matches.

Thinking online matchmaking removed traditional preferences

Research shows caste preferences remain strong.

Key takeaways

Matrimonial sites turned matchmaking into a business.
They use free profiles and paid subscriptions.
Research shows strong caste preferences.
Matching theory won the 2012 Nobel Prize.