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

68% Of Chinese Women Would Not Marry A Man Without A House

BEIJING TODAY - Oct 31 - Dating apps such as Momo, Tantan and Qingchifan are growing fast and attracting investment. Young people also use IM apps such as WeChat and QQ to meet romantic partners. Online dating in China will generate ~10B yuan ($1.6B) in revenue by 2016, up 17% from 2014, according to iResearch. Dating sites make money from ads and membership fees, and also from offline events and matchmaking services. Comparatively, most foreign dating sites rely on ads. Whereas users of foreign dating sites try to impress with looks and personality, Chinese sites are more pragmatic. Educational background, salary, and home ownership often weigh the most in selecting a partner. Men are generally expected to have a house, a car and a satisfying salary. 68% of women in developed cities said they would not marry a man until he owns a house.

by Simina Mistreanu
The full article was originally published at Beijing Today, but is no longer available.

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The Success Of Momo Is Attracting Rivals In China

BLOOMBERG - June 4 - Tantan is a Chinese mobile dating app that works like Tinder. While there have been doubts about the ability of Tinder to get customers to pay, China’s entrepreneurs think they’ll have an easier time. Tantan doesn’t plan to charge its users until the year-old app has 10M users, from 2M now. German media company Bertelsmann invested $5M into Tantan this year. Early Apple backer Sequoia Capital and Vertex Venture Holdings have invested $20.5M in Qingchifan, another dating app. iResearch predicts online dating in China will generate ~$1.6B a year in 2016, up 17% from 2014.

See full article at Bloomberg Business

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Chinese Dating App Qingchifan Secures Series B Funding

TECHINASIA - Apr 7 - Qingchifan, a dating app for meeting up with strangers for dinner dates, has raised a series B round of funding led by Vertex Ventures, followed by Sequoia Capital. The exact amount was not disclosed, but is reported to be $20.5M. Qingchifan, which translates to "invite to eat," looks a lot like Momo, the location-based app for meeting strangers. Launched in February 2014, Quingchifan now reports 10M registered users, of whom 45% are female. The average user is 23-24 years old.

by Paul Bischoff
See full article at TechInAsia

This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

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