Tinder Debuts Swipe Night in India

Tinder’s popular original interactive series Swipe night will debut In India this month, almost a year after its initial U.S. debut.

India’s Tinder subscribers were supposed to see Swipe Night earlier this year in the spring, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed the premiere until now according to Gadgets 360. The premise of the series centers around the apocalypse, and Tinder didn’t think it was the right time for the subject. India is still dealing with 90,000 new cases of the virus each day, more than any other nation, and is one of the hot zones for virus spread, along with the U.S.

Swipe Night begins at a party, and the attendees find out that in three hours, an asteroid is scheduled to hit the earth. They are asked as they go along in the adventure what choices they would make, which brings them to different parts of the story. For example, users are asked to make choices about benign things like music, to life and death decisions – like whether you run or stay to help someone. Viewers get only seven seconds to make any decision which ramps up pressure, and you have two choices, so you swipe left or right depending on what you decide.

In addition to influencing the trajectory of the story, your choices also populate your profile, and other users can see what you would choose.

The original four episodes have been condensed down to three, and instead of waiting over a period of four weeks for each new episode to debut, India users will get to binge all three over the weekend of September 12th – 14th. 

Tinder created the series specifically to attract younger, Gen Z users, who are less likely to want to strike up a conversation with someone they don’t know over a dating app. By making Swipe Night a more game-like experience, with content and ice breakers baked in, they were hoping to attract and engage these users. The company also hired a Gen Z music video director to direct the series, and surveyed users about what interested them (dystopian fiction and impending doom were favorites).

India has been a focus of Match Group, the parent company of Tinder, because of its huge young population who are turning to dating apps to find love. While traditional matchmaking is still popular there, younger singles have gravitated to dating apps to find their own matches. Match Group recently hired a regional VP for India to grow awareness and subscribers.

A second season of Swipe Night is planned, but no details about it or when it might debuted have been announced.