Online Dating puts Romance Just a Click Away

CHINA DAILY -- Feb 25 -- An iResearch report puts the number of people who used online dating services in China last year at a whopping 10 million, and to 29 million in 2008, said Hou Tao, an executive of the Shanghai-based research firm. Love21cn was founded by Fudan University postgraduate Gong Haiyan who claimed that since the birth of her site in October 2003, 400,000 members have signed up, of whom 26,000 have rung wedding bells. Much of the site's revenue derives from additional services such as moving ads to the front page, at 10 yuan (US$1.23) per day, and a few offline services. The iResearch report puts the online dating market at 37 million yuan (US$4.5 million) for 2004 and 91 million yuan (US$11.2 million) for 2005, and predicts it will grow to 653 million yuan (US$81 million) by 2008. Match.com and Asiafriendfinder.com have already entered the Chinese market. The US market was US$520 million for 2005, and the European market was US$110 million.  FULL ARTICLE @ CHINA VIEW

Mark Brooks: Asiafriendfinder does not charge memberships to users located in China.  It's one of Friendfinders most highly trafficed properties. Guanxi.com is Friendfinder's Chinese business networking site.