Singles in China Flock to Soul a Metaverse Dating App
Contributed by: kellyseal on Monday, July 11 2022 @ 07:00 am
Last modified on Monday, July 11 2022 @ 07:18 am
Metaverse dating apps have become popular among singles in China, and now one of the most popular - Soul - intends to go public in the Hong Kong market. It is backed by tech giant Tencent, with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and CICC serving as co-sponsors.
Soul lets users create and use avatars (often resembling Japanese anime) to interact over the app, and rivals TikTok for time spent engaging on the app – an average of about 40 minutes per user, according to South China Morning Post[*1] . It currently has over 32 million users.
Downloads and engagement have grown in part due to recurring lockdowns across the country from Covid-19 outbreaks. Between 2019 and 2021, Soul’s monthly active users went from 11.5 million to 31.6 million, according to parent company Soulgate.
Soul also offers a range of features like audio chat rooms with topics to discuss, such as “let’s talk about things that you can’t share in your real life,” or “why girls are only interested in love but not marriage.” Users can stay anonymous on the app for the most part, hidden behind an avatar, but audio chat requires users to verify their ID before they can join.
According to the Financial Times[*2] , Soul planned to go public in the US market last year but pulled its application after reports of verbal harassment toward underaged users on the platform came to light, according to South China Morning Post.
Now the company has switched gears and is looking to get listed on the Hong Kong market, despite not being profitable and the recent rejection of tech stocks in global markets. Soulgate filed paperwork this week, recording that it had experienced a loss of $194 million US last year.
Even with its losses, Tencent bought a 49.9 percent stake in the company, thanks to the growing userbase and popularity of dating in the metaverse, which has become something dating apps like Tinder and Bumble are investing in, too.
“You don’t have to post pictures, so you can just be yourself in front of total strangers and say whatever you truly want to say,” one user told the Financial Times of the app’s appeal.
Soulgate faces some rough patches in its road to an IPO. It’s being sued by a competitor, social media app Uki, after two Soulgate employees were accused of posting pornographic images on Uki’s platform and reported the violation to the Chinese government. Uki was removed from stores for three months, and now Uki is suing for 26.9 million yuan in compensation for lost revenue.
Still, industry experts say the explosive growth in the userbase and the relatively young stage of the metaverse means that revenue potential remains attractive for investors. As more people engage, it’s likely that Soul and other metaverse dating apps will see greater profits.