Infidelity app thought it wouldn't succeed in India — it now has 12 lakh users

In a country where marriage is considered sacrosanct, Gleeden, a premium dating application for people seeking extramarital affairs, has notched up 1.2 million (12 lakh) registered Indian users.

Founded and run by a team of 20 women, the France-headquartered website offers its services free of cost to women while men have to pay according to subscription packages. These are based on the number of conversations, but not on the amount of time spent on the website.

Gleeden has a total of 3.5 million (35 lakh) subscribers worldwide and earns an annual revenue of almost a quarter million. Since its launch in 2009, Gleeden has been open to a global audience. The company reportedly did not see India as a potential market until the number of users suddenly spiked.

Most traffic is generated from Mumbai followed by New Delhi and Bengaluru. Men comprise 75 percent of the total subscribers.

Solène Paillet, head of communications and a manager at Gleeden,  said that while the concept of infidelity is culturally new to India, she is confident that the Indian market will gradually catch on.

The mobile app provides features like a "panic button" for quick exit to prevent being caught unawares by a spouse, and monetary deductions appear under different heads each time to negate suspicion.

Indian users will be hoping to avoid the fate that befell subscribers of a similar app, Ashley Madison. In 2015, the Canadian dating service was in the news when a group of hackers called Impact Team exposed enormous gigabytes of leaked data on the dark web, revealing e-mail addresses, personal contact details and partial credit card details of its users globally.

The hack also revealed that the website used programmed female bots to lure men into conversations in order to generate revenue. The leak unmasked reputed individuals including government officials, judges, company CEO's, and film actors.