Online Personals Watch: News on the Online Dating Industry and Business

by Christopher Udemans
See full article at Technode

Apr 16, 2018 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Technology Is Changing How China's Youth Find Love

TECHNODE.COM - Apr 11 - From Tinder-like Tantan to Momo, to marriage-focussed Baihe, tech companies are taking advantage of increasingly independent young adults. Just under half of China's 1.4B people fall between the ages of 25 and 54 years old. Most are men. Within this total, 200M are unmarried. One study shows that 54M people made use of online dating services in 2016, a number that is expected to increase by 24M, or 45%, by 2022. Baihe was founded in 2005 and claims to have ~100M users. Baihe-owned Jiayuan.com also focuses on marriage-related services. It claims to have ~170M users and operates offline stores in 71 cities. Tantan and Momo are designed for more casual dating. In 2013, the total revenue for the sector was RMB 1.93B. This more than doubled to RMB 4B at the end of 2017 and is expected to reach RMB 5B by 2020. According to researchers, online dating can also have a profound effect on marriage diversity. According to the Center for China and Globalization, the number of foreigners increased by 50% between 2000 and 2013. Additionally, over 1500 foreigners were granted green cards in 2016, a 160% YOY increase. In the same year, the number of cross-cultural marriages swelled by 2.5% in Shanghai.

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Apr 11, 2018 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Match Group Also Sues Chinese Dating App Tantan

LAW360 - Mar 20 - Match Group has filed another intellectual property lawsuit. This time against Tantan, a dating service billed as "China's Tinder". Match Group is accusing Tantan of infringing its design patents and trademarks by copying Tinder's swiping system including "nearly identical" match screen. Tantan was acquired by Chinese social media app Momo for $760M last month.

by Bill Donahue
See full article at Law360

See full article at Momo website

Mar 21, 2018 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Momo Q4 Results: 2017 Annual Revenue $1.3B

MOMO - Mar 7 - Net revenues increased 57% YOY to $386.4M. Net income increased to $97.5M in the Q4 of 2017 from $83.8M in the same period last year. Monthly Active Users were 99.1M in December 2017, compared to 81.1M in December 2016. Full Year 2017 Highlights: Net revenues increased 138% YOY to $1.3B for the full year of 2017. Net income was $318.6M for the full year of 2017, compared with $145.3M in 2016. Live video service revenues continued its momentum and generated revenues of $328M in Q4 of 2017. The rapid growth in live video revenues was contributed by the increase in the quarterly paying users, which was 4.3M for Q4 of 2017, as well as, the increase in the average revenues per paying user per quarter.

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Mar 07, 2018 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Momo Is Undervalued

SEEKING ALPHA - Mar 7 - Momo has recently acquired dating app Tantan for a combination of 5.3M class A shares as well as $600M in cash. Tantan, the Chinese Tinder, has ~100M users with ~10M being active daily. YY, a competitor to Momo in the live-streaming space, tried to acquire Tantan last year but was unsuccessful. According to multiple reports, it does not appear that the company will try and block the deal either. Over the past two weeks, Momo has received a number of Buy ratings from analysts but despite all the Buy ratings, shares of Momo dropped ~15% the week following the acquisition. The biggest impact could be the company's own press release stating that it was going to release Q4 earnings. A number of investors have focused solely on Momo's live paying users which have remained stagnant at 4.1M quarter-over-quarter. This will likely be a big focus; however, with the recent acquisition of Tantan, investors should not focus solely on this metric as the acquisition of Tantan changes everything. Momo is undervalued as it continues to trade at just 15 times 2018 expected earnings. Seeing as how Match Group is up ~150% over the past 12 months and trades at more than 30 times expected earnings, it's time for Momo to start trading at a premium too.

by Justin Giles
See full article at Seeking Alpha

by Yuan Yang
See full article at Financial Times

Mar 07, 2018 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Momo Acquires Tantan

FINANCIAL TIMES - Feb 23 - Momo paid for the top Chinese dating app $600.9M in cash and 5.3M shares. That brings the total value of the deal to ~$760M. Tantan, dubbed Chinese Tinder, had raised $120M, including a $70m last year. It has enabled 5B matches since its launch. (Tinder claims 8B matches.) Tantan's management will stay and the companies will continue to operate independently.

