A Tinder clone from China is taking off in the rest of Asia

When a dating app finds success in Asia, there’s a tendency to compare it to Tinder. For Chinese dating app Tantan, though, the comparison isn’t just because of its immense popularity – it really is almost a replica of its American counterpart.

Like Tinder, Tantan is a location-based dating app, alerting users about possible matches nearby. It also features Tinder’s signature “swipe right” and “swipe left” gestures to indicate interest or the lack of it.

Tantan’s user onboarding screen

Tinder’s user onboarding screen

So what is it about Tantan that has motivated more than 90 million people to sign up for it, with 6 million using it daily?

The answers aren’t obvious. It doesn’t have special features like Baihe, another Chinese dating app, which encourages users to list their assets. No, not waistlines and abs – rather, houses and cars. Baihe also collects a user’s credit score and educational attainment to paint a picture of a potential wife or husband.

Other apps, like QingChiFan in China and Lunch Click in Singapore, focus on meeting over a meal rather than chatting online. Thai app Noonswoon capitalizes on scarcity by introducing new profiles every day at noon and giving users only 24 hours to decide whether or not they like their match.

Some apps are even more specialized. Mat & Minah focuses on the Muslim community, while made-in-China Blued is designed for the global gay community.

And maybe that’s why Tantan is so widely used in China – almost anyone can use it, without restrictions on religion or rules on how to date. It’s a platform for arranging casual dates, not necessarily for meeting your future spouse.

Today’s Chinese adults seem willing to wait longer before making that leap, anyway: they’re marrying later compared to a generation ago. People born between 1982 and 1997 make up 20 percent of China’s population, and this generation is said to be driving the growth of online dating in the country.

That said, Tantan co-founder Wang Yu has mentioned that people often tell him they first met their significant other via the app. (Tech in Asia reached out to Tantan but did not get a response.)

For all the lonely people

Wang started Tantan because he experienced first-hand the lack of channels for meeting new and interesting people in China. In an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Reddit, he narrated how his family moved to Sweden when he was a kid. Later, while completing his thesis for a master’s degree, he moved to Beijing for work.

He noted that many Chinese aged 20 to 27 years old tended to be cut off from their social circles and relationships, having just graduated from university and moved to a different city for work. “You are super lonely and are in a city with millions of people […] but there is no culturally acceptable way of reaching out,” wrote Wang.

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