TECHNODE – May 13 – Shares of dating app company Momo fell on Friday after announcing it would temporarily shut down the social newsfeed on its platform for a month amid tightening government scrutiny. Momo users are restricted from posting on the newsfeed until June 11. Dating app, Tantan, made a parallel announcement on Friday night, saying its social feature, "Moments," would be suspended for a month as it is conducts a comprehensive investigation and works to enhance its screening capabilities. The incident follows Tantan's removal from major Chinese Android app stores in late April. Tantan responded by saying the removal was due to the "violations" of relevant rules and it had launched a total investigation on the platform. It remains unknown when Tantan will be available on app stores again. Momo had acquired Tantan in a $600M buyout in February 2018.
Category: Tantan
China’s Tinder – Tantan – Is Rising in India
QUARTZ – May 9 – Tantan, China's favourite dating app, is now the fifth-most popular in India by combined monthly active users on iOS and Android phones, according to App Annie. In May 2018, Tantan did not feature among the top 10, but zoomed to the 4th position by July. It has since slid one spot following the launch of Bumble in December.
Top dating apps in India
(as on May 2018) (as on March 2019)
1. Tinder 1. Tinder
2. Happn 2. Happn
3. Azar 3. Azar
4. Badoo 4. Bumble
5. OkCupid 5. Tantan
Tantan translates in Mandarin to "talk." Launched in 2014, the app bears a high resemblance to Tinder, and was acquired by the Chinese social network Momo in February 2018. Tantan has ~90M registered users in China. The dating app has been advertising aggressively on TikTok.
Dating App Tantan Removed From Android App Stores
TECHNODE – Apr 29 – Chinese dating app Tantan has been taken down from major Android app stores. As of Monday morning it was still available on Apple's App Store as well as on smartphone brand Xiaomi's Mi Store. Tantan stated that the takedown was due to "violations," and that the company would work to rectify the issues. In February 2018, Tantan was acquired by its larger competitor Momo in a $600M buyout.
Momo: High Growth, Stock Still Cheap and a Special Dividend
SEEKING ALPHA – Mar 15 – Momo is a mobile platform in China. It consists of the main Momo app, which combines live video streaming, chatting, gaming and TanTan, the Tinder of China. On Tuesday, March 12, Momo jumped 12% after it had released its Q4 and FY 2018 earnings before the market opened. Momo has beaten expectations every single time since its IPO in 2015. Momo is hugely profitable. And without Tantan's financial impact, the profitability would even have been higher. Momo invested heavily in 2018. With an extra 57% spending, a lot of companies would see their bottom line wither. But not Momo. Tang Yan, Momo's founder-CEO, was righteously very proud of the bottom line margins, which grew despite the very heavy investments. Because of that huge profitability, Momo is able to give a present to its shareholders: a special dividend. The special cash dividend is $0.62 per ADS, a 1.64% one-time yield at the current price ($37.76 at the moment of writing). The total amount of cash dividends the company will have to pay will be ~$128M. Tantan has still less users than Tinder. The dating app started the monetization only in Q1 2018: in January it started its VIP service. Then later, in July, it added two extra paying services: A See Who Likes Me stream and Super Exposure. With these three services, TanTan already has 3.9M paying subscribers which is already 90% of Tinder's number of subscribers. In Q4, TanTan's total revenue was $33M up 36% QoQ. While this is only a small number, I think the Chinese dating market could still be in its infancy and I expect it to grow for at least a decade.
