Baihe, one of the dating sites gathering up Chinese lonely hearts is to resume its IPO plan, according to local portal Netease. To get itself more prepared, the company brought in a string of new VPs in charge of marketing, products and tech. Baihe was doing well last year with a 300% revenue increase and 12 million new users, so maybe the company is more ready now.
A Late Offering?
This is not the first time Baihe endeavored to enter the capital market. Back in May of 2011, CEO Tian Fanjiang claimed to take the company public in a year. However, Jiayuan stole Baihe’s thunder by going public as the first Chinese dating site to get listed. Then came the accounting scandals dulled the interests in China concepts stocks among investors, which also scared away some technology IPOs, including the one Baihe has planned for so long.
Now the market is turning warmer, foreign investors have gradually regained their confidence. Gaming startup YY landed Nasdaq at the end of last year. It seems that this is the right timing to resume a long-delayed IPO.
Insiders commented that funding and going public meant a lot to a dating site like Biahe, which badly needs brand marketing to cooperate with offline resources. Furthermore, the “real-name dating” model Baihe stick to was already copied by competitor Jiayuan with a sub-brand called “izhenxin”. To survive the loving but fierce battlefield, Baihe surely should pack itself with enough capital weapons.
Break Even with Revenues 300% Up
Apart from moves like audting, Baihe’s new management team was also a sign for the imminent IPO. In Q4 2012, the company hired new VPs for products, technology(Guo Xiao), marketing(Zhua Yirong), wireless business (Wang Xiaodong) and a high-tech director Zhang Lei . Currently Baihe has more than 500 staff.
The hot spot of mobile of course is a land to be well explored as Baihe landed on both iPhone and Android platform last year. Data released by the company hinted that users are 3 – 5 times more active on mobile as they are on PC-end.
Marriage has become a huge market in China as the number of singles keeps rising and people leaving hometowns to work in strange cities. These people need an online community to find the other half, which gives plenty of opportunities to the likes of Baihe and Jiayuan.
Image credit: Baihe.com