Russian Social Network starts Videochat based Dating App to Rival Tinder

Lovina

VKontakte, Russia’s largest social network platform run by Mail.ru Group Ltd, is going to launch its own dating app Lovina centered around quick-fire video chats.

The Lovina app offers a video chat to users who liked each others’ profiles, or provides a conveyor series of limited-time video chats for random profiles, based on environment similar to famous speed dating apps like Tinder, when men and women are rotated across tables to have an intimate chat session, looking for a proper match.

Badoo, Tinder, and Mamba are the famous and most used dating apps in Russia, according to AppAnnie data. In June, the Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor included Tinder’s parent Match Group Inc. into its “register of information-dissemination operators.” It means that the company must share user data in response to requests from law enforcement, or bear fines and a possible ban on access to the service in Russia for failing to comply with the regulations.

Project head of Lovina, Vladimir MakhoVKontakte claims that the video option is more close to the real-time experience and safer for users, who can communicate with a real person rather than a photo that can be engineered or fake. Makhov revealed his inspiration came from an unsuccessful experience of three-hour date. “If it were a video-chat, it would’ve taken a minute to realize what kind of person she was, and I wouldn’t have gone on this date,” Makhov said.

Dating apps are more better and sufficient option for online dating than dating sites due to the nature of apps, on our phones versus computers, the interfaces are easy-to-use. “Dating apps have the portability factor, so you can use them while you’re on the bus or waiting for an appointment,” New York-based relationship expert and author April Masini tells Bustle. “Because they’re so easy to use on phones, you can take them with you and use them all over the place. Your life can be a lot more flexible with these portable apps. They can be big-time savers and success builders in dating.”

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