TIME - Apr 25 - Chinese parents commonly expect their sons or daughters to be married by the time they're 30. The pressure has been blamed for rocketing divorce rates, which reached a new peak in 2010. ~2M couples registered for divorce last year. Dating pressure is also driving a major boom in online dating. China currently has 180M bachelors, up to half of whom are thought to be looking for love online. According to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, by 2020 there will be 24M more men of marriage age than women. Those numbers mean big business. It's estimated that online dating sites attracted 3M paying customers last year, who collectively spent ~$150M. "Revenues are rising fast. We expect to take in 200 to 300M RMB ($30 to $45M) this year," says Li Song, founder of Zhenai.com, one of China's three largest dating sites.
by Chengcheng Jiang
The full article was originally published at Time, but is no longer available.
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