Tinder Shows Users Finding Friends in New Japanese Adverts

Tinder’s new marketing campaign in Japan shows the app being used as a friend-finding tool rather than as a platform for starting romantic relationships.

Roughly translated as “I want to know the world more”, the five short videos show people in the Asian country using the app to meet others who expand their horizons. This can be by opening up their creative side, going to unique events with them or helping them to learn a new language.

One of the spots shows a young Japanese woman by herself struggling to learn English with a dictionary. She opens Tinder, matches with a Western girl called Emma and tells her that she really wants to speak the language.

Emma asks “shall we study together?”, and the video then cuts to the two of them singing karaoke in a bar.

Match Group and Tinder committed to expanding throughout Asia during 2019 and noted that some of the brands would also need to offer platonic services in order to make more of an impact given local cultures.

In July, Tinder released its first fully integrated marketing campaign in South East Asia, initially launching in Indonesia, encouraging people to use the app to expand their social circles.

A smaller ‘Lite’ version of Tinder is also being developed which will make it easier to run in more rural areas with slower internet and limited data plans.

Match Group is attempting to corner the Japanese matrimony market with the launch of ‘Pairs Engage’. This is a more expensive matchmaking service that promises to find users their future husband or wife in just 12 months.

Read more here.