Startups See Dollars in China’s Young and Lonely

Jack Zhai spends his evenings in Shenzhen swiping through photos of single women on Tantan, a mobile phone app that works like Tinder in the U.S. When he spots someone he fancies—women who he says show “spunk and character”—he clicks a heart-shaped button. The 25-year-old industrial designer, who moved to Shenzhen last July, then awaits responses to his chat requests. It’s an easy way to make friends in a strange city, Zhai says, one that he hopes will end in a lasting relationship.

As China’s worsening male-to-female ratio leads men of marrying age toward a demographic crisis, IResearch predicts online dating in China will generate about 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in annual sales by the end of 2016, up 17 percent from 2014. While there have been doubts about the ability of U.S.-based makers of apps such as Tinder and Hinge to get customers to pay for relationship help, China’s Internet entrepreneurs think they’ll have an easier time.