Information Technology News
- U.S. online love brokers eye China
Date: 15-Feb-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
TOP U.S. online matchmakers - among them popular eHarmony and Match.com - are hoping to hook up with Chinese partners to promote Web dating services, in an effort to explore new profit streams in emerging markets.
Private equity and technology sources said yesterday that Match.com, owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp, has already secured Love21CN.com, one of China's biggest online dating service providers, as its main target for a potential stake purchase or business partnership.
A group of senior executives from Match.com's headquarters in Dallas, Texas, already paid a formal visit to Love21CN.com late last year and expressed interest in cooperating with the Chinese Web site, the sources said.
'They discussed business models and exchanged views about the online dating market in China, which is still small but growing faster everyday,'said one Silicon Valley-based source.
'Match.com representatives also expressed interest in taking a stake in Love21CN.com when the situation becomes mature,'said the U.S. private equity source.
Meanwhile, eHarmony, Match.com's top rival in the U.S. market, is also looking at a number of potential partners in China, though eHarmony, which has over 12 million users globally, has yet to secure a specific target, the sources said.
Match.com and eHarmony compete with Yahoo's Yahoo Personals in the United States, and U.S. online matchmakers may already lag French rival Meetic in China.
In November, China.com, controlled by online software company CDC, said it would team up with Meetic for business promotion. Meetic in July also launched a localized Chinese site called 'Mi Tang,'or 'Sweetie?in English.
A Meetic-led venture capital consortium is also expected to invest US$20 million in a controlling stake in Beijing-based online dating Web site Yeeyoo.com, the sources said.
Foreign media giants are lining up to find partners in China to cash in on the country's online service market - increasingly popular among Chinese teenagers - which consultancy firm iResearch expects to grow by some 60 percent by revenue annually to 653 million yuan (US$84.21 million) by 2008.
Last month, sources said that media giant News Corp. was finalizing a deal to launch its networking Web site MySpace in China within months, while Microsoft already has similar functions on its Chinese MSN portal.
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