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: Zhenai
China Slaps Heavy Fine on Top Dating Platform for False Ads
SIXTH TONE – Zhenai, one of China's oldest matchmaking platforms, was fined 1.7M yuan ($232K) for false advertising, including the use of fake profiles, exaggerated claims, and aggressive sales tactics. Regulators found the company misled users with automated messages, manufactured success stories, and inflated membership numbers, damaging consumer trust and market competition. Zhenai has apologized and promised to improve oversight.
Excessive Data Mining to Come to an End as China’s Personal Info Protection Law Comes Into Effect
GLOBAL TIMES – The highly anticipated Personal Information Protection Law came into effect on Monday in China. The law prohibits the excessive collection of personal information and big data-enabled price discrimination against existing customers. The law requires Internet giants, which possess the personal information of a large number of users, to set up independent bodies that will be mainly composed of outsiders to supervise how the information is handled. More than 20 companies including matchmaking website Zhenai.com and tech giants Tencent and Huawei have promised to strictly safeguard the boundaries of users' privacy, set limits on personal information collection within the law and protect users' rights to fair trade.
Zhenai Founders Raise Series A Round for WeStyle.ai Fashion Startup
PR NEWSWIRE – July 19 – Venturous Group, China's first Citytech Group is investing an undisclosed amount as the lead investor in the Series A funding round of AI fashion start-up, WeStyle.ai. WeStyle.ai was founded by serial Internet entrepreneur Dr. Song Li and four other former senior executives from Zhenai.com, China's largest online dating company. Dr. Li serves as the company's Chairman and Mr. Ren Tao, former COO of Zhenai.com, as the company's CEO. Dr. Song Li, Co-Founder and Chairman of WeStyle.ai, says: "Chinese fashion e-commerce represents a fantastic opportunity. WeStyle.ai is in a unique position to take a leadership role in expanding personalized online styling services for this retail segment."
Top Dating Apps in China During Coronavirus Pandemic
SCMP.COM – May 1 – The nine largest dating apps by China iOS app store ranking are Yidui, Tantan, Momo, Soul, Yimu, Zhenai, Hezi, Blued and Rela. ~622M people used dating apps in China last year, and the market is set to hit $290M in revenues by 2024, according to Statista.com.
- Yidui
Video-based speed matchmaking app, targeting singles in lower-tier cities, it later introduced a professional matchmaker in the app and added a live-streaming feature to speed up matches - Tantan
China's Tinder clone, launched in June 2014, raised ~$120M. In 2018, the company was acquired by Momo - Momo
Launched in 2011, evolved from a simple location-based dating app to a general social platform that, in addition to its original features, also includes group chats, live-streaming, short-video, and casual games. The company went public on Nasdaq in Dec 2014. - Soul
Launched in 2015, it matches users based on a personality test, targeting young users. Soul has closed a Series C round of an undisclosed sum last year. - Jimu
Released in late 2016, the app melds features of dating apps with youth social networking functions, targeting urban residents who like art, fashion, and music. The company raised "tens of millions of yuan" in June last year from a Series B round led by Bluerun Ventures and Sequoia Capital. In July 2019, Hong Kong-listed Chinese live-streaming firm Inke bought Jimu for $85M. - Zhenai
Founded as early as 2005, is one of the oldest and well-known matchmaking websites in China, which also offers offline services. Zhenai has made several updates to its app in a bid to reach younger users as well, adding features including personal assessments, live-streaming, and a status-posting section. - Hezi
Voice-based social app Hezi was launched at the beginning of 2019, founded by two senior executives from Momo. - Blued
Launched in 2012 by the Chinese LGBTQ community website Danlan, Blued is the top gay dating app in China. The company has raised ~$130 M. - Rela
Founded in 2012, the first location-based dating app for lesbians in China.
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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One-Third of Chinese Millennials and Gen Z Not Interested in Marriage
RADII CHINA – Jan 4 – According to a report from Chinese dating site Zhenai, 70% of 90s babies are actively searching for love. Among them, 26% expressed an intense desire to get married, but 30% were indifferent to marriage. In fact, the study found that 40% of singles did not want to have a wedding, women more so than men. But love is undoubtedly still on the mind: the survey showed that being single was also the number one worry (64%), followed by being poor (45%) and having no friends (29%).
Marriage Rate in China in Decline
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Chinese Singles Start Blind Dating at a Younger Age
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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