• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year

2

Indeed chief economist says we’re entering an era of ‘great mismatch’ thanks to a generational imbalance of workers

3

Apple’s Steve Wozniak says he cofounded the tech giant after 5 rejections from HP—not to ‘make money.’ For years, his paycheck was just $50

1

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year

2

Indeed chief economist says we’re entering an era of ‘great mismatch’ thanks to a generational imbalance of workers

3

Apple’s Steve Wozniak says he cofounded the tech giant after 5 rejections from HP—not to ‘make money.’ For years, his paycheck was just $50
MPWBumble

Bumble Thinks It Can Fix Dating Apps for Women in India

Emma Hinchliffe
By
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
Most Powerful Women Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
Emma Hinchliffe
By
Emma Hinchliffe
Emma Hinchliffe
Most Powerful Women Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
October 3, 2018, 1:30 PM ET

Dating apps have had a hard time catching on with women in India—and Bumble, set to launch in India this fall, hopes its women-first philosophy will make the difference.

“What we love is the potential for us in India,” Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd tells Fortune.

Bumble is set to launch in India this fall, with new investor and adviser Priyanka Chopra at its side. The startup started working on bringing its dating and social connection app to India about nine months ago, building a team of about 20 people working on launching in India and getting its executives familiar with the market. Bumble higher-ups studied the launch process for American tech companies in South Asia as well as Indian norms around relationships and connections.

Dating apps in India, including Tinder, have had difficulties convincing enough women to sign up. “The barrage of messages that hits your inbox is like a swarm of locusts,” one Mumbai woman, Anushree Majumdar, told the Wall Street Journal in June. The Indian dating app TrulyMadly said at the time that women made up about 20% of its users.

Tinder, however, introduced its Bumble copycat women-message-first feature in India last week.

To address concerns around safety for Indian women, Bumble will introduce a feature allowing women to set their profiles to only show their first initial—no first or last name. The app will also introduce new features for reporting bad behavior. Those safety features could expand to other markets down the line.

“There are hundreds of millions of young women in India that are part of a larger movement to take control of their lives, and they’re demanding respect and independence,” Chopra’s manager Anjula Acharia, another Bumble advisor and investor, said in a statement.

Bumble created versions of its app in Hindi and “Hinglish,” adapted its marketing to suit the Indian market, and adjusted its user interface and matching algorithm for India’s levels of network connectivity. Tinder, for comparison, offers its app in four languages in India.

Bumble will now be in 160 countries, but most of Bumble’s international expansion hasn’t required anything near the level of specialized focus as India has.

Sign up: Click here to subscribe to the Broadsheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the world’s most powerful women.

Bumble enters a market that already has American and European apps, including Tinder; local apps; and legacy brands around matchmaking. “When we took a closer look at India, we saw a market that was very fragmented,” Wolfe Herd says.

With its main dating app, Bumble will also bring with it its verticals for friend-finding and networking, Bumble BFF and Bumble Bizz. Those verticals will look largely the same as they do in Bumble’s other markets.

Chopra—known in the United States for her TV show Quantico but for years one of India’s most famous Bollywood stars—will appear with Wolfe Herd at rollout events around the country in the fall. She’s serving as an adviser to Bumble and has been “deeply involved” in go-to-market strategy and creative campaigns, the company says. Bumble declined to disclose the amount of Chopra’s investment.

“I’ve always believed that investing in women is key to social transformation and economic growth, and in working with Whitney and her team over the past year, I’m inspired by the real, positive change Bumble is creating and I’m proud to have the opportunity to contribute to this movement as a partner,” Chopra, who first worked with the company on the launch of Bumble Bizz in 2017, said in a statement.

Bumble is expanding into the high-growth market as the company faces some turmoil at home: an escalating lawsuit with online dating giant Match, which owns Tinder. Wolfe Herd spoke at Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women Summit Wednesday just over an hour after her legal opponent, Match CEO Mandy Ginsberg.

About the Author
Emma Hinchliffe
By Emma HinchliffeMost Powerful Women Editor
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Emma Hinchliffe is Fortune’s Most Powerful Women editor, overseeing editorial for the longstanding franchise. As a senior writer at Fortune, Emma has covered women in business and gender-lens news across business, politics, and culture. She is the lead author of the Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter (formerly the Broadsheet), Fortune’s daily missive for and about the women leading the business world.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in MPW

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in MPW

She grew Salesforce’s team by 600% in South Asia. Meet one of India’s most powerful women
NewslettersMPW Daily
She grew Salesforce’s team by 600% in South Asia. Meet one of India’s most powerful women
By Angelica AngMay 22, 2026
1 day ago
lucas
ConferencesWorkplace Innovation Summit
Trump’s EEOC chair is suing The New York Times because ‘we should bring it on behalf of white workers too’
By Nick LichtenbergMay 20, 2026
3 days ago
How a book convinced Arundhati Bhattacharya, one of India’s most powerful bankers, to try working for a U.S. tech company
AsiaMost Powerful Women
How a book convinced Arundhati Bhattacharya, one of India’s most powerful bankers, to try working for a U.S. tech company
By Angelica AngMay 19, 2026
5 days ago
shyam
CommentaryHealth
World Economic Forum: women’s health gets only 20% of R&D funding. We must seize this $1 trillion opportunity
By Shyam BishenMay 18, 2026
6 days ago
weld
Future of Workthe future of work
Meet a 21-year-old community college student who’s going to China as the first American woman welder in the trades Olympics
By Mike Householder and The Associated PressMay 17, 2026
6 days ago
‘No one was coming to save me’: How Reese Witherspoon built a $900 million company from a problem Hollywood wouldn’t fix
Successreese witherspoon
‘No one was coming to save me’: How Reese Witherspoon built a $900 million company from a problem Hollywood wouldn’t fix
By Sydney LakeMay 17, 2026
7 days ago

Most Popular

Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year
Success
Jeff Bezos wants the bottom half of earners to pay zero income tax—he says nurses making just $75K should save $12K a year
By Preston ForeMay 21, 2026
2 days ago
Indeed chief economist says we’re entering an era of ‘great mismatch’ thanks to a generational imbalance of workers
Success
Indeed chief economist says we’re entering an era of ‘great mismatch’ thanks to a generational imbalance of workers
By Emma BurleighMay 22, 2026
1 day ago
Apple’s Steve Wozniak says he cofounded the tech giant after 5 rejections from HP—not to ‘make money.’ For years, his paycheck was just $50
Success
Apple’s Steve Wozniak says he cofounded the tech giant after 5 rejections from HP—not to ‘make money.’ For years, his paycheck was just $50
By Preston ForeMay 22, 2026
1 day ago
Microsoft reports are exposing AI's real cost problem: Using the tech is more expensive than paying human employees
AI
Microsoft reports are exposing AI's real cost problem: Using the tech is more expensive than paying human employees
By Jake AngeloMay 22, 2026
1 day ago
Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
Workplace Culture
Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 
By Preston ForeMay 19, 2026
4 days ago
Current price of oil as of May 22, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of May 22, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerMay 22, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.