Singles create matchmaker heaven

The rising number of single people in China is making online matchmaking a hot market.

There are nearly 200 million single adults in China, or 14.9 percent of the total population, according to China's Ministry of Civil Affairs.

"As long as we see growth of cities and growth of the Chinese economy, the number of people who live alone will rise," said New York University sociology professor Eric Klinenberg, whose 2012 book Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone examines the sharp increase in the number of people who are living on their own. A Chinese-language edition was published in China earlier this year.

"People used to look for a good enough marriage. Now they look for soulmates," Klinenberg explained. "In China, arranged marriages were common, and now increasingly people want to choose for themselves."

China has also experienced a transformation of the status of woman as a big driver of single living, and as divorce has become common, more people live alone, he said.

These societal changes combined with huge Internet usage have made China a prime market for online matchmaking services. Nearly half of China's population - 47.9 percent - accesses the Internet, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.

Speaking of hooking up, China's two leading matchmaking websites - Jiayuan.com and Baihe.com - announced a merger on Monday. Baihe.com's subsidiary LoveWorld will buy Jiayuan for $7.56 per American depositary share for a total value of $252 million.

"The merger will make them the largest matchmaking service provider. However, I believe that we will surpass them soon," said Li Song, founder and executive chairman of Zhenai.com, another leading China matchmaker, which claims to have more than 100 million registered members.

"Zhenai has grown 40 percent over last year's revenues. Now, 10 years after our launch, we are still getting about 40,000 new users every day," said Li, who founded Zhenai in 2005 with a $12 million investment.

In 2011, American online dating service Match.com acquired a 20 percent interest in Zhenai with a $50 million investment, Li said. EHarmony, another American dating site, negotiated with Li but dropped out of the talks.

"We have learned a lot from Match.com," he said. "The company shared its calculation method with us for better matches."

Match.com, launched in the US 20 years ago, is growing at an annual rate of 10 percent, said Li.

"The United States has a very mature online dating market," he said. "In China, the market is still growing with the spread of Internet use and urbanization. There is large potential, and it's growing very fast. More people are moving to the city, and we mainly target urban singles."

Online and offline matchmaking services in the US are dominated by different players, like Match.com and Great Expectations, whereas leading Chinese matchmakers often cover both.

Baihe and Jiayuan collaborate with local offline matchmaking agencies, and Zhenai has opened its own offline offices in 26 major Chinese cities.

It costs about $60 to search for a soulmate on zhenai.com and more than $1,500 to get a tailor-made face-to-face meeting.

Zhenai has more than 1,000 hong niang (literally "red lady" in English, or matchmaker, from classical Chinese literature), to help single women and men build an appealing profile, find the perfect match and get coached on how to talk and what to wear on the first date.

"We will go public when the company gets bigger," Li said, "when we can deliver offline services to 100 cities in China."

hezijiang@chinadailyusa.com