by Simina Mistreanu
The full article was originally published at Beijing Today, but is no longer available.
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Category: Momo
Chat Apps Blamed For Rising Divorce Rate In China
MASHABLE – July 24 – Last year, there was one divorce for every four new marriages. While the divorce rate in China is still relatively low, it’s been on the rise for 12 consecutive years. (In the U.S., the divorce rate is declining.) People blame social media. Married men and women in China are increasingly using the popular messaging service WeChat and dating app Momo to have affairs, according to a recent report in the Chinese magazine Banyuetan. "When people get divorced and look back on what they have done, they realize it was the computer with whom they spent most of their time", said Wang Jun, a counselor at Beijing Weiqing Marriage Consultants.
Momo To Delist From NASDAQ Despite Hefty Cost To Do So
WANTCHINATIMES – June 26 – Momo, a Chinese dating app, has decided to delist from NASDAQ, just after half a year of trading on the marketplace. This comes despite the fact it will waste its investments in the share listing, including $110M of tangible cost. The cost includes $17.4M of commission paid to underwriters and $4.3M in consulting fees, not to mention the annual fee charged by NASDAQ which amounts to $1.61-1.76M a year, compared with the $308.4M in fresh fund it raised from its IPO. "We intend to keep Momo as a startup, rather than a public company," said Tang Yian, founder and CEO of Momo, adding that going public would hamper the company's capability to take risks for new ventures.
The full article was originally published at WantChinaTimes, but is no longer available.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
US Law Firm Raises Questions About Momo’s $1.9B Buyout Offer
SCMP – June 24 – The consortium that offered to take Momo private is “taking advantage of its position to purchase the company at an unfair price”, according to American law firm Levi & Korsinsky. The consortium includes Momo CEO and co-founder Tang Yan, as well as investors such as Sequoia Capital China and Matrix Partners China. It holds ~48% of outstanding shares, and 84% of the voting power. Momo’s shares closed at a high of $19.11 on May 27. But in the non-binding preliminary proposal, the consortium offered $18.90 per share. If successful, the deal would be valued at $1.9B.
by Zen Soo
See full article at SCMP
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Chinese Dating App Momo Is Helping Locate Lost Kids
TECH IN ASIA – June 18 – Chinese dating app Momo has launched Momo Shouhu initiative, which enables users of the app to identify missing children in their local area. China has a huge problem with missing children. Often, they’re kidnapped and sold by organized rings. As many as 70K children are lost, or feared kidnapped, every year in China.
by Rohan Malhotra
See full article at Tech In Asia
The Success Of Momo Is Attracting Rivals In China
BLOOMBERG – June 4 - Tantan is a Chinese mobile dating app that works like Tinder. While there have been doubts about the ability of Tinder to get customers to pay, China’s entrepreneurs think they’ll have an easier time. Tantan doesn’t plan to charge its users until the year-old app has 10M users, from 2M now. German media company Bertelsmann invested $5M into Tantan this year. Early Apple backer Sequoia Capital and Vertex Venture Holdings have invested $20.5M in Qingchifan, another dating app. iResearch predicts online dating in China will generate ~$1.6B a year in 2016, up 17% from 2014.
See full article at Bloomberg Business
Momo’s Transition From Dating App To Social Network Is Paying Off
TECHINASIA – May 20 - Momo has now grown to 78.1M monthly active users (MAUs), up 13% from the end of 2014, and up 83% YOY. Momo started as a location-based dating apps in China in 2011. The company has ambitions for the US market as well. After initially failing with a straight-up English version, the firm came out with an all-new app for overseas markets called Blupe. Is the same idea as Nextdoor or Microsoft’s Inlope – a social discovery network.
by Steven Millward
The full article was originally published at TechInAsia, but is no longer available.
Momo Q1 Financial Results: Revenue Up 383%, Net Income $6.7M
GLOBE NEWSWIRE – May 18 – Momo's Q1 revenue increased 383% YOY to $26.3M. Net income was $6.7M, compared to a net loss of $1.2M in Q1 2014. Monthly Active Users (MAU)1 were 78.1M in March 2015, an increase of 83% YOY. Membership subscription revenues were $13M, up 311% YOY. Momo paid members reached 3.1M. Mobile games revenues were $6.1M, up 212% YOY.
Momo Ordered To Clean Up Its Reputation By Chinese Government
SEEKING ALPHA – Apr 14 – Momo's IPO did quite well by rising 26% on its first trading day last December. But since then the stock has sagged and mostly traded ~30% below its IPO price of $13.50. The stock fell ~4% in the latest trading session. The shares could take a hit as Beijing pressures it to clean up its reputation as a "one night stand" app. The Ministry of Culture has warned the company to clean up its act. Failure to take action could result in fines for Momo, or could even result in limitations or a suspension of some services.
Momo’s Impressive IPO
NASDAQ – Dec 16 – Alibaba-backed Chinese social media firm Momo Inc.'s IPO was an impressive one. Shares of the company surged 26% to $17.02 on December 11. The IPO was priced at $13.50. Launched in 2011 by Tang Yan, Momo is a mobile IM app that lets users post their pictures and profiles. In Chinese, Momo means unacquainted and it is sometimes referred to as China's Tinder. The app is free. But users can upgrade to get "VIP logos," advanced search and the right to follow more users for $18 a year. The app had 180M registered accounts, 60M monthly active users (MAU) and 2.3M paying subscribers at the end of Sep.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.