Facebook’s slow transition from a very focused and elite demographic to a broad one proved that there’s some wisdom in going after nerdy college students first when you’re building a social network. DateIITians is an Indian SNS/dating site that appears to be taking that concept and applying it more directly to dating, initially targeting Indians at elite universities in India and abroad (and referencing India’s famous IIT in its name).
Layak Singh, one of the site’s founders, bills it as a unique blend of social network and dating site, but I set up a profile and to be completely honest, didn’t see anything earth-shatteringly unique about it. It does require a legal ID or some other proof of ID to fully register to prevent fake profiles, which is a nice touch. The UI is functional but could definitely be prettier, and there are still a few bugs in the system, but all in all the service is more or less what you’d expect — you set up a profile by filling out a lot of details about yourself and your desired match, and then you can interact with potential dates in a number of ways like sending messages and sharing videos. Mr. Singh told me that the site will feature even more advanced interactions when the next version launches this July.
At present, Singh says, the site has more than 10,000 users — nearly all of them real people thanks to the ID requirement — and boasts a 60/40 male-female ratio. That sounds good, but I must say in my own exploration of the site, it sure looked like the male-female ratio might be a lot lower than that; girls looked to be pretty scarce. But perhaps I was just looking in the wrong places.
DateIITians is also working on mobile apps — “Android, iPhone, [and] iPad apps” — as well as the next version of the site, and an international version targeted at non-Indians at cogxio.com. That last one is probably a good idea, as the current profile system is definitely targeted squarely at Indian users. For example, setting up my profile, I came across the question: Are you a virgin? It’s a pretty simple question, but I was confused by the choices, which went well beyond yes and no, and included options like “Amateur” and “Second-Level.” Virginity in India is apparently a bit more complicated than it is here!
I do have one strong criticism of the site: you can’t delete your account. It can be deactivated, Singh told me, but I couldn’t even figure out how to do that. Regardless, for a dating site, the ability to delete an account seems especially important, and users should have the right to remove their information not only from the public eye but also from DateIITians own servers if they so choose. I hope that’s one feature the team changes before the final version is launched.
Anyway, with 10,000+ users, a new version coming soon, and mobile apps and an international version also in the works, DateIITians is one startup to watch, even if its name is a bit unpronounceable. If you want to learn more, you can visit the site or its Wikipedia page (but fair warning on the latter: it reads a bit like it was written by the founders themselves).