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Dating apps like Tinder and Woo may be trendy, but when it gets serious, it is India’s matrimonial websites that still rule the roost.

As a testament to that, one of India’s oldest matchmaking portals is all set to launch its initial public offering on Indian bourses on Monday. The 17-year-old Matrimony.com, which operates websites such as BharatMatrimony.com, CommunityMatrimony.com, and EliteMatrimony.com, is looking to raise Rs 500 crore ($78.3 million). These proceeds will be used to repay bank overdrafts, buy land to build a new office in Chennai, and help strengthen its presence in the $40 billion to 50 billion Indian wedding market (paywall).

Chennai-based Matrimony.com is the country’s largest matchmaking company by number of visitors, according to media analytics firm comScore. It caters to over 3.2 million users across its network of over 300 websites. This is the company’s second attempt at going public, after it scrapped its earlier plans in December 2016, citing unfavourable market conditions. Coming over a year after e-commerce firm Infibeam’s April 2016 outing, Matrimony.com’s IPO would be among the few by Indian internet firms.

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And while dating apps are gaining traction, Matrimony.com’s founder and CEO Murugavel Janakiraman believes arranged marriages are still the norm, meaning there’s still room for his business to grow, especially as internet access expands.

“India is a strong matrimony market,” Janakiraman said, adding that new-age dating apps are likely to struggle to make substantial profits, given that it’s not easy to get women to use them. Matrimony.com, on the other hand, is among the handful of profitable Indian web ventures.

The serendipitous beginning

The idea for Matrimony.com emerged in the 1990s, when Janakiraman was working with AT&T-Lucent in the US. He had set up a community website to connect with other Indians, and noticed that it was the matrimony section that attracted the most traffic. So, in 2000, he decided to turn this into a bigger business, and returned to Chennai to launch Matrimony.com.

For decades, Indian arranged marriages have mainly been organised through classified advertisements, offline marriage bureaus and brokers, or word-of-mouth referrals of family and friends. The first online matchmaking portal, Shaadi.com, was established in 1996, marking a new era for the business.

To set his company apart, Janakiraman decided to focus on making it easy for users to search for partners from a wide range of religions, castes, languages, and other categories. He began with Tamilmatrimony.com and Telugumatrimony.com, and gradually expanded into over 300 specialised portals, including ones for divorced people, mangliks (people with a certain astrological condition that is believed to be unfavourable for marriage), doctors, and defence personnel. It also runs a portal for wealthy Indians called Elitematrimony.com, besides separate websites for Arabs, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis, and Pakistanis.

Now, Janakiraman said, online matchmaking portals account for around 10% of the market in India. And while competitors, including Shaadi.com and Jeevansaathi.com (launched in 2004), also provide community-based searches, they don’t match Matrimony.com’s range.

“We have been tracking data since 2006, and since then, we have had 26 million users of our sites,” Janakiraman said. Bharatmatrimony.com’s mobile app, launched in 2011, has had five million downloads.

Matrimony.com saw a 22% increase in the number of profiles listed on its website last year, and Janikaraman expects this number to surge as internet access becomes more affordable. It makes money largely through subscriptions—you can create a profile on the site for free but need to be a paid member to contact someone you are interested in. Membership for Bharatmatrimony costs Rs4,200 for three months, while that on EliteMatrimony costs Rs50,000 for the same period and goes up to Rs10 lakh for two years.

Last year, Matrimony.com earned Rs 292 crore in revenue and made a profit of Rs44 crore, Janakiraman told Quartz. It has so far raised Rs 99 crore from Bessemer Venture Partners, Mayfield, and JP Morgan Asset Management. These venture capital investors will sell some of their stakes through the IPO, the company said in its red herring prospectus.

Now, Matrimony.com is hoping to go beyond matchmaking, leveraging its brand to offer wedding-related services, too.

Earlier this year, it began offering services like wedding photography, videography, and catering in Tamil Nadu, and plans to launch the same in other states once the model is perfected, Janakiraman said.

But the company’s previous attempt at diversification didn’t go so well. In 2012, Matrimony.com launched Tambulya, an online return-gift store, but failing to turn profitable and running into regulatory issues, it shut shop. Janakiraman’s dating app, Matchify, didn’t have many takers either and was discontinued within a year of its launch in 2015.

This article first appeared on Quartz.

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For many single ladies and gentlemen of the 19th century, placing a matrimonial advertisement in a local newspaper was considered a viable alternative to traditional courtship. It was especially popular with those who were new to an area or those who had no family or social groups through which they might otherwise obtain an introduction to a suitable partner. Naturally, there were those traditionalists who frowned upon this method of acquiring a spouse. It was viewed as undignified, indelicate, and dangerous. Even so, matrimonial advertisements were utilized by men and women of every age and every class throughout the Regency and Victorian eras.

The following matrimonial advertisement was placed in an 1811 issue of London’s Morning Post, where I found it humbly sandwiched between a solicitation for a loan of £50 and an advert for a “Capital Pianoforte.” Notice that the lady advertising does not mention her appearance, her age, or whether or not she is a widow or a spinster:

Morning Post, November 27, 1811

The next matrimonial advertisement is from an 1822 edition of the Morning Post. This advert is far more specific than the previous, with the gentlemen stating clearly what he wishes for in a wife in terms of age, income, and character.

Morning Post, December 19, 1822

At the higher end of the social spectrum, an 1823 issue of the Morning Post contains a matrimonial advertisement in which a “nobleman” seeks a “Lady of Fortune.” I do not know who this nobleman was, but it is hard not to imagine him as one of the countless romance novel heroes with an impoverished title who must marry an heiress in order to repair his estates.

