WSJ – Dec 7 – Jiayuan.com International, the largest online dating platform in China, agreed to be bought by Baihe for $7.56 per share in a deal that values the company at ~$250M. The deal is expected to close in Q1 of 2016. Jiayuan executive Linguang Wu will become co-executive of the new company, which will be changing its name.
by Austen Hufford
See full article at WSJ
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BBC – Oct 26 – The Chinese government is building a "social credit" system that is meant to rate each citizen's trustworthiness. By 2020, everyone in China will be enrolled in a vast national database. That system isn't in place yet. For now, the government is watching how eight Chinese companies issue their own "social credit" scores under state-approved pilot projects. One of them is Sesame Credit, the financial wing of Alibaba. Baihe, has teamed up with Sesame to promote clients with good credit scores, giving them prominent spots on the site.
by Celia Hatton
See full article at BBC
Summarized by
PR NEWSWIRE – May 27 – Baihe.com members are now able to communicate with other members free of charge instead of paying membership fees. Baihe.com’s initiative will overturn the current business mode and trigger an industry reshuffle. Mr. Tian Fanjiang, CEO of Baihe.com, said the company aims to increase online market share to ~61.8% via the new initiative to become a leading online dating site in China.
The full article was originally published at Blackbird PR News, but is no longer available.
CHINAMONEYNETWORK – May 21 - Baihe.com has completed RMB1.5 billion ($242M) new round of financing, and is planning for an IPO on China's domestic stock exchange by the end of this year. The investors' identities are not revealed, but reportedly include several publicly listed Chinese companies and a number of private equity and brokerage firms.
by Nina Xiang
See full article at ChinaMoneyNetwork
Mark Brooks: I'm interviewing Jason Tian, the CEO of Baihe, at the Internet Dating Conference in Beijing this Thursday. Please comment here or email me at mark@courtlandbrooks.com with any questions you recommend I ask. Thanks.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
WEBWIRE – May 12 – Jason Tian, CEO of Baihe, will be interviewed by Mark Brooks at the next iDate (Internet Dating Conference) that is taking place in May 28 – 29th, 2015 in Beijing. Baihe.com is one of the leading matchmaking service provider in China. Baihe has ~80M registered users and is operating ~130 matchmaking centers in ~80 cities.
OPW – May 13 – POF has pulled the plug on its property eVow. The eVow website was developed as a direct competitor to eHarmony in September 2010. But POF is sticking to its knitting and focusing on growing its core offering, their mobile apps and POF.com. According to WayBackMachine, the last recorded date that eVow was live was March 25th. So eHarmony has one less competitor to think about. I hear eHarmony is in growth mode and doing very well now. Chemistry and PerfectMatch are becoming less of a concern for them as well. I still think we're leaving money on the table. Serious singles want more service, are willing to pay for it, but we're just not delivering. I hope to learn more about how Zhenai and Baihe are outperforming the Western markets in this respect, at iDate Beijing.
Post by Mark Brooks @
MARBRIDGE CONSULTING – Apr 21 – Shengda Mining and Dahu Aquaculture each issued statements disclosing capital investments of RMB 80M ($13M) and RMB 25M ($4M), respectively, in Baihe Online, operator of Beijing-based dating site Baihe. According to information in the Dahu Aquaculture report, Baihe is attempting to raise RMB 1.5B as a possible preparation for a domestic IPO.
See full article at Marbridge Consulting
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YIBADA – Jan 14 – "Report of 2014 Chinese Marriage Status," from dating site Baihe.com found that during the working week, 63% of singles were more comfortable in their home environment after hours, either spending time online or with guests. 31.7% of those singles interviewed decided to spend approximately 10 hours each day at home, rather than actively pursuing relationships through dating. Just under half of the singles said that love did not form the basis of happy marriage, as they were more concerned with factors like physical appearance and wealth.
by Mason Coltrane
See full article at Yibada
OPW – May 1 – This graph blew us away. There's much hope in China, along with many challenges for China Internet dating sites. The top Internet Dating sites in China are Jiayuan, Baihe and Zhenai.
SCMP – Feb 9 - Baihe´s latest TV commercial features an attractive young woman, who, after years of prodding from her aged grandmother, decides to get married to fulfil her elder relative’s wish. The video clip has apparently enraged many people within China’s online community, where it has been widely shared and commented via various social networks. Many condemned the ad promotes being forced into marriage.
by Chris Luo
See full article at SCMP
