Editor’s note: this short article by Rita Liao had been initially published by TechNode. It’s been re-posted right right here with authorization.
Tantan, the app that is chinese similar to Tinder, hopes to resolve Asia’s growing issue of way too many singles.
“There is a serious not enough opportunities for Asia’s young singles to help make new buddies. And also this issue is much bigger than that into the west,” says Tantan’s creator and CEO Wang Yu at TechCrunch Shanghai. “In Sweden as an example, you can find events virtually every day starting at junior senior high school. Individuals get clubbing within the week-end. We do have more time that is spare so we could satisfy individuals on different occasions. But Asia does not have such pickup culture. University students essentially haven’t any parties and hardly ever go clubbing. These are typically too busy, so nearly don’t have ways to generally meet individuals offline.”
Tinder for the timid, introverted Chinese
Tantan thinks this has discovered a method to tackle the Chinese obstacle that is dating the Tinder model: the location-based anonymous social app, Wang shows, provides an even more convenient, less embarrassing method for young Chinese to start out a discussion. The three-year-old app has about 6-7 million day-to-day active users and has now matched over 3-4 billion pairs of users, Wang states.
“Deep down, Chinese young people today are really quite available. They simply require some assist to break the wall. Behind the wall, these are generally nearly compatible partners search the same as Us americans,” Wang says associated with application. Users of Tantan swipe through photos of men and women nearby—to the kept when they like them if they dislike them, to the right. Users will simply manage to start chatting once they mutually like one another.
This icebreaking function, based on Wang, may be the core of Tantan. Since offline dating opportunities are loaded in the West, dating apps play a lot more of a role that is complementary. In Asia, nonetheless, individuals defectively require an application like Tantan due to their more reserved, introverted tendencies. Tantan’s objective is give a channel for young adults to fulfill, as opposed to facilitate fleeting encounters that are sexual.
“In general, girls have actually constantly been more passive in society, as well as in relationships,” Wang adds. “But on Tantan they are able to select who they like,” Wang adds. This behavior that is social mirrored into the dating application as well. In accordance with Tantan’s information, ladies like about 6% regarding the suggested users, while guys like up to 60%. The application does intentionally keep a 6:4 male-to-female gender ratio, so that the sex instability also plays a task.
Tantan — a tribute to QQ
The 36-year-old creator compares Tantan to at least one of Asia’s longest-running social apps, QQ. The 18-year-old Tencent-owned application is still among the country’s biggest networking apps with 861 million month-to-month active users as of August, though it offers pivoted to recapture a more youthful population. QQ’s sister software WeChat, on the other hand, is currently a ubiquitous all-in-one software that occupies practically all facets of Chinese people’s life.
“Friends from my generation met 50 % of their buddies via QQ. When [our generation] grew up, nonetheless, there appeared to be deficiencies in apps that enable young adults to take action. The present social apps had been either too severe or too flirty,” Wang says, claiming that Tantan has proudly become an app that users — at the very least the feminine ones — aren’t ashamed of admitting they use it. The creator, experiencing nostalgic, tells the viewers that the application is really a tribute to QQ, a salute to the golden online-dating age in days gone by.
The swipe-left, swipe-right function inevitably conjures the impression of a hookup application, although the business states this has taken measures to help keep an individual experience “clean.” As an example, Tantan claims this has power down 30 million away from its 100 million users who are suspected harassers, salespeople, or those who utilize fake profile photos. With regards to the problem of “hookups,” nonetheless, the founder appears more fingers off.
“It’s hard to declare that our users don’t hook up. The greater amount of it is denied by us, the greater this indicates just as if our company is trying way too hard.”
Monetizing the intimate software
Tantan has painted a picture that is rosy help Chinese young singles to locate their perfect date. This has held away, meanwhile, from monetization until recently. The application is intending to include paid subscriptions by the conclusion with this 12 months, the creator states. As an example, users will pay to unlock the “recall” function. At this time, if users inadvertently swipe kept somebody which they like, there isn’t any way of revoking the act.
Tantan is normally when compared with another hookup application, Momo, the Chinese app that is social filed for all of us IPO in 2014. Started being a social application for strangers, Momo has made a fruitful pivot to reside streaming, a fast-growing, multi-billion RMB industry. Whenever asked whether Tantan will observe the footsteps of Momo, Wang admits that although live streaming is profitable, it risks digressing through the objective of Tantan, which will be to market social tasks.
“The money motivation to hosts is just too attractive, therefore it will enable the professional development of [live streaming] hosts. The greater amount of professional, the less social. [Live streaming] might be much more entertaining, but it is not particularly social… therefore into the brief run at the least, we don’t intend to enter live streaming.”
Tantan’s round that is latest of funding arrived in June whenever it raised $120 million from NASDAQ-listed YY Inc., the reside streaming pioneer in Asia, and Genesis Capital, created by two ex-Tencent Investment veterans. SAIF Partners and Zhongwei Capital additionally took part in the round.
Cover image: Tantan CEO Wang Yu talks at TechCrunch Shanghai (image via TechNode/TechCrunch )
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