Singapore’s Digital Start-Up Giants - Paktor

Asian Insights Office, DBS Group Research

Paktor means dating in Hokkien and is, in effect, the Tinder for much of Asia. It allows singles to anonymously “like” each other with a simple swipe of the finger (swiping right indicates interest and left indicates otherwise). When both users swipe right, the other user is notified. Both then have the opportunity to chat with one another. Paktor has a strong presence in Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, and Taiwan. It offers auto-translation that enables cross culture interaction.

Monetisation model: Freemium
Paktor rolled out its first revenue model last July. Here users can purchase credits to connect directly with one another. In Singapore, it has also launched an offline matchmaking service called Gaigai, which aims to bring users together through its one-to-one matchmaking services and social dating events.

User Growth:
Paktor has experienced exponential growth across the Southeast Asia region. Over the last two months, Paktor registered users grew over 30% to cross the 2 million mark. Every day Paktor matches more than 100,000 people with one another. With solid plans to enter Indonesia, Paktor is confident it will grow faster going forward. It is targeting to have 5 million registered users by June 2015.

How is Paktor Different from its Competitors?
Paktor has a greater following in Southeast Asia compared to rival Tinder. This is due to its greater understanding of the Asian culture with its height, job and education filters.

Growth Strategy
Currently, Paktor’s strategic focus is on growing their user base instead of monetisation. Recently, it has broken into Malaysia and is looking towards Indonesia. Additionally, Paktor is expanding product offerings to provide more offline events and premium personal services. It also has future plans to include “breakup assistance” to help users deal with a split.

Key Metrics
a. Category leader: Yes; Paktor is the dating app leader in Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand, and comes in close second behind the top player iPart in Taiwan. The next best player in Southeast Asia has less than a tenth of Paktor’s user activity and growth.
b. Virality coefficient: Given Paktor’s user growth, it is justifiable to say the virality coefficient is more than 1.
c. User engagement (DAU/MAU): More than industry average of over 20%.

d.Conversion rate: Estimated at 2%
e. Churn rate: Relatively much lower than industry averages.
f. Customer acquisition costs: Not applicable.

Key challenge: The key challenge for dating apps like Paktor is the need to keep attracting new users, as users do not continue using the app once they find their partner.