Morning Post, June 25, 1823.

Tinder Vs Matrimony

The use of a third party to facilitate negotiations between the matrimonial advertiser and his/her applicants was not uncommon. More common still were those who chose to address the advertiser themselves – either in person or by correspondence. In his 1832 book Some Remarks on Matrimonial Advertisements Being an Inquiry into their Use and Abuse, author Y. M. advises on how to proceed when personally answering a matrimonial advertisement, writing:

“[After] all matters, as to connexions [sic] and financial concerns, [are] satisfactorily explained in a preliminary correspondence, an interview, with a desire to ascertain how far the parties are mutually agreeable, is then arranged; and this, (in accordance with regal custom), is greatly facilitated by a previous interchange of miniatures, where practicable.”

After this initial interview and exchange of miniatures, Y. M. presumes that the gentleman – if interested – will have proposed. It is then up to the lady to determine what happens next. As Y. M. states:

“...a reasonable time is then allowed for the lady to make up her mind, and take the sense of her friends and advisers, and usually within a month a definitive answer is received. If unfavourable, it simply declines the overtures, no particular reasons being assigned, that the feelings of neither party may be wounded; of course the correspondence is mutually delivered up, the negotiation ends, and ever after remains an inviolable secret.”

The Lovers by William Powell Frith, 1855.

This scheme of correspondence followed by a single interview is one which Y. M. endorses as being thoroughly safe, insisting that “no virtuous woman was ever endangered by an intimacy of this sort.” Unfortunately, matrimonial advertisements were not always safe. Sometimes the advertisers or the applicants were fraudsters, thieves, or even murderers. The most notorious case of this sort took place in 1827. It began with the following matrimonial advertisement placed in the November 13th Morning Herald by a man named William Corder:

“MATRIMONY.— A Private Gentleman, aged 24, entirely independent, whose disposition is not to be exceeded, has lately lost the chief of his family by the hand of Providence, which has occasioned discord among the remainder, under circumstances most disagreeable to relate. To any female of respectability, who would study for domestic comfort, and willing to confide her future happiness in one every way qualified to render the marriage state desirable, as the advertiser is in affluence; the lady must have the power of some property, which may remain in her own possession. Many very happy marriages have taken place through means similar to this now resorted to, and it is hoped no one will answer this through impertinent curiosity, but should this meet the eye of any agreeable lady, who feels desirous of meeting with a sociable, tender, kind, and sympathising companion, they will find this advertisement worthy of notice. Honour and secrecy may be relied on. As some little security against all applications, it is requested that letters may be addressed, (post Paid) to A. Z. care of Mr. Foster, Stationer, No. 68, Leadenhall Street, which will meet with the most respectful attention.”

This advertisement received more than forty letters in response, one of which was from a woman named Mary Moore. She and William Corder were married a week later. A short time after, Mary discovered that, before placing his matrimonial advertisement, her new husband had brutally murdered his last lover and buried her body in a barn. Corder was tried, convicted, and ultimately executed for his crimes. In subsequent years, this sensational case, known as the Red Barn Murder, was used by many as an example of the terrible fiends one might find at the other end of a matrimonial advertisement.

But despite incidences of misrepresentation and outright villainy, matrimonial advertisements only gained in popularity as the century progressed. Advancing into the Victorian era, matrimonial specialty magazines emerged. With titles like the Matrimonial News and theMatrimonial Intelligencer (to name a few), these publications were wholly dedicated to the subject of marriage. This did not mean that newspaper advertisements had fallen by the wayside. In fact, matrimonial advertisements were still printed in abundance in most newspapers of the day, including those newspapers geared toward a particular religious audience. An example of this can be seen in the below advertisement from an 1854 edition of the Catholic Telegraph:

Catholic Telegraph, June 10, 1854.

Religion was an important consideration in many matrimonial advertisements. In the following advertisement from an 1892 edition of the Kent and Sussex Courier, a “good looking bachelor” seeks a Christian widow or spinster.

Kent and Sussex Courier, November 11, 1892a

In a similar matrimonial advertisement from the 1894 edition of the Derbyshire Courier, an “affectionate” spinster seeks a “high-principled Christian gentleman” with a “sympathetic nature.” I found this advertisement somewhat poignant – perhaps because the lady mentions her loneliness.

Derbyshire Courier, November 13, 1894.

Not only were matrimonial advertisements a way for isolated individuals to connect with potential mates, they were an economical alternative to the balls, parties, and expensive entertainments that one must usually attend when seeking a spouse. Of course, the traditional way of finding a husband or wife was in no danger of being supplanted anytime soon, but it’s nice to know that those in the 19th century who lacked family, friends, and great fortune, still had a means of making meaningful connections.

Top image: Courting by Géza Udvary, 19th century

This post originally appeared on mimimatthews.com and has been reprinted with permission.

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Mimi Matthews is the author of The Pug Who Bit Napoleon: Animal Tales of the 18th and 19th Centuries and A Victorian Lady’s Guide to Fashion and Beauty. Her articles on nineteenth-century history have been published on various academic and history sites, including the Victorian Web and the Journal of Victorian Culture. When not writing historical non-fiction, Mimi authors exquisitely proper historical romance novels. Her latest Victorian romance The Matrimonial Advertisement can be ordered at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. To learn more, please visit www.MimiMatthews.com.