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by Luke Lango
See full article at Investor Place

Feb 23, 2018 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Momo Stock Is Back To Its Winning Ways

INVESTOR PLACE - Feb 4 - China dating app turned live-streaming platform Momo had a really good start to 2017. But the back half of the year wasn't as pretty. As soon as Chinese regulators started cracking down on live streaming - calling it harmful to social morality - investors freaked out that Momo's massive growth could disappear at any second. MOMO stock subsequently dropped from $40 in mid-2017 to $20 by late Nov 2017. Back in June, China's Ministry of Culture didn't put a halt on all live-streaming platforms. They simply shut down 12 apps for showing pornographic content. So long as MOMO plays by the rules, the app should continue to grow in popularity. Investors appear to be catching on that Chinese regulation concerns were overblown. MOMO stock is up 40% since early December.

by Chris Tyler
See full article at Investorplace

Feb 05, 2018 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Grab Momo Stock Before Others Wise-Up To Its Potential

INVESTORPLACE - Jan 10 - Momo has morphed over the last couple years into a legitimate and much more diverse entertainment platform. Wall Street doesn't appear impressed or is at the very least, incredibly skeptical. Momo stock has gotten hammered in the aftermath of its last two earnings reports despite producing massive growth numbers and easily topping forecasts. It has been all downhill for Momo stock on the price chart lately despite a 12-month gain in shares of nearly 30%. Looking at the Momo stock chart, a weekly bearish flag is developing. It's the type of pattern worthy of striking technical fear into bulls and instilling confidence into bears. But if we can put on our contrarian headgear, it's typically when conditions look their worst - and I believe MOMO qualifies in this context, that the end is actually near in a good sort of way for bulls.

by Katrin Büchenbacher
See full article at Global Times

Jan 11, 2018 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Dating Elite In China Are Caucasian, Not Asian

GLOBAL TIMES - Jan 8 - Lovoo, Badoo, Tinder, Grindr, Her, Tantan, Momo, Blued and LesPark have proliferated both in the West and the East. They have enabled people to meet across social milieus, increased intercultural marriages and has led to more marriage stability, according to the MIT Technology Review magazine. But does it benefit everyone equally? The short answer is no. The nature of the dating apps favors those who are considered "attractive" by society's terms. "Society has been conditioned to see Caucasian people as the standard of beauty" the magazine Study Breaks wrote. Data analysis by OkCupid from 2009 to 2014 proved that people of color and Asian men are marginalized the most in the dating market. To find out more about the role that race plays in online dating in China, the Metropolitan launched a social experiment on the Chinese dating app Tantan. The platform has mainly Chinese users. Surprisingly, the results were similar to previous findings in the US. The Asian man scored lowest with a 3% match rate, while his Western counterpart reached 12% match rate. Meanwhile, the Asian woman received 15% match rate, while the Western woman received 66%.

Jan 08, 2018 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Momo Q3 Results - Income Doubled YOY

MOMO - Nov 28 - Net revenues increased 126% YOY to $354.5M. Net income increased to $79.1M in Q3 of 2017 from $39M in the same period last year. Monthly Active Users were 94M in Sep 2017, compared to 77M in Sep 2016. Live video service continued its momentum and generated revenues of $301M. The rapid growth in live video revenues was contributed by the increase in the quarterly paying users, which was 4.1M, as well as, the increase in the average revenues per paying user per quarter.

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by Rick Munarriz
See full article at The Motley Fool

Nov 29, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Can Momo Stock Keep Going After Last Week's 10% Pop?

