Dating app Paktor chats up Southeast Asia

October 10, 2013 Leave a comment

Dating app Paktor chats up Southeast Asia

October 9, 2013

by Phoebe Magdirila

paktor

Dating apps are gaining ground in Asia, but not many of them are homegrown. Singapore-based startupPaktor has arrived to fill the gap. Only a month after launching in Thailand, it now lands in Vietnam, Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea and India. Paktor aims to be Asians’ go-to app when they want to make new friends – or better yet, find a date.No rejection

Paktor founder Joseph Phua earlier told Tech in Asia that he pitched Paktor as a startup idea after heartbreak from a long-term relationship. After using dating apps with not-so-friendly interfaces, Phua decided to build Paktor. It simply focuses on three features: location, usability, and anonymity.

Just as Joseph personally experienced, he says, “it’s only natural for many of us to be afraid of being rejected, which is why we’re sometimes too shy to go out and meet new people.”

Through the app, Paktor promises there won’t be much rejection. Only the user and his or her match know about their “connection.” Users can anonymously view the profiles of other members and keep swiping until they find someone interesting.They are also in control of whether they want to find out more about the other person. If the other person also found your profile interesting, then it’s a match!

A simple virtual date experience

Paktor’s mobile app has a simple two-click registration process that utilizes the user’s existing Facebook account. It doesn’t use lengthy, verbose profiles. Plus it has a locality feature to make the process more immediate. If two members get along, they can immediately arrange a common place nearby to get to know each other better.

Localized experience

The app is available in multiple languages such as Thai, Korean, Japanese, Malay, Chinese, Vietnamese and Tagalog.

In the Philippines, Paktor managing director of marketing Monique Espino says they will “make sure to tailor the Paktor experience to the needs of Filipino users.” Part of their local efforts will include lining up a number of exciting online and on-ground activities for the Filipino community. In Taiwan, the startup has teamed with a film called Rhythm of the Rain to promote the app. Paktor says that more than 175,000 people have already been matched through the app.

It will also launch in other Asian countries such as Japan, China and Indonesia.

Paktor is set to compete with Skout, and many other dating apps in Southeast Asia.. Paktor is available to download for free on Android and iOS.

Filed under TMT Trends

Unknown's avatarAbout bambooinnovator
Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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