PACIFIC EPOCH — Apr 26 — Chinese online match-making website Love21cn.com received 40 million Yuan from three of the co-founders of private education company New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. (Nasdaq: EDU): Xu Xiaoping, Wang Qiang and Qian Yongqiang. A March 2007 report said Love21cn would receive a US$10 million from Qiming Ventures. Qian Yongqiang also invested in Love21cn in 2003.
The full article was originally published at Pacific Epoch, but is no longer available.
PACIFIC EPOCH — Apr 26 — Chinese online match-making website Love21cn.com received 40 million Yuan from three of the co-founders of private education company New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc. (Nasdaq: EDU): Xu Xiaoping, Wang Qiang and Qian Yongqiang. A March 2007 report said Love21cn would receive a US$10 million from Qiming Ventures. Qian Yongqiang also invested in Love21cn in 2003.
The full article was originally published at Pacific Epoch, but is no longer available.
PRESS RELEASE — Apr 12 — The 3rd annual Far East Internet Dating Conference and Social Networking Conference will be held on May 17-18, 2007 in Shanghai at the Four Points Sheraton Shanghai Hotel and will focus on management, technology and marketing in China. Speakers at this event include executives from: Baihe, 51Friend.net, Match.com, ModMySite, Userplane, YeeYoo, 99Bill, InterCanel, Hungry for Words, Loci China, YeePay, Dragon Lady Consulting and Social Networking Watch & Online Personals Watch. Topics include: the social networking market in China, the online personals market in the Far East, wireless carriers and business models for Chinese mobile social networking, business development in China and marketing for social networking and online dating services in Japan.
PRESS RELEASE — Apr 12 — The 3rd annual Far East Internet Dating Conference and Social Networking Conference will be held on May 17-18, 2007 in Shanghai at the Four Points Sheraton Shanghai Hotel and will focus on management, technology and marketing in China. Speakers at this event include executives from: Baihe, 51Friend.net, Match.com, ModMySite, Userplane, YeeYoo, 99Bill, InterCanel, Hungry for Words, Loci China, YeePay, Dragon Lady Consulting and Social Networking Watch & Online Personals Watch. Topics include: the social networking market in China, the online personals market in the Far East, wireless carriers and business models for Chinese mobile social networking, business development in China and marketing for social networking and online dating services in Japan.
MARKET WIRE — Apr 4 — The GDP of China is growing at a double digit rate. According to BIGresearch’s Q1 2007 China Quarterly Survey on consumption behaviors of over 1400 Chinese consumers between aged 18-34:
See www.bigresearch.com/chinaq.htm
Mark Brooks: The Asian Internet Dating Conference and Social Networking Conference is May 17-18.
MARKET WIRE — Apr 4 — The GDP of China is growing at a double digit rate. According to BIGresearch’s Q1 2007 China Quarterly Survey on consumption behaviors of over 1400 Chinese consumers between aged 18-34:
See www.bigresearch.com/chinaq.htm
Mark Brooks: The Asian Internet Dating Conference and Social Networking Conference is May 17-18.
OPW INTERVIEW — Mar 31, 2007 — Baihe.com is China's 'eHarmony.' Baihe received funding last year from Mayfield's partner in China, GSR Ventures. They received $11 million of funding in 2005 after attracting 5 million free members. I interviewed Baihe.com's CEO, Jason Tian. – Mark Brooks
How and why did you start Baihe.com?
When Myspace started there were many companies similar to it in China and none of them had a revenue model. We found most users are actively seeking dating relationships, so we wanted to do something in the dating area and we wanted to be more focused. Then we researched the other online dating models and services and we found the eHarmony personality test based model to be the most effective, so we decided to do something like that. Then we launched Baihe.com in May of 2006. In Chinese, Baihe has three meanings: “one hundred years happy marriage”, “100% match”, “lily flower”.
How is it going so far?
We are the first in China to launch that type of service and we executed correctly so we’re growing very fast. We have more than 8 million users to date.
It’s a free site, isn’t it?
We have tried to collect membership fees for some time but we found that in China the online payment system is very weak, so out of ten people who want to pay only one can pay successfully. If we charged now it would delay our growth. In China, at this stage, online dating is in its early growth stages. So we decided to offer our service for free, and this should help us to grow fast.
In late 2006, we launched a VIP service offering for busy professionals. We trained love consultants to serve them, to filter and verify identification of potential candidates and to help them in communicating with each other. In Q2, 2007, we are planing to launch more automatic value added services which will generate revenue for Baihe.
How is Baihe.com most different from eHarmony?
eHarmony is a paid service and we offer a free service. We also offer search for the users. eHarmony doesn’t allow their users to search but we allow Baihe users to search. Also, we sponsored top psychological research centers in China to develop a personality test and matching system for Chinese people.
What do you think are the main differences between the Chinese online dating market and the American online dating market?
In the Chinese market, I think the people treat marriage more seriously in general. We have a lot of users that are seeking serious relationships and they are in their early 20’s. For girls, maybe after 25, they are very seriously seeking a husband. I suppose in the U.S., and on eHarmony, users will be about 30 but in China the age will be younger than in the U.S.
