How a Netflix docu fuelled dating app Ashley Madison’s rise in India’s extramarital dating scene

The days after Valentine’s Day mark the start of Anti-Valentine’s Week, beginning with Slap Day and ending with Breakup Day—names that feel straight out of a schoolyard. And thus, what better time to talk about breakups than today?

In dating, breaking up is straightforward, but in marriage, the idea of wanting out remains taboo. Try explaining divorce to middle-aged uncles and aunties in India’s Tier-2 or Tier-3 cities—you might just find yourself written out of their wills. That’s what you would expect, isn’t it? After all, we’re told India is a deeply traditional society where marriage is sacred and meant to last forever.

This is where Ashley Madison comes in. Why should divorce be the only way out of a marriage when one can explore non-monogamous relationships—either discreetly or with their partner’s knowledge? You would expect this to be, at most, a phenomenon of the metros, but the platform’s rise in India tells a different tale.

What stands out for Ashley Madison in India is the strong demand from so-called traditional Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, challenging the perception that such platforms thrive only in metropolitan areas. The platform’s top winter hotspots for non-monogamy included Thane, Jaipur, Rangareddy, Kanchipuram, Lucknow, Ghaziabad, and North 24 Parganas, all ranking among its top 20 cities for signups.

“The anecdotal evidence and data that I have suggest that non-monogamy—disclosed non-monogamy—is a growing trend in the suburbs and urban centres,” says Paul Keable, Chief Strategy Officer at Ashley Madison.

While a business writer must set personal judgments aside, what stands out is the platform’s resurgence. But before that, a look at its history helps put this comeback into perspective.

Founded in the early 2000s, Ashley Madison launched with the tagline Life Is Short. Have an Affair.—a bold and direct message signalling its intent to profit from offering married individuals opportunities beyond traditional relationships. Based in Canada, the platform saw rapid growth until 2015, when a massive data breach exposed sensitive information of 37 million registered users, including names, addresses, and phone numbers. Following the scandal, its parent company, Ruby Life, focused on rebuilding its infrastructure. Interestingly, until last year, Ashley Madison had minimal marketing efforts in emerging markets like India, making its recent surge even more noteworthy.

“One of the things that caught us by surprise was the fact that India was eighth in sign-ups when we had no marketing presence for the brand in a number of years. That was based on an organic interest in what we have to offer,” Keable adds.

Surprisingly, Ashley Madison now boasts 85 million users, far surpassing its 2015 peak. In India alone, the platform had 1.4 million signups as of December. Its resurgence, however, took off only after Netflix and Hulu released documentaries on its controversial history. Notably, the platform had no involvement in commissioning these films, yet they played a key role in driving signups.

While exact viewership figures for these docuseries across regions remain unknown, Keable notes that both, especially the Netflix series, played a significant role in reaching new markets and demographics.

“During the period when the documentary—at least on Netflix—was premiering, we saw anywhere from a 20 to 30% jump in new memberships around the world,” says Keable.

“The renewed interest that the documentaries generated exposed our brand to a whole generation of new people. When you look at our membership in India, unlike in many other countries, India has a very young average age for signups. For women, the average age is 24, and for men, it is 26 (in 2024). So there’s a whole host of very young people in the early stages of their relationships who weren’t exposed to our brand 10 years ago because they were far too young—but now they are, because of the documentaries,” Keable explains.

Both documentaries were produced independently of the platform, with Keable participating in an interview only for the Hulu one, which preceded the Netflix series, Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal.

“A platform like Hulu and Netflix—these are massive streaming platforms with global audiences. The Netflix one, in particular, was the number one show on the OTT platform around the world for about a week or more. It was fascinating to see because, from our perspective, they were telling an old story, but it was reintroducing the brand to some people and introducing it to a whole new generation,” Keable adds.

For Ashley Madison, India ranks eighth in its overall portfolio. However, over the past three months, the country has climbed to the sixth spot globally for new signups. In the past year, signups in India have increased by 6.68%.

“The Indian market could go on to become the third largest in the company’s portfolio,” Keable predicts.

When asked if the docuseries were solely responsible for its rise, Keable responds, “I think it’s a combination of multiple things. The fact that two different companies chose to do a documentary about our business at a very similar time frame is based on the idea that we had continued to see success after 2015, and our growth was not insignificant before the series.”

Keable says that the platform signed up more than 4 million people a year before the documentaries were released.

“Unlike a traditional dating app, which is designed to help you meet someone so that you no longer need the app, Ashley Madison is designed so that you can meet someone, have an affair or a different type of relationship that might last a weekend or a year, but you can always come back,” says Keable.

“Repeat customers and organic growth are really what drive our business,” Keable adds.

Since the data breach, the company claims to have worked on its technology infrastructure to improve data privacy, though Keable did not provide details on the specific changes.

Meanwhile, Keable revealed that Ashley Madison does not plan to go public anytime soon, given its profitability.

“We’ve been very fortunate not to have any capital investment requirements. We’ve been profitable almost since day one. But if someone is interested in investing in us or acquiring us, we are always open to listening to what the market offers. Fortunately for us, we are a very profitable and successful organisation.”

Another interesting aspect of the company’s operations is that its entire workforce works remotely, with the majority of staff based in Canada.

While some may find the platform unconventional or at odds with their personal moral standards, its growth in a traditionally conservative market like India is striking from a business perspective.

Keable attributes this to the evolving dynamics of Gen Z relationships in the country, where partners are increasingly open to non-monogamy.

“There’s a growing relevance and interest in disclosed non-monogamy versus undisclosed non-monogamy—meaning their partners are aware of their activities on Ashley Madison, if not participating. This embrace of non-traditional relationships is something that will continue to grow, even in a country as conservative as India, because the younger generation here is exploring different pathways in their relationships. A discretionary-based platform like Ashley Madison is perfectly suited to explore those interests, particularly for women across India,” Keable adds.