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Shaadi.com launches game to create awareness on dowry
MUMBAI: Matrimonial site Shaadi.com has launched a new game, ‘Angry Brides‘, to create awareness against dowry.
The game was launched on Shaadi.com‘s Facebook page which has over 266,000 people likes. The game has been conceptualised, designed and developed by Shaadi.com‘s in-house team.
Shaadi.com Sr VP and head of online marketing Ram Bhamidi said, “The Angry Brides game is our way of throwing a spotlight on the nuisance of dowry. According to a 2007 study by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there is a dowry-related death every 4 hours in India. We condemn this menace and have consistently run campaigns on Social Media to help create awareness on the seriousness of this issue.”
To play the game, users need to be logged into their Facebook accounts.
The game functionality is kept simple. It involves grooms with a heavy dowry price tag. The players have to strike the dodging grooms with a weapon of choice. Each hit decreases the price of the groom and adds the money saved to the player‘s Anti-Dowry fund, which players can choose to publish on their Facebook wall or tweet to their timeline.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
