Lucrative link-ups

Matchmaking companies prosper as they help Single men and women cast their nets wider

Jiang Yelin will be 32 years old this year. As a successful senior manager in a foreign company in Beijing with a monthly salary of more than 30,000 yuan ($4,770, 3,627 euros), the only thing that upsets her is her mother's daily call urging her to get married.

"I can understand my mother's hope to have someone look after me, and I did try to get involved in some relationships. By entering my 30s, I feel less need to live my life with a man, and to be honest, I think there are barely any single men who can match me in terms of salary and social status," Jiang says.

"So my mother signed me up for True Love Online, a matchmaking website for wealthy people. Now I am dating someone they introduced to me," she says.

With the large number of unmarried women and men in China, especially in large cities, and the still dominant concept of marrying at an early age, matchmaking businesses in China are faced with unprecedented opportunities.

Tian Fanjiang, director at the Beijing-based Committee of Matchmaking Service Industries, predicts that the market value of China's matchmaking industry could be as high as 10 billion yuan a year in the next five years. The market value reached more than 3 billion yuan in 2010.

Comparatively, the US online dating market is expected to top $932 million this year, according to JupiterResearch.

According to the 2010 census, China has more than 180 million single people who are 28 years old or older. And most of them are highly educated and earning decent salaries.

Lu Shan, founder of Lushan Marriage Group, one of China's leading matchmaking service providers, says women focus on getting an education and landing a good job at an early age.

But in China, single women over the age of 27 are called shengnv, or leftover women.

"These women are outstanding in their professions, and with years of hard work in education and careers, they have missed (what is considered) the golden time for marriage. And their limited social circles also restrict them from meeting the right one. This is why they come to us," Lu says.

Since its founding in 2000, Lu has witnessed the change of Chinese people's concepts of matchmaking.

"Before 2005, 80 percent of my clients were middle-aged and senior citizens. But in recent years, the percentage decreased to 30 percent. An increasing number of young people under 30 have signed up for matchmaking services," she says.

Lu says the company now has more than 20,000 active members, more women than men. All members make at least 10,000 yuan a month and are capable of paying the minimum registration fee of 6,800 yuan.

However, there are more people who are questioning the quality of service provided by matchmaking companies.

Xuan Li, 29, is a fashion consultant in Beijing. After being disappointed by several unsuccessful dates arranged by a matchmaking website three years ago, Xuan says she will never use an online service again.

"They charged me a high introduction fee for every man I met through them, but I found out that some of them did not match what the website had advertised. I didn't want to use online matchmakers, but it seemed like offline matchmaking agencies had just disappeared over night," she says.