Russian services invest in promoting dating in the US and Turkey

Russian dating apps are ready to invest in development abroad, including opening offices there. They plan to focus on Russian expats,

In 2023, the Mamba dating service plans to invest about $6.5 million in development in the markets of foreign countries, Andrey Bronetsky, CEO of the company, told RBC. We are talking about investments in marketing, clarified in Mamba: in a positive scenario, the amount of investment can be increased up to $10 million.

The most attractive markets for the development of the service, according to Bronetsky, are the usa , Turkey, Germany, Israel and Kazakhstan.

“These countries are selected for scaling, as they already have an audience that actively uses the service. This audience has good indicators of activity and payment. The main task for these countries in the near future is to increase the volume of the audience, maintaining a balance between female and male registrations, and increase MAU (monthly active audience) by 30%,” Bronetsky said.

In Israel and Germany, the growth point will be Russian expats, of which there are now more than 6 million people, he added. They actively communicate both among themselves and with local users. In Israel, by the end of 2019, Mamba came in second in terms of downloads and fifth in terms of revenue, overtaking the global giant Tinder. After several waves of covid-19 and the general stagnation of the economy, the positions sank a little, but by the end of 2023, the service plans to enter the top 5 again. In Germany, online dating is an integral part of the life of the population, Bronetsky explained. The activity and duration of sessions on Mamba are much higher there than in other European countries. Today, about 1.5 million profiles are registered in Germany, and this is the second largest market for Mamba in terms of income. This year it is planned to increase the audience in Germany by 30%.

In Turkey, Russian dating is “historically popular” among local men who prefer to meet Russians, Ukrainians or girls from Kazakhstan who “have a similar mentality,” Bronetsky said. At the moment, about 2 million active profiles are registered in Turkey, and immediately after the announcement of the mobilization of registration, payments and correspondence began to grow.

“If we talk about the US market, then, of course, there is no question of competing with such industry giants as Match.com, OKcupid, Tinder and Bumble, especially on their “home field”. But we are going to strengthen our positions among the Russian-speaking population of the United States, which, according to recent estimates, is about 5 million, ”Bronetsky emphasized.

The Teamo dating service in 2023 focuses primarily on attracting users from Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, said Anna Grishacheva, product development DIRECTOR of the company. “We still have users from these countries - about 15% of our active subscriber base. But really, until this year, we were not engaged in attracting traffic from there. In 2023, we plan to invest up to $700,000 to develop these regions if we see good results from advertising campaigns. Also, we do not rule out the possibility of opening a regional representative office in one of these countries,” said Grishacheva. According to her, the goal for this year is to increase the number of active users from these countries by more than 50%.

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A representative of the dating service LovePlanet.ru said that the company continues to successfully develop in international markets through video dating and organic growth strategies, while the main market of the site is RUSSIA and the CIS countries: “However, the audience of LovePlanet mobile applications on IOS and Android is much wider. Over 70% of users come from India, Turkey and South America, which adds up to hundreds of thousands of new users per month.”

According to him, given the high competition in the US market, LovePlanet.ru does not seek to enter it with a regular dating service: the company is testing separate applications related to video dating in the US market. Over the past two years, the service has been actively developing in the Chinese market , however, due to a significant tightening of the rules for applications and social networks, the activity in the Chinese market has become difficult.

Where do they meet

According to Mediascope, in March 2023, in terms of monthly coverage of Russian users over 12 years of age on desktop and mobile versions, among dating services, the top 5 included DrugVokrug (2.2 million), Mamba (2 million), Fotostrana ( 1.3 million), Tabor.ru (1.2 million), Tinder (1 million).

Why services enter other markets

Mamba expects a faster return on investment due to the absence of problems for foreign audiences with mobile payments, which are now experienced by a part of the Russian audience.

“In addition to the fact that the audience in these countries is more solvent than in the markets of the former CIS countries, the culture of paying for services is also higher there, since in the USA, Germany, Turkey and Israel people actively use subscription services (Netflix, Spotify and others) . Accordingly, such an audience is ready to pay for dating services, ”Bronetsky is sure.

As for the payment methods themselves, on Mamba, users from other countries have the opportunity to buy services both in a one-time option and by subscription with the possibility of their usual payment methods: APPLE Pay, GOOGLE Play, bank cards, PAYPAL, from an account mobile phone, as well as local payment systems, he specified.

According to him, due to the current situation (problems with the purchase of advertising, software), Mamba had to transfer part of its activities to other jurisdictions, in particular to Armenia and one of the EU countries, Bronetsky said. In the case of local marketing campaigns, cooperation with local advertising agencies will be established, but there are no plans to recruit staff in countries of scale yet, he explained.

Teamo, in turn, plans to focus on the concept of conscious dating and serious relationships in foreign countries. “Our service is about enabling users to get to know each other better, revealing their identity as much as possible through detailed and carefully compiled questionnaires, helping to get away from endless swipes. This distinguishes us from the rest and gives us a good opportunity to find our niche, including in new regions,” Anna Grishacheva noted.

After a partial mobilization was announced in Russia on September 21, dating services recorded an increase in user activity in the countries most popular for relocation of Russians. In particular, the number of registrations for Mamba in Armenia increased by 135% compared to the previous week, in Georgia - by 120%, in Turkey - by 110%, in Kazakhstan - by 32%, in Belarus - by 19%. Views of Russian profiles also increased in these countries: in Armenia - by 27%, in Turkey and Georgia - by 12%, in Kazakhstan - by 16%, in Belarus - by 8.5%. Moreover, user payments increased by 165% in Armenia, and these were exclusively “male” payments.

Since the beginning of the special operation in 2022, there have been several waves of relocation in Russia. The most discussed was the departure of IT specialists. According to RAEC in mid-March, 50-70 thousand IT specialists have left Russia since the end of February. In April, as part of the second wave of emigration, 70-100 thousand IT specialists could leave. After the announcement of partial mobilization, the number of IT specialists who left may be two to three times higher than this spring, the Association of Computer and Information Technology Enterprises predicted.

Among the most popular relocation destinations for Russians were Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the countries of Southeast Asia and the Baltics.