When Love Goes Digital: Inside Ethiopia’s Online Dating Gold Rush
By Aksah Ltalo
Published on 06/28/25
Online dating has flipped the dating scene on its head in just over a decade. What once relied on fateful encounters and traditional matchmaking has morphed into algorithm-driven experiences, reshaping how people define and navigate intimate relationships.
With the rise of smartphones and internet access, the search for love has become increasingly perplexing, if not abysmal.
Globally, dating platforms like Tinder have made headway, with over 57 million singles caving in. This transformative app is a game-changer, drawing in hearts desperate for companionship.
Dating companies cleverly tap into user motivations, crafting access, communication, and matches. At their core, these platforms offer a paradoxical mix of possibility and ambiguity in the ambivalent search for potential partners.
By tapping into behavioural cues and psychological incentives, they curate matches, facilitate communication, and often leave users either enticed or drained.
With a staggering 350 million annual users, dating apps have quickly become the go-to for romance seekers.
Ethiopia is not immune to this digital romance revolution. As more people turn to technologies to find companionship, over 15 local startups have emerged to cater to this growing demand. As digital intermediaries, these dating apps are redefining what’s possible within intimate relationships.
Sosh Furi, a savvy tech developer, spotted the untapped potential and dove into the dating pool with his team. Their venture, Maraki, which translates to “attractive,” strikes a chord with users in Ethiopia and around the world. Homegrown under Vintage Tech Plc, Maraki is about more than romantic pursuits; it’s for casual connections, language exchanges, and friendships.
“Users can find more than just romantic love,” Sosh says.
Since its beta launch, Maraki has gained over 9,734 active users. It also boasts more than 2,046 matches, reflecting a strong appetite for locally rooted platforms that resonate with Ethiopian culture and values.
“If you know the market well, it’s a profitable business,” he claims.
Maraki has unveiled innovative monetisation strategies, offering features like relationship counselling at competitive rates, alongside event suggestions and gift shops, calculatedly grabbing attention.
“We’re looking to introduce a new feature in a couple of months,” he stated.
Sosh Furi, CEO of Mark Dating AppThe road ahead comes with its own set of difficulties. An air of shame still lingers around dating apps, making users hesitant to embrace this modern matchmaking tool, keeping companies from expanding even further.
“People shy away from admitting they use dating apps,” he reflects.
Ethiopia saw a half-million increase in internet users from 2022 to 2023. With 20.86 million users in 2024, the internet penetration stands at around 16.7%, signaling a promising change, according to a report by Dareportal.
“Creating awareness will be our biggest milestone,” Sosh argues.
Within just a year of beta launch, Maraki attracted over 25,700 downloads, revealing strong demand. The team embarked on a mission to optimize functionality and security, eager to cater to user needs.
“We prioritize security among other things,” he states.
Standing out in the crowded app market, Maraki aims for a culture-centric approach, tailored to the values of the country’s users.
Another entrant, Habtok, is turning heads within six months of its launch, offering users similar dating features while exploring live streaming and content creation as a new frontier.
Founder Ermias Kebede, a network engineer, saw a good thing when he navigated the opportunities to empower users in ways international platforms haven’t.
“We wanted to share the growing market space,” he said.
Upon registration, users are rewarded with 250 coins automatically, serving as the primary currency in the sphere, enabling users to send direct messages and interact with content. The platform is linked to the Chapa Payment Gateway, a pioneering firm in financial technologies, for transactions.
He noticed the lack of monetisation options for Ethiopian content creators on international social media platforms, where Habtok aimed to bridge the gap.
Habtok currently has over 5,000 active users and has introduced monetization for streamers based on watch hours, a rare opportunity for local creators to reap an income.
“I saw that there was a gap for content creators,” he said.
The live streaming feature has already begun attracting an influx of customers enticed by the opportunity to showcase their work and explore avenues.
