How Paktor is Like for Singaporean Girls
You’ve probably heard of the dating app Paktor; it’s been around for a couple of years and boasts to be one of the “most successful dating apps in Southeast Asia”.
A close friend brought it up over lunch the other day, and I figured, why not give it a go?
It is, in his words, a very localized version of Tinder. If you don’t already know, I wrote an article on Tinder previously. Check it out here.
So that cab ride home, I downloaded Paktor and got to familiarizing myself with the app. I wanted to find out if Paktor is comparable to Tinder in terms of 1. the number of male partners available and 2. the quality of conversations to be had on the app.
User Interface and Features
Profiles are presented in a simple, minimalistic manner that I absolutely love. Tapping on the profile photo brings up a grid of other available photos for you to browse. The details provided in a profile are more comprehensive than Tinder – Paktor asks for height, highest education qualification, job, age, and allows a personalized write-up. In comparison, Tinder’s only available details are a person’s age and your mutual Facebook friends.
The five icons along the bottom banner read Home, Liked You, Wink, Profile, and Connect. On Tinder, the only pages we can toggle between are Home, Profile, and Messages.
So, I had to check out the new pages - ‘Liked You’ and ‘Wink’.
Liked You
I googled Paktor and found that one of their three values is ‘Anonymity’
“When you like someone, the person will not know until he/she likes you back.”
This page frightened me a little for two reasons.
1. People who viewed and/or liked your profile show up on this page.
2. Anyone can find out who’s viewed/liked their profile simply by paying.
For a meagre fee of $47.98 a month, you get to enjoy a Paktor Premium membership, which gives you the privilege of stalking who has chanced upon and/or swiped right on your profile. (I’m joking about the fee being meagre; do you know how many pints I can enjoy with that amount of money?)
On a side note, the premium membership buys you a daily 1000 app points that you can use to gift virtual presents – roses, wine, puppies, jewelry etc.
Cool concept, but definitely sucks that I’m not able to really enjoy that bottle of wine.
Wink
I have absolutely no clue how it looks like on a guy’s account so I’m not too sure if ‘Wink’ is available there.
Wink is one feature that sets Paktor drastically apart from Tinder. To be honest, I’m not certain if that’s a good thing. A tutorial was provided when I first opened Paktor, but nothing on Wink was mentioned.
As I found out a few hours too late, activating Wink (something I had no clue I was doing until it was done) gives Paktor the permission to initiate a tacky conversation with an astounding number of random guys. These messages seemed to be continuously sent out, and my phone was flooded for a day with replies from guys from all walks of life.
There must have been a hundred ‘Winks’ sent out, reusing any one of these three lines:
1. Thought I’d say hello!
2. I like what I see on your profile. (:
and the one that takes the cake,
3. Why do I have this feeling I spoke to you before….
If you read my previous article on Tinder, you’ll know I absolutely refuse to initiate a conversation with guys on dating apps. Well, Paktor definitely changed that.
So here’s how the ‘conversations’ went down.
The Conversations.
Let’s start with the nice guys that paid me decent compliments.
Moving on to the guys who either doubted my existence or their ability to attract girls.
Then there are the guys who either went along with the tacky line or just blatantly lied.
Do you smell that - the stench of bullshit because this guy and I have never spoken.
On the other end of the spectrum, we have the really honest guys who just wanted to figure out where we might have spoken before.
Then there are the guys who called bullshit on the tacky lines, going straight to the point. I like the cold, brutal rejections best.
Also, am I the only one a little freaked out by the whole ‘young lady’ bit?
Next up, the really weird ones.
Can someone explain the whole ‘dream’ thing these guys have got going on?
Thank you, my parents should get the credit for this though.
I give new meaning to a Women’s prison?
Second to last, here’s one that makes me wonder what Paktor really does.
What trick is this? Tell me!
And saving the best for last, here’s one that absolutely made my day.
It was a little confusing initially, but it all made sense when I checked out his profile.
Date me because I will complete you... r sentences. Like every other lady in every committed relationship, I will also start them, contribute the middle portion, and execute them.
Basically, you’ll have no say.
Conclusion
Did Paktor have a comparable number of guys on the app, to Tinder? With the influx of messages, I would say yes. There were too many automated messages being sent out on my behalf and too many replies coming in.
To ladies looking for a quick set up, Wink might just be the thing for you. Activating this feature promises to drain your phone battery quicker than streaming HD cat videos because of the constant match and message notifications.
Were the conversations are scintillating as the ones I’ve had on Tinder?
It’s hard to tell because I didn’t reply any of the conversations here, but I suppose that if I did, that it wouldn’t be that far off from what I’ve experienced on Tinder.
So who takes the crown? Paktor or Tinder?
I would have to go with Tinder.
Paktor’s unrelenting requests to subscribe to their premium membership really threw me off in the first half an hour. Their locked features and lack of anonymity annoys me a little as well.
What about you?
If you’re lazy and you want a dating app that does the work for you, go with Paktor.
If you desire anonymity and refuse to pay for a dating app, go with Tinder.
Here’s wishing you all the best in your online dating experience, and that maybe you’ll just settle for an arranged marriage like I’m halfway to considering.
X,
Liz