How My Friend Exploits Shaadi.com
A few months back I wrote a post on how my friend uses Orkut to get in touch with women. That post was supposed to be taken in a lighter vein. Same concept applies.
So it turns out that the same friend of mine is now looking for someone for his sister – a prospective groom. Like all Indians from Middle Class and Upper Middle Class families – he too went to Shaadi.com.
When he landed on Shaadi’s page, he had 2 account options – he could either pay Shaadi and get more interactive features through his sister’s profile or he could sign up for free and try something innovative.
Listed below are both the membership options.
He feels like he does not necessarily need an eMatchmaker because he knows the parameters that he is looking for – so he searches for people within the parameters set by his family, sees their profile, notes down their name and then searches for them on Orkut. If the person is not easily available, he does a thorough search. Notes down interests, professions and then checks groups within which he does a thorough search. In a sense – his moves are breaking down the Walled Gardens of Shaadi (Walled Gardens - a favourite topic on WATBlog nowadays!)
Once he finds the profile that he is looking for – he just sends a message saying that he saw a profile on Shaadi – he then gives the guy his number. It has worked brilliantly so far according to him!
I suspect this isn’t really new and many people are using this tactic – but it was just something that I thought was quite funny and worth sharing. I wonder how long this kind of a revenue model can continue for matrimonial sites. Considering the fact that Indians have multiple identities online and they can be accessed at various touchpoints.
This friend of mine however is quite innovative with his use of Orkut – he used to use it extensively to get an introduction to women and now this. Another one of my friends aptly stated that this guy “makes the maximum use of Orkut”. He’s now moved on to Facebook by the way – I’ll soon do a post on how he bypasses the strict privacy restrictions of Facebook to get find women.
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hmmm.. “a friend”
If you’e hinting that the person is me – it isnt
– i dont have a sister and im far away from an age where i can even think of marriage :p
hehehe.. jk. Looking forward to the facebook version
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Absolutely hilarious and very indigeneous. I knew of companies trying to figure out the public profile of the employees they plan to induct in…but I guess this too is a very good option to reach out and get your job done.
Moreover, one thing I liked about this method is that one shall always put up their best picture on marriage sites. It’s when you come across their social profiles that you get to know their psyche and personality a lot better. What say?
Your friend is so cheap that he can’t even afford to enroll himself as a member of Shaadi.com. Gurls won’t like it.
hahahah true – plus there’s so much control — on social networking sites – especially orkut – control is a non existent idea
Lolz! Yes, I know. Talking about Orkut, I personally felt they had diluted the user experience a lot by trying to imitate Facebook with applications. Orkut had always been a neat and clean app to keep in touch with friends and family. Now that they’ve come up with apps, I think I prefer Facebook now, thanks to their rampant use of ajax and it looks much more professional.
And of course, nothing can beat the effect of seeing your wall post sliding downwards to become a permanent fixture there, after you click on “post”. Very neat
@ Garima – i was waiting for the opinion of some woman!
i suppose garima didnt quite read the whole thing…
what does the girl have to do with it nywayz…its the guy(prospectiv groom)who that needs to fret about his social profile holding a message “hey i saw ur profile on shaadi.com…would like to take the matter ahead”..
bcoz i have observed that its generally the peers/parents or sum oder relative that posts the profile on the marriage site and not the individual himself…
howevr im pleased to inform that till date no1s actually held ny grudges and the whole idea has been working fine..lolz
n y wud u wanna pay..4 sumthing dat can b free???
I have been a Shaadi user for 6 months now, and I have not come across any profiles in which the full name is shown so I am not sure how your friend is looking them up on Orkut.