SIXTH TONE – China's matchmaking industry is rapidly expanding, with ~46,500 new companies launched in the past year and a market now worth 9.38B yuan ($1.2B). Despite a record-low marriage rate, demand for dating apps and matchmaking services like Baihe, Zhenai, Momo, and Tantan continues to rise. However, the sector faces growing scrutiny as scams have emerged, exploiting regulatory gaps and a lack of identity checks. China's Supreme People's Procuratorate reported ~1,500 related prosecutions last year, involving fake agencies, sham marriages, and fraudulent investment schemes. Authorities are now calling for stronger oversight to ensure user safety and trust in the booming singles market.
Category: Baihe
Executives at Baihe Jiayuan Arrested for Embezzlement
SCMP – Fosun International said executives at its Chinese online-dating subsidiary have been arrested for alleged financial embezzlement. Baihe Jiayuan is a merger of two Chinese online dating platforms called Baihe.com and Jiayuan.com, leading to the privatisation of Nasdaq-listed Jiayuan in 2016. Fosun bought ~70% of the merged entity in 2018 for 4B yuan ($593M). The arrests came after rumors surfaced on Chinese social media platform Weibo about the disappearance of Baihe Jiayuan's management team, including its CEO, COO and CFO.
Dating Apps Prove Popular in China During Covid-19 Outbreak
CHINA DAILY – Apr 17 – Industry experts said the "cloud matchmaking" method, which includes livestreaming and short videos, is gaining traction among singles. According to Tantan, the average time people spent on the app in early- and mid-February increased by ~30%. The number of users surged 60% during the peak hour which often runs from midnight to 1am. During the outbreak, those born after the period around 1995 and after 2000 have become the top users of Tantan. They recorded a 20% increase in messages sent and daily matches. Zhenai.com said its active users reached 10M during the Chinese New Year holiday on Jan 24 to Feb 2, an increase of 39% compared with the same period of last year. ~10K people found highly compatible matches on the app. Baihe Jiayuan Network Group's CEO Wu Linguang said video and livestreaming dating services have been launched to lure customers during the epidemic. The time users spend on video dating rose 30% during the Spring Festival holiday YOY.
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Marriage Rate in China in Decline
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Mixing Chatroulette With Tinder – the Future of Online Dating?
GIZMODO – Apr 26 – Dating platforms in China are starting to experiment with livestream. China's biggest Internet dating site Jiayuan first started offering video streaming in January. First, a user would start a streaming session with a set topic, then wait for a second user to join. Then if someone wanted to talk to that host, they would request to join. If the request was accepted, then the two could video chat. That conversation would then broadcast live for other users to watch and comment. There were a lot of empty rooms. So the company added third party emcees to serve as matchmaker hosts. It also created a karaoke feature. Since then, two other major dating platforms – Baihehunlian and Zhenai – also added livestream features. Americans have been swiping left and right for more than five years now and are collectively ready for a different online dating experience.
by Jennings Brown
See full article at Gizmondo
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VCs Aren’t Falling in Love With Dating Startups
CRUNCHBASE – Feb 14 – In 2018, venture investors put $127M globally into 27 dating-focused startups. It's certainly tiny compared to the ~$300B in global venture investment across all sectors last year. While the US is home to the majority of funded startups in the dating category, the bulk of investment has gone to China. In 2018, ~80% of dating-related investment went to a single company – Blued, a Grindr-style hookup app for gay men. In 2017, the bulk of capital went to Chinese mobile dating app Tantan, and in 2014, Beijing-based matchmaking site Baihe raised ~$250M. Meanwhile, in the U.S, we are seeing an assortment of startups raising smaller rounds.
by Joanna Glasner
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The Billion-dollar Business of Matchmaking China’s 200M Singles
FINANCIAL REVIEW – Jan 3 – Many people in China who want to get married are having trouble finding a partner. China is home to ~200M singles. The combination of freedom of choice and social pressure has become overwhelming for many. Thousands of flirt trainers, marriage brokers and love gurus are now employed in China's quest for happiness. Baihe has ~300M members and 3000 would-be matchmaker employees. The origin of a potential husband is extremely important for well-educated Chinese women, who value prestige and status: things like an apartment and a car. But even the rich struggle with love. The elite agency Diamond Love has 5M members, with the especially well-to-do paying up to $21K a month for "custom services" promising them the wife of their dreams.
China’s 200 Million Singles Are A Big Business
SPIEGEL.DE – Aug 4 – As a result of the government's decades long one-child per family policy and a preference for boys, an imbalance of the sexes has developed. For every 114 men in China, there are 100 women; overall, there are 30M more men than women. Those who remain unmarried die a quick social death in the country. The combination of freedom of choice and social pressure has become overwhelming for many. Thousands of flirt trainers, marriage brokers and love gurus are now employed in China's quest for happiness. Baihe, the largest online platform for people looking for someone to marry, has 300M members and 3k would-be matchmaker employees. The elite agency Diamond Love has its headquarters in Shanghai. It has 5M members, with some of them paying ~$15K a month for "custom services" promising them the wife of their dreams. A person's social status in China is determined by the authorities. The so-called Hukou system of household registration, splits all people into two categories: rural or urban. The place where a Chinese person is registered determines their access to doctors, schools – and also to urban, middle-class women. No date takes place in China without someone politely asking about the other person's Hukou status. Someone who moves to the city can, with some luck, attain the same privileges as the people who were born there. The Chinese government long ago recognized that the hordes of frustrated men migrating to the cities are a problem. The party now wants more children and is organizing mass group dates across the country.
China’s Tinder Embraces AI
SCMP – July 11 – AI will be a key focus for Tantan this year, said CEO Yu Wang. The technology will be used to help the company accurately identify new users, boost the accuracy of advertising, as well as contributing to growth in terms of user numbers and revenues, he said. Mobile dating is a popular trend in China where the number of smartphones outstripped the country's 1.4B population. Even WeChat, the country's most popular messaging app owned by Tencent, whose active monthly users have topped nearly 1B, offers apps such as Shake and Drifting Bottle that give its users more opportunities to get in touch with potential dates. Momo, another popular location-based hook-up app in China, acquired Tantan in February for $760M. Unlike Momo and Tantan, which are mostly favoured by younger users who are more inclined to have casual dates, a number of Chinese apps, such as Jiayuan and Baihe, specifically target those looking for a life-long partner. Revenue generated by China's online dating industry reached 4B yuan ($603M) in 2017, according to iResearch.
Fosun Buys Matchmaking Service Provider From Chairman For $603M
DEAL STREET ASIA – July 5 – Fosun International Ltd said it would buy 69% of match-making and dating service provider Baihe Jiayuan Network Group from Chairman Guo Guangchang for 4B yuan ($603.4M) cash. Baihe Jiayuan has ~310M registered users and ~200 offline service centres covering 75 Chinese cities. In May, Fosun's tourism arm said it was hunting for more overseas deals to grow its leisure vacation business.
by Donny Kwok
See full article at Deal Street Asia
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