Match Group is doubling down on India as a growth market for Tinder and Hinge, even as dating-app scams attract greater scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers globally.
The company sees significant headroom in India, driven by rising smartphone use, wider internet access and still-low dating-app adoption compared with markets such as the US, said senior vice-president and head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, who was in India last week.
That optimism comes amid growing concerns over online fraud. The scrutiny comes as a year-long investigation led by US senator Maggie Hassan found shortcomings in Tinder’s global fraud-detection systems.
Tinder and Hinge’s total paying users fell to 13.5 million in Q1 2026. In Q1 2025, they had 14.1 million paying users.
Released on 13 October, the investigation said most of the artificial intelligence models Tinder used to identify had not been updated for years. Data provided by Match Group showed that profile views received by a median scammer on Tinder increased by more than 700% between May 2024 and December 2025. “The most prominent issue we see reported is scams and fake accounts. And that’s true in India, and it’s true universally,” said Roth.
In response, the company is introducing new safety features for Indian users, including screenshot protection, contact blocking and video-selfie verification. It is also working with Indian authorities on campaigns to help people recognise and report scams. He did not disclose how much the company spends on safety in the country or how many scam reports its apps receive.
India’s Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) too, warned in October last year with an advisory that fraudsters were using dating and matrimonial platforms to build relationships with victims before drawing them into investment and cryptocurrency scams. Roth said reports received by Match Group in India included investment fraud, restaurant scams and extortion.
Hinge expansion adds to India focus
In restaurant-related cases, Roth said, a person is persuaded to meet a match at a particular establishment, where an inflated bill is presented before the other person disappears. He said such reports had become more prominent in India over roughly the past two years. Here too, investment scams involving fraudsters spending weeks or months building trust before moving conversations to WhatsApp or another messaging platform and introducing a fake investment opportunity have also risen. In extortion cases, victims are persuaded to share intimate images before being threatened with their release, Roth said.
Tinder is the global market leader, followed by and then Hinge. Truly Madly and Aisle are local competitors to Hinge, Bumble & Tinder.
Mint reported last month that Hinge is betting on India to drive growth, with the country its second-largest market outside the US by downloads and third-largest by monthly active users. After more than a decade of relying on organic growth, the dating app has begun local marketing as it seeks to expand its user base amid growing dating fatigue among Gen Z.
Hinge emerged as one of the group’s strongest-performing brands: its global revenue rose 22% year-on-year to $204 million in the June quarter, while monthly active users grew 13%. The company’s chief executive Spencer Rascoff had described India as an important expansion market for Hinge, which is targeting $1 billion in annual revenue globally by 2027.
Match Group in Q1 2026 had total revenue of $3.49 billion, versus $864 million for Bumble.
The group’s overall revenue, however, fell 1% to $853 million, and its shares dropped about 9% in extended trading after the company issued a weaker-than-expected revenue forecast for the September quarter.
The company uses AI and human moderators to identify suspicious accounts and review reports. Roth said Match Group spends about $125 million annually on trust and safety worldwide, though it does not disclose India-specific fraud figures. It is also working with I4C on a user-awareness campaign.
A market with room to grow
The commercial opportunity comes against a mixed global performance for Match Group’s brands. The company reported revenue of $3.49 billion in 2025, broadly unchanged from a year earlier. Tinder’s direct revenue fell 4% to $1.86 billion, while Hinge’s rose 26% to $691 million, according to its annual report.
Match Group’s Asia revenue fell 6% to $267 million in 2025, while Hinge continued to outperform with 22% revenue growth and a 13% rise in monthly active users.