 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Internet marriage arrangement, social networking service |
| Predecessor | Sagaai.com |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Anupam Mittal |
| Parent | People Group |
| Website | shaadi |
Shaadi.com is an Indian online wedding service founded in 1997. Its core market is India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, [1] but the company operates globally, with offices in Canada, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Shaadi.com began as Sagaai.com [2] in 1997. [3] Its founder, Anupam Mittal, changed its name to Shaadi.com in 1999, believing it to be a more marketable name. [2] Its initial success was primarily among non-resident Indians, [2] [4] as Internet adoption across India was poor at the time, and conservative parents were hesitant to arrange marriages through a new startup. [2] [4] Despite some early personnel troubles, Shaadi.com saw success over the next fifteen years as Internet adoption increased and people became more receptive to online matchmaking. [2] By 2008, it had become the world's leading matrimonial website for Asians, [3] and had twenty million users by 2011. [5] [6]
In addition to online matchmaking, Shaadi.com runs over one hundred Shaadi Centres, retail outlets that offer matrimony-related services. [7] [8] The first was opened in Mumbai in 2004.
In 2009 it collaborated with StarPlus to produce India's first marriage-based reality television show. [9]
In 2012 Shaadi.com launched the Facebook game Angry Brides to bring awareness to dowry abuses in India. [10]
In 2014, Shaadi.com launched Shaadi Cares, a social initiative to educate people regarding marital issues, including dowry and domestic violence.
In 2016, Shaadi.com acquired Thrill Group, a startup that included two dating products, Frivil and Fropper, founded by expat entrepreneurs Josh Israel and Devin Serago. [11]
In February 2020, Shaadi.com was accused of allowing caste-based discrimination by having an option for Scheduled Castes to be left out of algorithms. In response, Shaadi.com said that the option "works as an important proxy to determine lifestyle fitment" but that it did not "remove any community from user preferences." [12]
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