WALL STREET JOURNAL – Apr 25 – Match Group says Japan is its second-biggest market after the U.S., thanks to the popularity of its Pairs app. The company says its revenue in the country is seven times what it was five years ago. Pairs is Japan's top-ranked dating app, with 3.1M downloads in 2020, according to App Annie. It is aimed at singles serious about matrimony and tries to make women comfortable about signing up. Men have to pay and show their full real names if they want to start chatting. Women get in free and can use initials (46% of Pairs users are women). "Internet dating in Japan wasn't just stigmatized – it was beyond a stigma. It was viewed as dirty," said Mark Brooks, a consultant who advises internet dating businesses. "Japan has always been enticing to internet dating companies, but they knew they had a job to do to clean up the reputation of the industry overall." About half of Match Group's $2.4B in revenue last year came from outside the U.S. Match Group's success in Japan started with an acquisition of Eureka, the developer Pairs, in 2015.
by Suryatapa Bhattacharya
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