Love, Shaadi aur Gleeden

After the buzz about Bumble, Tinder, Hinge and category specific like Grindr, Muzz and SeniorMatch, there is Gleeden. Hence, what is Gleeden? It is a dating app designed for extramarital relationships and discreet meet-ups. It was launched in France, introduced in the market in 2009 and marketed as, ‘made by women, for women.’  What interesting is, it has significant number of users in India, making India one of its largest and fastest growing market. The surge in adoption of such dating app in urban India among married individuals could be a result of Supreme Court India’s 2018 judgment which decriminalized adultery, if adultery was a crime then who would have installed such an app.

Since, Gleeden is marketed as, ‘designed by women, for women’, women use the service completely free of charge, while men purchase a credit based subscription model to initiate charge. Even so, the overall user ratio stands at 65% men and 35% women and the users’ ages are between 30 to 45. Bengaluru has the highest user followed by Hyderabad and Delhi, showing the cities is taking the lead, but some of the urban towns are fast catching up. A survey was conducted to identify the primary motivators for using this app, the result shows, loneliness, emotional neglect and time constraint caused by demanding corporate schedule driving users to seek a digital escape. No wonder, the majority of the users reside in the cities.

Let’s talk about the reaction of our society. Traditional Indian society, conservative family groups, and moral watchdogs look at Gleeden users with sharp condemnation. As marriage in India is widely regarded as a scared union, a lifelong commitment, and using an app to facilitate affairs is viewed as an outright subversion of family values. Sociologists and relationship experts view the app’s popularity less as a moral failing and more as a ‘mirror’ to the quiet cracks in modern urban marriages. While society broadly judges any user, women face significantly harsher social policing and shame than men if discovered. Relationship commentators point out that the female surge highlights a silent shift where women are seeking emotional fulfillment rather than staying stuck in lonely marriages.

I wondered what if both husband and wife are secretly in Gleeden, what are the chances of getting caught? It seems the chances are slim as the app prevents users from recognizing each other through a few strict features like ‘private album system’ and yes of course, fake nicknames and blurred geolocation. However, if a husband and a wife did come across each other’s anonymous profiles, they wouldn’t know it was their spouse because to see the clear photo, one would have to send a request to view the other’s ‘private album.’   But the ultimate irony is, if the spouse accepts, they would both instantly see each other’s faces and realizes they are both using this app to cheat. LOL!  It will be a mutual ‘checkmate’ scenario where neither person can easily blame the other.