See full article at Seeking Alpha
Momo Predicts Big Growth in Eastern Markets for Its Dating App Tantan
KR ASIA – Mar 14 – The founder and CEO of Chinese location-based social app Momo, Tang Yan, said the company will pursue opportunities in overseas markets for its dating app Tantan. Momo acquired Tantan last May in a $735M cash and stock swap deal. Tantan is one of the top ten social apps on Android in Nepal, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines, with ~10M installs. Tantan had 3.9M paying users in the Q4 2018.
by Song Jingli
See full article at KrASIA
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
See full article at Crunchbase
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Momo’s Bright Future in Online Dating
SEEKING APLHA – Jan 3 – Momo has more than halved since hitting its 52 week high but is it undervalued or did the market simply became rational with regards to this growth stock? Momo is one of China's leading mobile-based social and entertainment platforms that include a live-streaming platform and online dating platforms. The acquisition of Tantan (China's Tinder) earlier in 2018 has driven Momo's value-add service revenues. Tantan has only just begun to monetise its user base in January 2018 and during that short span of time, its paying user base has grown to 3.6M. It has 94M MAUs. The management has high hopes for Tantan due to the 300M millennials in China and the higher mobile penetration rates, particularly among millennials. Furthermore, Tantan's popularity has not been limited to China. According to App Annie, Tantan is among the top 10 social apps on Android in other Asian countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Nepal and Taiwan. Overall it seems that Momo is an undervalued company where the market has incorrectly assessed its future as fears regarding competition from short-video platforms.
by Dominic Teo
See full article at Seeking Alpha
Momo Experiencing Decelerating Growth
SMARTER ANALYST – Dec 19 – Chinese social media company Momo had seen its stock surge ~100% between January and the end of June, before plummeting over the past few months to a 52-week low. The growth has been decelerating; while revenue grew by 64% YOY in Q1 '18, growth decelerated to 58% in Q2 '18 and then 51% in Q3 '18. However, even with decelerating growth, Nomura analyst Jialong Shi is bullish on MOMO stock, maintaining his Buy rating and $41 price target. Momo's flagship service is Tantan, a dating app similar to Tinder.
Reasons Momo’s Stock Is Down
CHINA KNOWLEDGE – Nov 21 – Momo is known for its live-streaming platform and dating app Tantan, dubbed as the "Tinders of China". Momo's revenue grew 50% YOY in the past three quarters. But the company has seen its share price fall by ~40%. The company faces some domestic headwinds in the near future. Firstly, China is imposing stricter regulations on its social media and video streaming market. Live-stream services have to fill up the Internet Content Provider (ICP) form and gain certificates for their services. The new measures also require real name registration. The new measure may put a dent on Momo earnings and future growth as the company may need to hire more people to enforce standards on its platform to prevent it from being shut-down. Next, the company also faces increasing competition such as Huya. Huya currently claims ~91.5M MAU which isn't far from Momo.
The full article was originally published at China Knowledge, but is no longer available.
Momo At A Bargain Before The Tantan Growth Story Unfolds
SEEKING ALPHA – Aug 15 – Momo is an $8B popular Chinese mobile dating and social networking company with a fast and profitable growth, strong track record and a huge addressable market. In February 2018, it acquired China's top dating app Tantan, the "Tinder of China" for $700M. Share price has recently suffered from negative rumors spread by short sellers and is currently offered at a bargain ahead of Q2 earnings: around 30% down from its 52-week high. Momo is likely to be very a volatile investment for the years to come. But it offers a great margin of safety at current price. Momo has been able to take a leading position in the live-streaming space after pivoting from its online dating core business. Credits to CEO Tang Yan who identified key trends ahead of time. Competition is fierce in China, between Momo, Weibo, Huya, Douyu or Panda.tv. Content is king, and many of these companies now work with talent agencies or sign exclusive deals with famous streamers to make sure users don't churn and flock to other platforms. Momo is focusing on retaining users and making its platform a great free experience. They add compelling features such as group chat. Tantan has ~20M MAU and growing. The app is only starting to monetize its audience similarly to Tinder with subscription and a la carte features such as 'superlikes' or 'see who likes me' kinds of products. Tantan might already be at a run-rate of $100M+ yearly revenue. Beyond online dating, Momo is also venturing into mobile gaming.
See full article at Seeking Alpha