THE MOTLEY FOOL - Nov 21 - One of last week's biggest gainers was Momo, rising 10.1% ahead of next week's quarterly report. There wasn't any company-specific news breaking on Momo, but many Chinese growth stocks inched higher after Alibaba posted better-than-expected Singles Day results. Singles Day is a shopping holiday along the lines of Black Friday. It's popular with China's young consumers, celebrating being single. Alibaba reported $25.3B in gross merchandise volume transacted through its platform on Singles Day, 39% ahead of the previous year's performance.

by Leo Sun
See full article at The Motley Fool

Nov 22, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (0)

5 Common Misconceptions About Momo

THE MOTLEY FOOL - Nov 7 - Chinese app maker Momo lost about a third of its market value over the past three months due to concerns about its growth, the rise or rival apps, and tighter regulations regarding social media platforms and streaming videos.

It's not the "Chinese Tinder"
Momo doesn't use swipes. It lets users find other users to chat with based on their locations. Most of Momo's revenue comes from live video streaming which generated 83% of its sales last quarter.
Recent live video bans won't hurt Momo
In June, Chinese regulators ordered Weibo, Phoenix New Media's iFeng, and AcFun to stop streaming video and audio content. Some investors thought that this could hurt Momo. However, those three companies didn't obtain a newly introduced government-issued license last year. Both Momo and Tencent's WeChat had obtained that license.
It's not immune to tighter censorship laws
The government has cracked down on Momo before. Back in 2014, the state-backed media linked Momo to prostitution, and demanded that its users register their real names the following year. At the end of 2016, regulators ordered the shutdown of thousands of live streaming accounts. The new broadcasting license, which Momo obtained last year, also requires the company to retain a backup of all streaming content for 60 days. This means that Momo's most popular accounts could still be abruptly shut down on a case-by-case basis.
Its user base isn't that big
Its monthly active users rose 22% annually to 91.3M last quarter, and its paid members remained flat at ~4.1M.
The stock isn't expensive
Momo trades at just 24 times trailing earnings and 13 times forward earnings, which are remarkably low multiples for a company that's expected to post 135% sales growth and 91% earnings growth this year.

Momo is a very risky stock since nearly all of its growth depends on a small % of its active users spending a lot more money on their top broadcasters.

by Brian Deagon
See full article at Investors Business Daily

Nov 08, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Momo Delivers Strong Results, But Stock Plunges

INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY - Aug 23 - China social app developer Momo delivered a strong Q2 earnings report this week but the stock plunged as expenses soared. The revenue rose 214% YOY to $312.2M, beating the consensus of $286M. But Momo said that expenses jumped 189% YOY to $246M. The increase was attributed to higher revenue sharing with broadcasters related to Momo's live video. It also attributed the higher costs to an increase in marketing and promotional expenses to enhance brand awareness, attract users and promote its live video service, among other reasons. Momo shares plummeted more than 20% to close at 36.02 on the stock market today.

by Masha Borak
See full article at ChinaFilmInsider

Aug 24, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (0)

After Live Streaming Success, Momo Looks To More Video Offerings

CHINAFILMINSIDER - Aug 1 - After success in live streaming followed by an impressive user growth and steady profits during nine consecutive quarters, Momo is looking to make more room for innovation in live videos. Momo's latest update introduced new features: one-on-one ("Fast chat") and group ("Party") video streaming as well as new options for playing Werewolf, one of China's most popular party games.

by Palbir Nijjar
See full article at The Motley Fool

Aug 03, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Momo's Got An Edge In Dealing With The Chinese Government

THE MOTLEY FOOL - July 19 - Live-streaming hasn't taken off in the U.S. as it has in China. Of China's 730M Internet users, ~200M are active users of live-streaming apps. Credit Suisse is forecasting China's live-streaming market to be worth ~$5B by the end of this year. One of the beneficiaries of the streaming craze is Momo, which started as a dating app but quickly shifted to becoming a host for live video broadcasts. The company earned ~$767M in revenue over the past year, turning 30% of into net profit. In May, the The Chinese Ministry of Culture announced it had shut down 10 hosting platforms and punished an additional 48 companies. It also ordered 30k content-producing studios to cease operations. Although Momo was not a part of the recent crackdown, it is not free of the government's oversight. Momo had been used to disseminate inappropriate pictures of women. The company has acted to prevent the spread of illicit content by terminating tens of millions of user accounts, designating a team to monitor content, and using third parties and data analytics software to monitor activities.

