[Saint-Valentin] Pour trouver l'âme soeur, à chaque religion ses applis
At first glance, nothing distinguishes these applications from their generalist counterparts: same pop colours, chiseled slogans and clean design to invite the single person to register.
But we are dealing here with a "religious" niche, with specific audiences, criteria and goals.
"Demonstrative Catholics and especially Muslims have less frequently experienced apps than people without religion," recall Marie Bergström and Malena Lapine in the recent book "The Sexuality That Comes".
The goal here is not a one-night stand: "We prefer to say that we are a marriage app," says Sarah Sartori, marketing manager of Muzz, which presents itself, with 16 million registered users worldwide, as the "number one app for Muslims."
Because "you have to know that in Islam, getting married is really 50% of your religion," she adds.
To find a soulmate, the profile includes specific criteria: which branch of Islam? What level of practice? What timeframe for marriage and having children?
And to prevent any abuse, "you can include the chaperone option," a person tasked with monitoring conversations. "In some countries, it works well, in France, it's used less," the manager explains.
The company, founded in London in 2015, has experienced "continuous growth" in France for the past four years. Muzz first gained attention in July 2022 by offering to reimburse fines for wearing a burkini.
At a time when faith is more readily displayed, Guiral Ferrieu, co-founder of the Christian dating app Heavn, also invokes a "dating fatigue": "People are a little tired of wasting time meeting people who do not have the same values or the same life plan."
Launched shortly before the second Covid-19 lockdown in France in the fall of 2020, the application benefited from this period when "we all found ourselves locked up with lots of existential questions".
Heavn, which recently celebrated its thousandth wedding, also ranks its members by degree of religiosity, using small "halo" icons. A quarter of members "are not regular churchgoers," says Mr. Ferrieu, who boasts of having facilitated "marriages between Catholics and Protestants."
As for the age of those registered, they use the app from 18 to... 95 years old. A surprise for the founders, but "everyone has a smartphone today, and loneliness among the elderly is a real issue."
The same approach is taken by Jewbuzzlove, "the Jewish dating app that the whole community has been waiting for," which also offers a religious compatibility index (based on respect for Shabbat, kosher food, etc.).
On this application, which originated from the humorous Instagram account Jewbuzz, which claims 27,000 members, the tone is deliberately offbeat and the informal "tu" form of address is the norm.
"We celebrated the first babies of the application!", rejoices its co-founder Jérémy Ouanounou.
All the apps are presented as uncompromising on security, a concern particularly present at Jewbuzzlove at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise: "We have had people who clearly write on Twitter: +I am going to break hearts to avenge Palestine+", explains Mr. Ouanounou.
Therefore, procedures have been strengthened to be able to create a profile, and moderators aim to be "hyper-responsive to reports".
"Women need to feel safe: one of the promises made to them is that they will find Jewish people in front of them," adds the co-founder.
These apps all claim fairly balanced female/male ratios. And they experience peak activity in the summer and at the beginning of the year rather than on Valentine's Day, especially for Muslims, as the lovers' holiday falls this year a few days before the start of Ramadan, a period of fasting and spiritual effort.
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