Popular Chinese Dating App Momo Expands Services Outside of Dating
Contributed by: kellyseal on Tuesday, October 11 2016 @ 06:51 am
Last modified on
Dating app Momo, China’s answer to Tinder, has been a popular dating app among the country’s singles with a record 75 million users. But in recent weeks, Momo seems to be expanding out of the dating business and into something more lucrative.
For its latest update, Momo executives decided to supplement the app's location-based dating service that matches people through swiping and messaging. Now, the app offers a live-streaming function, catering to music lovers and even musicians themselves. The update allows users to watch their favorite musicians perform live, as well as giving them the ability to interact with the musicians.
According to a recent feature in The Wall Street Journal, users can gift real-life items to the performers through the app, ranging from something simple and inexpensive like a bouquet of flowers, to something as extravagant as purchasing a yacht. (The performers also get a cut of Momo’s revenue when they agree to livestream their performances).
Momo’s users have responded well to the new live streaming service, despite the company’s decision to do something that is seemingly unrelated to dating. According to the WSJ, Momo’s net revenue for the second quarter tripled since the same time a year ago, and the live streaming service already makes up more than half of its revenue. Momo’s stock has also risen 56%, according to the WSJ.
Momo has had a rocky history since its start in 2014. The company was looking at taking the firm private last year in the midst of a revenue drop, according to Investor’s Business Daily. Alibaba was an early investor in Momo, and several Alibaba executives were part of the 2015 bid to take Momo private.
But Momo executives decided to change direction from a dating app to see if they could bring in more revenue, and the bet worked. Live streaming has become extremely popular in China, and most of the big companies, including gaming giant Tencent, are investing in this platform.
China in some respects is ahead of Silicon Valley in terms of trends among what users want. Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter all offer live streaming video, but the idea was first adapted among Chinese app users. According to the Times of India, the videostreaming service YY.com has been popular for years, making online stars of young Chinese people posing, chatting and singing in front of video cameras at home. And already in China, more people use their mobile devices to pay their bills, order services, watch videos and find dates than anywhere else in the world.
We'll see if Momo's live streaming feature can continue to generate revenue over the long term, and if they will remain a dating app or turn in a whole new direction.