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The institution of marriage remains the backbone of the Gulf’s society and economy as it modernizes. Shahzad Younas, the creator and CEO of Muzmatch, the world’s largest Muslim matrimonial app, is on hand to match future spouses.
The app had five million users worldwide as of the last count. According to Younas, a 37-year-old British Muslim entrepreneur, Muzmatch experienced a significant increase in Gulf users during the pandemic since in-person dating prospects were limited.
According to him, Gulf-based Muzmatch members made twice as many profile ‘likes’ in April 2020 as they did the previous year over the same period.
The London-based app, which was founded in 2014, includes special features that assist the Muslim faith, such as ‘chaperone’ settings, private viewing functionalities, and a zero-tolerance policy for harassment or vulgar comments. Users can also filter matches by sect, ethnicity, and religious practices. Muzmatch aspires to change the way Muslims meet and marry.
The app’s average user age in the Gulf is 30 years old, for both men and women – 45 percent of its users are Arab, and 28 percent are South Asian. The majority of its regional customers are based in Saudi Arabia, with the UAE coming in second.
Across the region, 20 percent of members are female, compared to the global average of 33 percent, and women initiate roughly half of all Muzmatch calls.
Voice and video calling have just been added to the app, which will also include built-in automatic checks, backup, and security.
While Younas expects some “cultural sensitivity” in the Muslim world when it comes to online dating, Muzmatch is “unashamedly about marriage,” according to Younas.
“As long as we run the app in a way that respects the faith, I can’t see that the countries would have issues with it,” he says.
