If you think Tinder in Indonesia is like buying Playboy or secretly watching pornhub, you might be wrong.
The dating site is growing in popularity in Indonesia and the company behind it is putting a lot of effort to lure the locals to use the site for other purposes than dating.
It is now, to a certain degree, a source for a worrying trend: Online scammers and swingers.
Tinder CEO Elie Seidman during an interview with The Jakarta Post on July 10 in Hong Kong said the company is taking steps to prevent misuse of the site.
Though Tinder did not disclose data regarding swingers and scams on its dating site, the app uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to help identify problems.
One user, Meylisa got a surprise. It was the classic profile debunking when she met in some users in person.
The profiles of the people she saw on Tinder did not match the people she met. Some had an outdated status, thus upsetting Meylisa.
Another user, Hanna Maragaretha also almost became a victim of a swinger and there are others.
Online dating is not a foreign idea for younger Indonesians and according to Tinder, most of its users in Indonesia are millennials, says The Jakarta Post.
Despite the different purposes, Indonesian Tinder users mainly use the app for human connection or for work-business purposes.
For that matter, Seidman said there was no one Tinder for all. He means that each country had its own way of using the app which reflected on the culture.
The company said Indonesians are using Tinder as they want to and based upon their cultural contexts.
Like on most dating sites, there are people who look for swingers or friends with benefits but people should learn to differentiate between the “good” and “bad” users.
Seidman said Tinder members could report content deemed inappropriate, adding that the site banned many people to ensure users’ safety.
To fight back against negative perceptions toward online dating, the company recently launched a brand campaign that incorporated digital and outdoor advertising.
It involves movie theatres in Jakarta and influencers, positioning Tinder as a social discovery app.
Seidman predicted that more people would consider online dating because more people are used to digital social life.