MAM
Young adult singles are connecting via sports on Tinder’s Passport feature this summer
Mumbai: This season, all eyes are on Paris as singles and sports fans flock both physically and virtually to the City of Light (and some say Love). In a destination with a charming allure that has inspired romance for centuries, singletons are saying bonjour to a world of possibilities on Tinder!
Since the beginning of July 2024, key Tinder data reveals how users are leveraging this opportunity to make meaningful connections:
. There has been almost a 25 per cent increase in Swipe activity in France and Tinder has seen a 105 per cent increase in Tinder Passport Mode activity to key tourist sites in Paris.
. Paris ranked 18th as an international city destination in the weekend of 19-21 July and moved to the 6th spot during the weekend of 26-28 July as the top international cities that young singles in India passported to.
. The top 3 origin countries of those using the Tinder Passport Mode feature in July to change their location to France are the USA, Brazil and Turkey.
. The top sports selected as interests in Tinder users’ bios right now are football, basketball and swimming.
. The fastest-growing sports interests are gymnastics (+31 per cent) and basketball (+14 per cent).
. There has been an increase in the number of users with the job descriptions ‘olympian’ (+52 per cent) and ‘athlete’ (+43 per cent) on Tinder in Paris.
For those who are yearning to be part of the (sporting) action from across the world, Tinder Passport Mode allows users to search by city or drop a pin on the map to begin liking, matching and chatting with others in their destination of choice! Other users will now be able to see that you’re in Passport Mode on your profile and looking to match with a tour guide to learn all the local secrets, or a potential date to explore a new town with.
Tinder’s Passport Mode feature is used on average 145,000 times a day and Tinder users have virtually travelled almost 100 billion km over the last year, which is the equivalent of travelling to the moon and back over 130,000 times!
Tinder sees peak usage of the Passport Mode feature between the holiday periods of June to August and December to January. As users are hoping to secure a date in their future holiday destination, we also see that Passport Mode users aged 18-25 years tend to be more active, sending and receiving 3X more messages than Tinder users not using the Passport Mode feature.
To use Tinder Passport, a premium feature, users can head to Settings, tap on Location, add a new destination by dropping a pin on the map, and start swiping on profiles in a different city. See who’s out there, and make plans everywhere!
Because privacy matters, for athletes who would prefer to keep a low profile in Paris this Summer, Tinder’s Incognito Mode is a step up from fully hiding your profile. Users can still Like and Nope in the app, but only those whom you’ve Liked will see you in their recommendations.
So make the most of dating culture this sports season with Tinder Passport and who knows, you might just land an unforgettable date!
MUMBAI: In India’s fast-moving payments race, Visa has just swiped in a new leader. The company has named Suresh Sethi as its India country head, marking a key leadership shift as it sharpens its focus on digital payments growth in the market. Sethi steps into the role following his recent exit from Protean eGov Technologies, where he served as chief executive officer. He succeeds Sandeep Ghosh, who has moved on after more than four years at Visa to pursue an external opportunity.
The appointment comes at a time when Visa is doubling down on its expansion strategy across India and the wider region, deepening partnerships and accelerating adoption in an increasingly competitive digital payments ecosystem.
Sethi brings with him a broad, cross-market perspective shaped by decades of experience across corporate banking, retail financial services, mobile money and large-scale government technology initiatives. He began his career at Citigroup, where he spent 14 years working across India, Africa, South America and the United States, focusing on transaction banking services within the corporate bank.
His appointment signals a blend of institutional experience and market familiarity qualities that could prove critical as Visa navigates a landscape where fintech innovation, regulatory evolution and consumer adoption are all accelerating at once.
As digital payments in India continue to scale rapidly, the leadership change underscores a simple reality, in a market where every tap, scan and swipe counts, who leads the charge can matter just as much as the technology itself.
