Being at the Right Place!
Finding Love over Platforms
Pandemic was a major disruption is an understatement when it comes to finding love. The two places- College and Office- where you may find a soul mate got shut down and then appeared over the third place i.e. virtual. People turned their attention to platforms! After all, it is all about serendipity- being at Right place at Right time.
And for a weekly dose of Running Platform Marketing Life, you have come to the right place. You could also read these earlier newsletters on Love and Relationships.
For me ,the following two lines from an immortal song from the movie Anand written by Yogesh Gaur, sung by Mukesh and composed by Salil Chowdhary summarise whatever I can think about relationships !
कहीं तो ये दिल कभी मिल नहीं पाते
कहीं पे निकल आये जन्मों के नाते
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Talking about love, what do you think about “He loves me, he loves me not” between Elon Musk and Twitter?,
DTW
During the Week, United Nations Human Rights Council’s Draft resolution A/HRC/50/L.2 on the Mandate of Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity (#SOGI) was ADOPTED and India abstained. In recent times, the intersection with racial discrimination, on the grounds of class, caste, race, color, descent, regional, national or ethnic origin, makes LGBTQI+ people even more vulnerable to discrimination and hate-motivated violence.
Even in India, law makers and judiciary are seized of the need to adopt an array of new laws focusing on banning discrimination, penalising homophobic and transphobic hate crimes, granting wider recognition of same-sex relationships, and making it easier for transgender individuals to procure official documents that reflect their preferred gender.
Platforms have been instrumental in creating a safe space mostly though anonymity and closed groups thereby making it easier for people to find love in all its form and shape. Identity and staying safe in real life plays an important role in determining choice of platforms for finding relationships. Platforms like Bumble and Her are specific to women and Queer Women respectively. They have empowered the target group to take control of their relationships and find love on their own terms.
Platforms like “The League” continue to create an Ivy League experience for its users as it would require job title, college and LinkedIn profile of the applicant. Of course, your chances of striking a match would diminish if you are from a metro with a long waiting line unless you are willing to pay up to get ahead in line.
Location based platforms can help in finding the connections from your proximity. For example, Happn helps users find matches with people who are located nearby and thus seems more organic but surely can not beat Tinder which simply displays distance between users.
I have written about Platforms and Seniors and it is true that the curse of old age for many of our seniors has been loss of relationships and spark of life. Whether we talk about either Non Profits like Anubandh Foundation or Happy Seniors dating services providing matchmaking for seniors, the idea is to have a bond of like minded seniors who would live a better life with a new partner.
We also have platforms enabling human-animal interface using technology especially information and communication technologies (ICT). Multiple platforms are trying to make life of dog-parents easier. For example Puppy Mama, “is a platform for women to connect with each other and share how their dogs help them and bring joy to their lives.” whereas Dig is a, “the dog person’s dating app.”
Love is blind and many lonely hearts in their eagerness to help a loved one (even imaginary or just virtual) in need, sends money, gift cards or, the nerdy ones, even transferring the cryptocurrency. Then, the '“loved one“ disappears and leaves our forlorn heart with even lighter wallet. They even start distrusting the platforms- both social media/dating and financial- and drift even more into isolation.
You may want to watch Netflix’s The Tinder Swindler, a true-crime documentary about a con artist who scammed women out of millions of dollars. Of course, we can blame the dating platforms for creating a make-believe world for hopeless romantics. But like they say if something is too good to be true, it probably is. Alas, when emotions are involved and the person is living in a fantasy world of their own, common sense may not always prevail.
Platform design principles include designing for market thickness leading to congestion where match making is elusive at best and harassment at worst. Most of the dating platforms gather and sell information about users for marketing thus may expose users data to bad actors. Users’ personal information may accidentally be released through bugs in their software, and by hackers through inadequate security.
Listen to Your Intuition and Stay Safe
OTW
Over the Weekend, I watched Modern Love Hyderabad streaming over Amazon Prime. To be honest, it is not my favourite genre but the Hyderabad version features my favourite Tollywood star and IBS Hyd MBA2020 alumni Bhavana Sagi.
Please do watch Season 1, Ep. 6 Finding Your Penguin which is rather an interesting take on finding love in modern times. Again not my area but would have loved it more, had the creative team focused on the camaraderie of four young female friends rather than making it look like a trophy hunt for the lead. Congratulations Bhavana Sagi on your OTT Debut.
Let me leave you with a quote from my go-to-philosopher poet
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
And think not you can direct the course of love,
for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
- On Love BY KAHLIL GIBRAN
I Love You
Shailendra
OTM
Opportunities through MountainSpeak are available with Centre of Excellence for Digital Transformation, where we are reaching out to experts who can contribute to Digital Street Regional Consultation.
Digital Street aims to develop a framework for facilitating digital transformation of street vendors. The Centre of Excellence for Digital Transformation (CEDT) at IFHE, Hyderabad is proposing to work on a project titled “Digital Street” in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES). This action research project focusing on digital transformation of street vendors in the tourism industry is proposed to be conducted between May 1, 2022, and November 30,2022. Please let us know if you would like to contribute to the project.
We propose to hold more 3-day regional consultations and one national consultation in association with FES India office in multiple tourism circuits:
Golden Triangle- Historical circuit hosted by ICFAI University, Jaipur 5- 6-7 August 2022
Char Dham- Religious circuit hosted by ICFAI University, Dehradun- 29-30-31 August 2022
Kolkata to Shantiniketan - Heritage circuit hosted by IBS Kolkata- 14-15-16 October 2022
National Consultation on “Digital Transformation of Street Vendors”, IFHE Hyderabad, 11-12 Nov 2022
PLEASE let me know if you would like to contribute.
The likely participants may have experience in digital transformation, informal sector, travel technologies, tourism, street vendor issues amongst others. They may come from government, academics, consulting, corporate, policy making, start ups, non-profit and advocacy groups. I would also request you to also recommend experts and stakeholders for the project.
Please reply to this message with a copy to your recommended guests OR alternatively, fill in the Google Form to help us to contact them directly.