The second difference is, the serious online dating market in the U.S. already has 10 years of history. But in China there isn’t a dominant player in the market. We only started to enter the market last year, so we’re in the very early stages in China.
Have you ever considered offering your site in English and reaching out to the American market like Asia Friend Finder?
For us, we think the China market is large enough. Secondly, we don’t think we understand the U.S. market well. Compared with eHarmony, we haven’t found any competitive advantage besides the cost. Maybe our R&D cost is much lower than eHarmony. We can translate our website into English and launch in the U.S. but we don’t know how to market in the U.S. English is not our priority at least for the next two years.
Is Mobile Internet Dating big in China?
Yes. There are 400 million mobile phone users. This year there are 80 million new users in China, so we also launched a mobile service several months ago and we have around a half million users now. They are very active.
What do you hope to achieve through the end of 2007?
We want to establish our revenue model. It is our top priority for 2007, and to break even by the end of 2007 is our goal.
OPW INTERVIEW — Mar 31, 2007 — Baihe.com is China's 'eHarmony.' Baihe received funding last year from Mayfield's partner in China, GSR Ventures. They received $11 million of funding in 2005 after attracting 5 million free members. I interviewed Baihe.com's CEO, Jason Tian. – Mark Brooks
How and why did you start Baihe.com?
When Myspace started there were many companies similar to it in China and none of them had a revenue model. We found most users are actively seeking dating relationships, so we wanted to do something in the dating area and we wanted to be more focused. Then we researched the other online dating models and services and we found the eHarmony personality test based model to be the most effective, so we decided to do something like that. Then we launched Baihe.com in May of 2006. In Chinese, Baihe has three meanings: “one hundred years happy marriage”, “100% match”, “lily flower”.
How is it going so far?
We are the first in China to launch that type of service and we executed correctly so we’re growing very fast. We have more than 8 million users to date.
It’s a free site, isn’t it?
We have tried to collect membership fees for some time but we found that in China the online payment system is very weak, so out of ten people who want to pay only one can pay successfully. If we charged now it would delay our growth. In China, at this stage, online dating is in its early growth stages. So we decided to offer our service for free, and this should help us to grow fast.
In late 2006, we launched a VIP service offering for busy professionals. We trained love consultants to serve them, to filter and verify identification of potential candidates and to help them in communicating with each other. In Q2, 2007, we are planing to launch more automatic value added services which will generate revenue for Baihe.
How is Baihe.com most different from eHarmony?
eHarmony is a paid service and we offer a free service. We also offer search for the users. eHarmony doesn’t allow their users to search but we allow Baihe users to search. Also, we sponsored top psychological research centers in China to develop a personality test and matching system for Chinese people.
What do you think are the main differences between the Chinese online dating market and the American online dating market?
In the Chinese market, I think the people treat marriage more seriously in general. We have a lot of users that are seeking serious relationships and they are in their early 20’s. For girls, maybe after 25, they are very seriously seeking a husband. I suppose in the U.S., and on eHarmony, users will be about 30 but in China the age will be younger than in the U.S.
The second difference is, the serious online dating market in the U.S. already has 10 years of history. But in China there isn’t a dominant player in the market. We only started to enter the market last year, so we’re in the very early stages in China.
Have you ever considered offering your site in English and reaching out to the American market like Asia Friend Finder?
For us, we think the China market is large enough. Secondly, we don’t think we understand the U.S. market well. Compared with eHarmony, we haven’t found any competitive advantage besides the cost. Maybe our R&D cost is much lower than eHarmony. We can translate our website into English and launch in the U.S. but we don’t know how to market in the U.S. English is not our priority at least for the next two years.
Is Mobile Internet Dating big in China?
Yes. There are 400 million mobile phone users. This year there are 80 million new users in China, so we also launched a mobile service several months ago and we have around a half million users now. They are very active.
What do you hope to achieve through the end of 2007?
We want to establish our revenue model. It is our top priority for 2007, and to break even by the end of 2007 is our goal.
CHANNEL NEWS ASIA — Mar 30 — Four dating agencies received endorsements from the Social Development Unit and between $22k and $49k to nudge singletons to get in the mood for love. The founder of "Lunch Actually" wants to broaden her business to provide real names of people dating online and verify their identities. The other three dating agencies provide services from dating on demand to movie dates. These agencies have all tapped on a million-dollar fund set up by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to get Singaporeans to date.
The full article was originally published at Channel News Asia, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Cool. They actually came through with grants. I was contacted about this a couple of years back by an official from Singapore who was researching the U.S. dating industry.
CHANNEL NEWS ASIA — Mar 30 — Four dating agencies received endorsements from the Social Development Unit and between $22k and $49k to nudge singletons to get in the mood for love. The founder of "Lunch Actually" wants to broaden her business to provide real names of people dating online and verify their identities. The other three dating agencies provide services from dating on demand to movie dates. These agencies have all tapped on a million-dollar fund set up by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to get Singaporeans to date.
The full article was originally published at Channel News Asia, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Cool. They actually came through with grants. I was contacted about this a couple of years back by an official from Singapore who was researching the U.S. dating industry.