Category: Tantan

Reasons Momo’s Stock Is Down

Posted on November 21, 2018

Momo logo 2018CHINA 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.

See all posts on Momo
See all posts on Tantan

Summarized by the IDEA team

Momo At A Bargain Before The Tantan Growth Story Unfolds

Posted on August 16, 2018

Momo app logoSEEKING 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

See all posts on Momo
See all posts on Tantan

Summarized by the IDEA team

Q&A With Mandy Ginsberg, CEO Of Match Group

Posted on August 3, 2018

RECODE – Aug 1 – On this episode of Recode Decode, Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg talks with Recode's Kurt Wagner about how her company became dominant in online dating. Ginsberg also talks about Facebook dating and her admiration for Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe, even as the two companies have traded lawsuits and barbed words in the press, and why it's natural for consumers of different ages to use different apps.

Q: When Facebook announced its entry into online dating, what was going through your mind? Were you surprised?
A: Yes, that actual day I was. I had just printed the script for our earning call and I threw it behind my desk, I just tossed it. It was not shocking because we've studied the single population and people were saying that they met their partners through Facebook. But it was surprising because Facebook has stayed away from online dating quite intentionally.

Q: Lets talk about Bumble. Where do you stand now?
A: I have a tremendous amount of respect for the brand and what Bumble has done and what Whitney has done. But we own a patent around swiping and unlocking communication, which we are really excited about. We never had that before. And honestly, you don't use a patent unless you feel that it's defensible because it's expensive, and it takes a long time. So anyway, we scoured, looked at all the competition. There were several competitors that were big that were infringing on the patent. And so we made a decision to go after Bumble, Tantan and some other ones too that we've actually sent letters to as well, that they've now adjusted their products or are in talks with us.

Q: What's the thinking when you are talking to a company about a potential acquisition and then you sue them?
A: Businesses and deals will come and go. This is about protecting the integrity of your work.

See full article at Recode

See all posts on Match Group

Summarized by the IDEA team

China’s Tinder Embraces AI

Posted on July 16, 2018

Tantan logo 2017SCMP – 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.

by Li Tao & Iris Deng
See full article at SCMP

See all posts on Tantan

Summarized by the IDEA team

Momo Proposed To Offer $650M Convertible Senior Notes

Posted on June 29, 2018

Momo logo 2018PR NEWSWIRE – June 26 – Momo, a leading mobile social networking platform in China, announced that it proposes to offer $650M in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2025. The Notes will mature on July 1, 2025. The Company intends to grant the initial purchasers in the Offering a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional $100M principal amount of the Notes. The Notes will be convertible into Momo's American depositary shares, at the option of the holders, in integral multiples of $1k principal amount, at any time prior to the close of business on the second business day immediately preceding the maturity date. Momo will not have the right to redeem the Notes prior to maturity, except in the event of certain changes to the tax laws or their application or interpretation. Holders of the Notes will have the right to require the Company to repurchase all or part of their Notes in cash on July 1, 2023, or in the event of certain fundamental changes. The Company plans to use the net proceeds of the Offering to repay the $300M bank loan facility it entered into in May 2018 to partially finance its acquisition of Tantan.

See full article at PR Newswire

See all posts on Momo

Summarized by the IDEA team

Facebook’s Lawyers Could Face IP, Trade Secret Challenges

Posted on May 19, 2018

Match facebook picLAW.COM – May 18 – Match Group has been engaged in litigation on multiple fronts lately. Facebook might want to have its in-house lawyers review Match's recent intellectual property lawsuits if the company wants to avoid the potential for litigation in its latest venture. Match filed two lawsuits back in March: one against Bumble, and another similar complaint against Chinese dating app TanTan. Bumble has yet to file a response. Facebook will need to be cautious when hiring any employees from Match to help develop its own platform, attorneys said. Facebook has in fact hired at least 25 employees from popular dating sites in recent years, according to a search on LinkedIn. Two of them were from Bumble and Badoo.

by Stephanie Forshee
See full article at Law.com

See all posts on Facebook Dating        See all posts on Bumble
See all posts on Match Group              See all posts on Badoo
See all posts on Tantan

Summarized by the IDEA team

Momo Successfuly Closing Tantan Transaction

Posted on May 15, 2018

Momo tantan logosPR NEWSWIRE – May 11 – Momo has successfully closed the transaction with regard to its acquisition of 100% equity stake of Tantan Limited, previously announced on Feb 23, 2018. Momo is one of China's leading mobile-based social and entertainment platforms.

See full article at PR Newswire

See all posts on Momo
See all posts on Tantan

This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by the IDEA team

Match Group Q1 Results & Earnings Call Highlights

Posted on May 9, 2018

Match group brands selected 2018OPW – May 9 – Match Group has released its Q1 2018 earning results. "We are delivering all time best," said CEO Mandy Ginsberg at todays earnings call. Total revenue grew 36% YOY to $407M, the highest quarter over quarter revenue growth since the IPO. Tinder average subscribers were 3.5M in Q1 2018, increasing 368K sequentially and 1.6M YOY. Operating income was $112M, an increase of 91% YOY, while Adjusted EBITDA increased 60% YOY to $138M.

Highlights from the earnings call:

  • Tinder is testing first video feature, called Loops which are 2s-looped user-generated videos that allows users to show their personality.
  • Tinder is also testing a new location based feature called Tinder Places. It allows users to see others going to the same places they do (bars or museums). Tinder has been testing this product in 3 international markets with a small group of users. In the first three weeks Match saw users going to 200 social places. Half of them engage daily with Places and 96% of them have continued using this feature. It is an opt-in feature, and it will be available to all users in Q2.
  • This week, Tinder started the "message first" setting to allow users (especially women) to have more control.
  • Match Group has settled with Chinese "Tinder clone" TanTan. TanTan will re-design its U.S. app and pay Match annual royalty payments.

Mandy talked about Facebook entering the online dating space. "It is really unclear but Facebook dating won't probably have a negative impact on Tinder", said Mandy Ginsberg. Tinder introduced SMS signed up last year. Within two months of this offering, new users went from 100% Facebook sign up to only 25%. (Data from North America). "Users quickly separated Facebook from their dating experience", said Mandy.

See all posts on Match Group

Post by the IDEA team

Match Isn’t Worried About Facebook, Settles With TanTan

Posted on May 9, 2018

Matchgroup vs tantanBLOOMBERG – May 8 – Match Group shrugged off the threat of competition in online dating from Facebook, raising its revenue and profit forecasts and saying it doubts the social media giant will have much of an impact on its business. "People don't want to mix Facebook and their dating lives," said CEO Mandy Ginsberg. Match also settled a patent dispute with Chinese dating app TanTan which Match claimed had copied its app design. TanTan will re-design its U.S. app and pay Match annual royalty payments.

by Gerrit De Vynck
See full article at Bloomberg

See all posts on Match Group
See all posts on Tantan

Summarized by the IDEA team

Why Momo Shares Rose 13% In March

Posted on April 16, 2018

Momo app logoTHE MOTLEY FOOL – Apr 16 – Momo shares jumped 9% on March 7 upon the release of fourth-quarter and full-year 2017 earnings. The company continued to benefit from growth in live video services, which, at $328M, accounted for 85% of total revenue during the quarter. During March, shares also continued to benefit from Momo's announcement that it's acquiring privately held Chinese social and dating app provider Tantan. Momo will pay $600.9M in cash and fork over 5.3M newly issued Class A ordinary shares in the transaction.

See full article at Fox Business

See all posts on Momo
See all posts on Tantan

Summarized by the IDEA team