Brands
India’s year-end dating reset: fewer swipes, clearer hearts
MUMBAI: As the curtain falls on 2025, India’s dating scene is doing what it does best at the end of the year: pausing, pondering and quietly panicking. According to fresh insights from homegrown dating app QuackQuack, singles across the country are taking a long, honest look at their love lives and changing how they match, chat and commit.
Based on a year-end survey of 9,746 active users aged 22 to 35 from Tier 1, 2 and 3 cities, the app notes a clear shift in mood. Dating, once breezy and experimental, has turned more thoughtful and deliberate as the new year approaches.
“This December, dating is far less casual and far more reflective,” said QuackQuack founder and CEO Ravi Mittal. “We see this every year. The new year brings a sense of urgency, but what stands out is that people are not chasing more matches. They are chasing the right one.”
Resolutionary dating takes over
Just as fitness goals surge in January, dating resolutions are having a moment too. Nearly 44 per cent of users aged 22 to 28 admitted they are rethinking past dating choices, while three in five said they no longer want to settle for less. The result is what QuackQuack calls resolutionary dating.
Low-effort chats are being quietly dropped, while self-awareness is in. User bios are filling up with phrases like “consistent”, “emotionally available” and “worth my effort”, signalling a move away from surface-level attraction towards compatibility that actually lasts.
The great chat autopsy
Reflection, of course, comes with a touch of overthinking. Three in five daters from Tier 1 and 2 cities confessed to revisiting old conversations, analysing replies and re-reading jokes to figure out where things slipped.
This habit is especially common among those who have faced ghosting, almost-relationships or situationships that never quite found a name. Advait, a 26-year-old from Pune, summed it up neatly. “I dissected every ‘haha’ and every dry reply. In some cases, I realised we were never compatible. I was just trying too hard to make it work.”
Plus-one panic and wedding season woes
Add wedding season to the mix and anxiety inevitably rises. With the familiar line “You are next” echoing around banquet halls, 27 per cent of women and 31 per cent of men above 26 reported feeling heightened dating pressure at year end.
Some admitted to reopening old chats, only to be reminded why they ended. Around 18 per cent said they tried fast-tracking conversations to make one match stick, though most agreed the rush rarely led anywhere good.
Yet panic is not always pointless. Two in five daters over 30 said the pressure has pushed them to be bolder, more honest and quicker to share non-negotiables. For many, the year-end scramble has delivered something unexpected: clarity.
As 2026 beckons, India’s singles seem less interested in fairytale timelines and more focused on getting it right. Fewer swipes, deeper conversations and higher standards are setting the tone for the year ahead.
Brands
Dunkin’ Donuts to exit India as Jubilant FoodWorks ends 15-year franchise deal
The quick service restaurant giant is ending a 15-year franchise partnership with the American doughnut chain, even as it renews its Domino’s agreement for another 15 years
NOIDA: Dunkin’ is done in India. Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd, the country’s leading quick service restaurant operator, has decided not to renew its franchise agreement with the American coffee and doughnut chain, and will wind down its Indian stores in a phased manner before December 31, 2026, bringing a 15-year partnership to a quiet, loss-laden close.
The decision, approved by JFL’s board on March 30, 2026, ends a relationship that began with a Multiple Unit Development Franchise Agreement signed on February 24, 2011. JFL will now evaluate and undertake what it described in a regulatory filing as the “rationalisation and/or cessation of certain operations and/or sale, transfer or disposal of assets and/or assignment or transfer of franchise rights,” all in consultation with Dunkin’s brand owners and strictly within the terms of the original agreement.
The numbers tell the story bluntly. In the financial year 2024-25, Dunkin’ India posted a revenue of Rs 37 crore against a loss of Rs 19 crore — a haemorrhage that was always going to test the patience of a parent company recording revenues of Rs 6,104 crore and a profit of Rs 194 crore in the same period. Doughnuts, it turns out, were never going to move the needle.
The contrast with JFL’s handling of its other marquee franchise could hardly be sharper. Even as it walks away from Dunkin’, the company has just doubled down on Domino’s, signing a fresh Master Franchise Agreement on March 31, 2026, granting it exclusive rights to develop and operate Domino’s Pizza stores in India for 15 years, with an option to renew for a further 10.
JFL, incorporated in 1995 and promoted by the Bharatia family, operates a network of more than 3,500 stores across six markets — India, Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Its portfolio includes Domino’s and Popeyes on the global side, and two home-grown brands: Hong’s Kitchen and COFFY, a café brand in Turkey.
For Dunkin’, India was always a stretch. The brand never quite cracked the cultural code in a market where filter coffee and chai command fierce loyalty and where the doughnut remains, at best, an occasional indulgence rather than a daily habit. Fifteen years, mounting losses and a parent with better things to spend its capital on was always going to be a difficult equation to solve.
The doughnut has had its last day. The pizza, however, is staying.
