Posted Sep 29, 2022, 7:20 AM
In China, “it’s so hard to meet someone outside the Internet”. The observation is from Raphael Zao, a young 25-year-old university student living in Beijing. He downloaded the Tantan dating app, one of the country’s largest, in April as lockdown measures were lifted on his campus as part of China’s zero Covid policy. “There are so many subscribers on this kind of platform that we think we have a good chance of being able to come across someone with whom we will be able to joke. »
To believe the “New York Times”, the success of dating apps in China is not linked to the desire to meet a soul mate, but rather to meet someone plain and simple.
The fear of Covid
During her June trip to western China, Qu Tongzhou, a young assistant photographer from Shanghai, was not very well received by the locals, some hoteliers even refusing to reserve a room for her for fear of Covid. The young woman then used two applications to make contacts: after a few “matches”, she was able to meet an entrepreneur in the Lanzhou region, a Tibetan doctor from the city of Xining, and a civil servant in Xinjiang. “If I hadn’t used these apps, I wouldn’t have met many people,” she says before adding: “Nobody would have taken me around town. »
Over the past two years, China has regulated many key sectors of its industry, limiting video game time and banning for-profit tutoring, but Beijing has never touched dating platforms. The sector is flourishing: investments last year were $5.3 billion, compared to $300 million in 2019.
fight against loneliness
According to the New York Times, there is nothing romantic about Beijing’s tolerance, at a time when marriage and fertility rates have never been so low. These applications are also seen as a remedy for the loneliness of the Chinese, who have been suffering for many months from the ultra-strict policy to fight against Covid. “Loneliness is the big problem we want to solve,” says Zhang Lu, the founder of Soul, an app that tripled its monthly user count between 2019 and 2021, reaching 31 million today.
Most users of these apps are looking for friends first and foremost. According to a Chinese study, 89% of people registered on these platforms say they are looking to expand their social circle rather than finding a partner. “We agree on purely psychological aspects”, underlines Qu Tongzhou, the young woman on a trip to western China. “Actually, we were just grateful to each other for being able to have company. »
What benchmarks in a constantly changing world?
Political uncertainties, scientific innovations, war in Ukraine, energy and ecological transition… How to understand these changes? How to position yourself? Every day, the 200 journalists from the “Echos” editorial staff help you decipher economic, political and international news through surveys, analyses, press reviews, chronicles and editorials. Our subscribers know that they can rely on these resources to better navigate our complex environment and make the best strategic decisions.