by Tim Culpan
See full article at Bloomberg

Jul 22, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Momo: When Tinder Meets YouTube

BLOOMBERG - July 17 - For 4 years, China's Momo bumbled along as yet another dating app. Similar to Tinder, Momo let users find people nearby and make a choice whether to pass or play. It wasn't a bad business. But it wasn't a good one. While sales grew at triple-digit %, Momo's 2014 full-year loss tripled to $25.4M. The company managed to hit a profit only in the Q1 2015. Momo net income wasn't too enticing while it bumbled along as a dating-app maker. The turnaround came when chairman, CEO and co-founder Yan Tang discovered video. At first, in Q1 2015, he allowed pre-selected performers to broadcast live concerts. Then in March and April 2016 he launched a broadcast app call Hani and opened up live video to everyone. Momo revenue exploded. From $15.6M in sales for the March quarter last year, live video rocketed to $57.9M three months later - accounting for 58% of total revenue. Last quarter that figure stood at ~$213M, helping the company post ~$81M in net income. Harvard Management Co., which oversees the university's $35.7B endowment, took note and bought 214,350 shares in the Q1 of this year - making it the fund's fifth-largest holding. Based on the stock's quarter-end price of $34, the fund has already netted a 21% return.

by Eddy Parton
See full article at BNL Finance

Jul 18, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (0)

How Much Higher Can Momo Stock Go?

BNL FINANCE - June 28 - Momo started as an online dating app and has now progressed to being a full social media company. Momo monetizes its users in the following ways:

Paid membership subscriptions – $2 a month, or less if a user commits to a longer term of use.
Games
Advertising/Marketing
Virtual gifts or on-site purchases

Active users reached 85M in March 2017, up 18% year on year. Q1, 2017 revenue surged by 412% YOY, to reach $265M. The main revenue driver is live video streaming (3.5M paying subscribers). Momo has a market cap of $7.6B, zero debt, $739M cash, and a 1 year return of 262%. 2017 PE is 29. EPS is forecast to increase by 3.6 fold by end 2019, consensus price target is $48.30, about 24% upside.

Jun 30, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Momo Partners With Four Music Labels

SCMP - June 19 - Momo is partnering with four music labels to turn its broadcasters into professional singers. The company will invest ~10M yuan ($1.5M) to establish a Momo Music Plan programme. BMG will produce albums for the shortlisted broadcasters, while Taihe Music Group, Beijing Haiyi Brothers Music - a unit of one of China's largest private movie production studios - and Yue Hua Entertainment provide professional training sessions, marketing and promotional plans.

by Meng Jing
See full article at SCMP

by Palbir Nijjar
See full article at The Motley Fool

Jun 20, 2017 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Invest Or Not To Invest In Momo?

THE MOTLEY FOOL - May 29 - Up over 200% in the past 12 months, Momo is one of the best performing tech stocks out there. The company currently trades at 14x revenue. Any hiccup in the business can send the stock crashing. Here are some of the risks of investing in Momo.

Government regulation of live streaming
Momo users send virtual gifts as a token of appreciation to content creators. In the early days, that content was often just a peep show, turning Momo into distributors of explicit content. China's Ministry of Culture (MOC) caught on quickly and implemented some restrictions. Additionally, the MOC now requires online streaming platforms to obtain a license from the government. The rules would make it more difficult for new entrants to occupy the streaming space.

Not the only game in town
YY is with ~$1B in streaming revenue and 152M MAU well ahead of Momo. Additionally, Tencent invested in the broadcasting app Kuaishou, which announced plans to work with Tencent and Baidu on its platform.