Hawaya, Match Group’s dating app for the Muslim community, has been made available to singles in Canada as it makes its first move into a market outside of the MENA region.
The platform is designed to allow singles to meet other users who share their serious intentions and runs a number of culturally-appropriate features.
There’s currently just over one million Muslims residing in Canada. A survey conducted by Hawaya found that 73% of local Muslim singles think it’s easier to find a partner through a faith-based app or website.
Sameh Saleh, CEO of Hawaya, said in a statement: “Finding a life partner is hard and in the Muslim community there is often pressure – particularly for women – to settle down sooner rather than later, which I’ve seen first-hand with my sister.
“Regular dating apps are not effective if the prospects do not align when it comes to values, culture, and intentions.”
Hawaya was originally named ‘Harmonica’ when it was founded but underwent a rebrand at the start of 2020. The new name is inspired by “hawa”, the Arabic word for love.
In May it announced it was expanding into the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia after initially seeing positive growth in Egypt.