Ermias is cautious with his expectations, stating: “It’ll take time to earn user trust, especially when competing with giants like TikTok and Instagram.”
With the rise of internet access and smartphones across Africa, Ermias is hopeful, revealing plans for another upcoming feature in a few months, and reaching regional markets over time.
Habtok Dating AppThe global online dating market size was estimated at 9.65 billion dollars in 2022 and is expected to reach 17.28 billion dollars by 2030, growing at a rate of 7.4%.
In Ethiopia, the e-commerce market is growing to new heights, projected to reach 553.98 million dollars in 2025, growing at a rate of 11.3%.
As the online dating industry continues to evolve, companies are competing to stay head-on, launching new strategies more frequently to grab users’ attention.
Among the Ethiopian and Eritrean communities, platforms like Jebena are gaining traction, offering experiences that bridge geographic and cultural divides.
Launched in 2020 during the Covid pandemic, Jebena now has over 130,000 users, making it one of the largest platforms in the region.
These numbers reflect more than just app growth; they speak to demands from diasporas in romantic aspirations.
Other homegrown platforms such as Lomii, Tidarfelagi, Gojo, and Kumneger have also garnered a considerable number of users among locals, diaspora communities, and international audiences.
With 57% of adults globally identifying as single, dating apps have become a lifeline, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, when isolation pushed millions online.
Several dating apps have attempted to cater to the unique dating needs of users over the past few years with varying degrees of success.
Dating apps such as Tinder and Bumble are responsible for 10% of relationships in America, though that is low considering how many people use them. Yet, these very dating app tools are also sowing seeds of concern.
As Ethiopia’s online dating scene evolves, it stands at a crossroads between innovation and introspection. Many experts are debating whether this swipe society leads to genuine connection or alienation.
A sophisticated algorithm and a seemingly never-ending catalogue have made it a phenomenon that can keep users glued to their phones for hours at a time.
Users know within seconds whether to express interest or not, coming down to judging the book by its cover.
An article by Match Group a couple of years ago revealed that the average dating site user has to swipe through 75,000 profiles before finding a meaningful interaction with a person.
Sociologists argue that the gamification of dating has reduced relationships to fleeting visual assessments.
“People are now judged like commodities on a shelf,” says one anonymous expert. “It’s a spectacle where sincerity struggles to survive.”
With the apps requiring no energy or effort to use, they only encourage a sort of meandering unseriousness, making the dating scene more difficult than it was 50 years ago.
The expert cautions that the online dating scene will only render the generation too afraid of commitment, encourage passivity, and prevent men from taking the lead in relationships.
“Dating apps have created a culture of meandering,” the expert noted.
Tinder, the leading dating app,Kibur Engidawork (PhD), a sociologist professor from Addis Abeba University, echoes the concerns. He says that online dating platforms promote individualism and instant gratification, where social control has been annihilated. He observes that the very idea of swiping through a series of human faces makes the whole exercise dehumanising, while the sheer number of choices has made the dating app user conditioned to swipe through them, dating for no reason in mind, with no reputational or practical responsibility. He believes people are now objectified to a postage-stamp-sized picture on the phone, and potential matches will give them only one second to decide whether to relegate them to the junk folder.
“Relationships are now built on external capital,” he said.
The Ethiopian government recently made a stride toward digital accountability by ratifying a Data Protection Proclamation.
The Ethiopian Communication Authority (ECA) oversees data collection, usage, and privacy standards.
Yet, authorities still believe that enforcement remains weak, especially with social media and dating apps proliferating and operating across borders.
“A robust legal framework is still lacking,” says Yonathan Tesfaye, deputy director at the Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA).
He emphasizes the urgent need for privacy enforcement in this increasingly digital era.
Kibur, the keen observer, admits to the inevitability of online dating in the digital age. However, he advocates for emotional preparedness and digital literacy as essential prerequisites.
“Users must understand what they’re stepping into,” Kibur said, adding, “We need more than just platforms, we need educated participants.”