It never crossed the mind of Maria Putri that after the myriad places she had visited and tons of people she has met, her soulmate was just one right-swipe away.

“It was at the end of 2014, I had just got back to Jakarta after an overseas business trip when my friend suggested that I install Tinder,” Putri said about the application, which was launched in 2012 and is now one of the world’s most well-known online dating apps. “Initially, I didn’t know what it was for. So I just used it for fun.”

Like other Tinder users, the 30-year-old businesswoman started swiping right on profiles of men she was interested in and left on those she wasn’t, until in January 2015, she hit on the profile of Defri Alex Siwabessy, who five months later became her husband.

“Our first meeting lasted for an hour. He approached me when I was hanging out with my girlfriends,” said Putri who immediately fell in love with Defri. “We just clicked. He is modest and caring […] we were both sure that if we knew that we were compatible with someone, we wanted to get married immediately.”

Less than a year after getting married, Putri and Defri are happily expecting their first baby with Putri now seven-months pregnant. Thanks to Tinder.

Tinder also connected presenter Rey Utami and her husband Pablo Putra Benua, who surprised the public with their unusual decision.

They decided to marry each other a week after connecting via the app.

“He bought me a Honda HRV car on the second day. On the third day, he bought me a Rp 4 billion [US$307,988] watch,” Rey said as quoted by tribunnews.com last week. “On the fourth day, he asked me to marry him. He met my parents on the fifth day, we made preparations for our wedding on the sixth day and on the seventh day, we got married.”

Many consider Tinder, along with other online dating apps such as Badoo and Grindr, as just a way to meet a “hook-up” partner.

However, most Jakartans take the apps more seriously, says 26-year old engineer Sulaiman, who joined Tinder in 2014 with the aim of meeting people for hook-ups.

“In Jakarta it’s not easy to ask a girl for a one-night stand on your first meeting. I have used Tinder in other countries, such as Thailand and the US. It was a lot easier to find hook-ups there,” he told The Jakarta Post. “Most girls in Jakarta expect more than just a one-night stand.”

Sulaiman, however, usually manages to get physical with women after their second or third date.

Meanwhile, for 24-year-old business analyst Aloysius Banyu Yudhistira, online dating apps are just the most convenient way to find a significant other — or at least an intimate friend — amid long overtime hours and bad traffic.

 “I dream of having a girlfriend whose background is different from mine. So, we can talk about various topics and I can learn a lot of things,” he said.

“However, with my work, I am barely able to expand my circle to meet my dream girl. ”

Back in the 1980s, before Tinder and other online dating apps, people in the city tried their luck with the offline dating service provided by the Scorpio Foundation, better known as Yasco.

Established in 1974, Yasco served clients from many different backgrounds: from politicians and celebrities to army and police personnel.

University of Indonesia psychologist Ratih Ibrahim thinks that Tinder and other online dating apps are in high demand in the capital because they offer what young adults naturally need: intimate relationships.

“Basically, when people enter the young adult stage of their life, the need to have intimate relationships grows bigger,” she said. “When the population in Jakarta was far smaller than it is now, it might have been easier to find a soulmate as there were far fewer choices. Now that choices and challenges are more varied, people have started to look for their most suitable partner in many ways, including via dating apps.”

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