Chinese Online Dating Valued at US $4.5m

CHINA DAILY -- June 26 -- iResearch valued the Chinese online dating market at 37 million yuan (US$4.5 million) for 2004 and 91 million yuan (US$11.2 million) for 2005, and predicts it will grow to 653 million yuan (US$80.5 million) in 2008. 117 boys are being born in China for every 100 girls, far beyond the normal ratio of 104-107 to 100. For Marc Lesnick (of idate2006.com), the statistic means Chinese Internet dating will grow even more. One of the delegates most captivated by the two-day conference was Mark Brooks, a US-based online dating industry analyst and editor of Onlinepersonalswatch.com.  "I know the American market very well, and the European market somewhat, but the Asian market was a mystery to me," he said. "The US market is coming to a point of maturity now, whereas the situation in China now is how it was in the USA a few years ago. People are starting to trust it more, and seeing that it is a secure vehicle for finding the ideal match." FULL ARTICLE @ CHINA DAILY