After her last relationship ended, Beijing resident Liang Yu, 27, didn’t want to follow the traditional Chinese path of searching for a prospective husband through introductions from family and friends.
“I need special feelings in a relationship,” she explained as her reason for refusing the old way, which puts such factors as the social and economic status of the two families ahead of how the couple feels about each other.
So, when she began her search for a mate two years ago, like growing numbers of young, urban Chinese Liang turned to the Internet to meet her Mr. Right. “The Internet is a platform that provides you with more chances to meet people,” she said.
Liang posted her personal information on several dating websites and went out with six different men, but things weren’t working out. “We either got disappointed at first sight, or broke up after a short relationship,” she said.省略, the largest matchmaking website in China. After a psychological test offered by the site, she found a man who matched her at 92 percent. The pair began to chat online, and soon decided to meet in person. Now they’re planning to get married.
“We just felt that we were the perfect match at first sight of each other,” Liang said. “It’s a feeling that is so hard to explain, but we just felt it.”
Stories such as Liang’s are becoming increasingly common in China, where traditional family pressure to marry is colliding with both the difficulty of meeting a parent-approved mate in a big city and the modern desire for true love. As a result, dating websites have become extremely popular.
However, despite the rising demand, most of the companies that run these sites have been unable to find a profit model that works, and so far it is the lucky couples that are reaping the benefits of online matchmaking, for free. But with the entry of foreign capital and strategies into the marketplace, that may soon change.
No shortage of singles
On July 31, the Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day on the traditional lunar calendar, a fast-growing online dating site in China called eFriendsNet released its first China Online Dating Research Report.
For the report, a total of 100,000 Internet users in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou were surveyed. Their attitudes toward online dating were largely positive, with 77.5 percent of the respondents saying they think that online dating websites can increase chances to meet members of the opposite sex.
The report found that the greatest difficulty faced by people looking to date and marry is their small social network, which means few opportunities to get to know the opposite sex. The No.1 reason why people chose to use dating websites is that they are too busy at work and don’t have time to socialize.
“I’m totally busy with my work and after work I just go straight home. It seems like my life is all about home and the office, and I don’t have much chance to know different people,” said a 28-year-old man surnamed Long who declined to give his full name.省略, said that before he started his online dating business, he considered the problem troubling many of his friends and colleagues: “They are excellent in their careers, but they just can’t find lovers.”
“We help the users, just like in the real world, to meet each other.省略.
Today’s generation of young adults is taking a different attitude towards mates and marriage than their predecessors. “Netizens around the age of 30 are mainstream users of online dating websites. Influenced by the Internet world, they just don’t give much thought to the traditional way of matchmaking by friends and parents,” said Hou Tao from Shanghai-based iResearch, a leading IT industry watching group in China.
“I definitely wouldn’t go to the traditional matrimonial agencies,” said Liang Yu, who found her husband online. In her eyes, only those who can’t find a mate due to various disadvantages will resort to such an old-fashioned route. “It’s not that I couldn’t find myself a husband but that I wanted to find the most suitable one,” she added as her reason for visiting matchmaking websites.
Behind the online dating website boom is the large population of single young men and women. According to official census statistics, there are now more than 1 million unmarried adults in both Beijing and Shanghai. In comparison, in 1990 the number of single men and women in the 30-50 age bracket was only about 100,000 in Beijing.
The iResearch report estimates the value of the Chinese online dating market at 37 million yuan for 2004 and 91 million yuan for 2005, and predicts it will grow to 653 million yuan by 2008. That makes it a magnet for venture capitalists from abroad.省略 was injected with large doses of venture capital in 2004, and another Chinese online dating website, Love21cn.com, has been approached by American companies such as IDG and Cypress Ventures, now called Noventi.省略 and FriendFinder.com have already entered the Chinese market. This July, Meetic, a leading online dating website in Europe, purchased 70 percent of the shares of eFriendsNet for $20 million and launched a Chinese version of Meetic.
Finding a profit model
Despite the growth in popularity, experts point out the key problem of China’s online dating industry: no proper revenue model.
In foreign online dating markets, websites generate their revenues mainly from paying customers. For example, the successful U.S. site eHarmony turned a profit of $70 million in 2004, 15 times the total revenue of China’s online dating market, according to media reports. The eHarmony site has 7 million registered members, with paying customers comprising 20 percent.省略. This has to do with the traditional notion of “you don’t get something for nothing” in the United States, and also because it is easier to pay online at U.S. websites, he explained.
Chinese Internet users are accustomed to free online services, but despite this the Chinese version of Meetic has chosen to charge a fee. Users can enjoy free services up to a certain level, but have to pay about 99 yuan a month if they want something more than that.
“Free service is not a healthy business model. Only if the website makes money can it provide users with better services-this is the law in the commercial world,” said Hou Tao from iResearch.
Tian also wants to follow the eHarmony mode: “Someday when people realize that it’s a more successful way to find love mates online, they will be less sensitive to membership charges.省略 is attractive enough to users, and lures them in large numbers, companies such as wedding planning firms will be keen to advertise on the site.
As for online daters, there’s another big question ahead: industry credibility. There are both good and bad online dating websites in China, but on the whole the development of the online dating business is still limited, lacking effective information management and measures ensuring the security of users.
Xu Anqi, a researcher with the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, urged caution to those looking for love online. “There are risks in the virtual world,” he said. “For one thing, some people are not truthful in presenting their own data.省略, another well-known Chinese online dating website, requires its users to provide as much information as they can, including ID number and graduate certifications, which are used to evaluate the credibility of users.省略.
The Chinese version of Meetic is planning to screen its customers by imposing a relatively high membership charge. “Only those who pursue a real love match are willing to pay the money, and this will keep people who aren’t serious away from our site,” said Ma Yun.