In this episode of the GDI Podcast, host Mark Brooks (CEO, Courtland Brooks) sits down with Ikuho Nakahata, Head of Marketing at Tapple, one of Japan’s largest and most influential dating apps. Ikuho offers an insider’s look into the Japanese online dating market—its unique dynamics, user behavior, government involvement, and how modern dating apps in Japan are evolving to meet shifting societal expectations.
Ikuho shares the story of Tapple, now a 20-million-user strong platform centered around shared interests, and explains how its simple, swipe-based UI and trust-focused features helped it overcome the lingering negative perception of “deaikei” services from Japan’s past.
The conversation also dives into competitors such as Pairs and with, and how TAPL positions itself as the more casual, youth-oriented option in a mature, highly competitive market. Ikuho then reveals details about Coigram, TAPL’s new free-to-use, MBTI-style personality-matching dating app designed to lower barriers for men and women and bring a fresh, shareable UX to Japanese dating.
