The Chinese technology giant has revealed three brand brand new dating apps within the last month or two.

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Tencent (OTC:TCEHY) guidelines China’s mobile texting market with WeChat, which acts 1.15 billion month-to-month active users (MAUs). Its ecosystem of more than a million “mini programs” allows users to look, purchase meals, play games, hail trips, make re re payments, and much more — all without ever making the software.

Meanwhile, Momo (NASDAQ:MOMO) may be the top online dating sites platform in Asia. Its namesake app began as a social network software|networking that is social, but gradually evolved into a platform for internet dating and real time videos.

Momo’s smaller application, Tantan, is basically a clone that is chinese of Group’s Tinder. Momo’s core application had 114.1 million MAUs last quarter, and 13.4 million of them purchased digital gift ideas or enrolled in premium online dating services on Momo and Tantan.

Image source: Getty Pictures.

Those two businesses generally speaking are not considered rivals, but Tencent recently established three torpedoes at Momo: an anonymous movie dating app called Maohu (“Catcall”), a Tinder-like application called Qingliao (“Light Chat”), and a reboot of its Pengyou (“Friends”) app as a social networking by having a dating feature that is opt-in.

What’s Tencent up to?

WeChat’s MAUs expanded 6% yearly final quarter, but it is just a matter of minutes before this ubiquitous “super application” runs away from space to develop in China. Meanwhile, Gen rivals that are z-oriented ByteDance’s TikTok and Bilibili are attracting younger users, while WeChat seems shackled to its reputation being a software for older users.

A current research by research firm Jiguang discovered that simply 15% of Chinese users created after 2000 posted day-to-day updates on WeChat, compared to 57% of users created within the 1960s. That is much like the generation gap between Twitter and Instagram in Western markets, where moms and dads saturated the former and teens that are sent toward the latter. WeChat is also commonly considered a “work software,” since supervisors make use of it to help keep monitoring of their staff.

Basically, Tencent requires brand brand brand new methods to achieve more youthful users, and Momo’s streak of double-digit income development shows that online dating sites is nevertheless a market that is fertile.

Meet Maohu, Qingliao, and Pengyou

Maohu, which established throughout the summer time, lets users talk anonymously with strangers while donning masks that are digital. Male users can wear the mask for at the most 5 minutes, while feminine users can wear a mask indefinitely. As soon as a individual eliminates his / her mask, beauty filters are used automatically towards the video that is live.

Qingliao, that has been introduced in belated November, resembles Momo’s Tantan and Match’s Tinder, but does not follow the swiping mechanic of the two apps. Rather, it merely provides two alternatives in the side that is right of profile — anyone to “like” it, and another to dismiss it.

Its primary web page shows a carousel of prospective matches, and users can scroll down seriously to view information that is additional an individual’s career, academic back ground, hobbies, location, and social networking postings. The matches are refreshed every 18 hours. The application happens to be being tested on an invite-only foundation.

Image supply: Getty Pictures.

Pengyou, that has been relaunched in mid-December, is an updated type of a mature social network app that ended up being discontinued in 2017. The newest application resembles Instagram having its principal feed of solitary pictures, nonetheless it splits its feed into three groups — buddies, peers, and individuals whom reside in the exact same town.

Users need certainly to confirm their identities with individual qualifications, and additionally they can opt-in for dating matches. This approach that is subtle just like Twitter’s opt-in strategy with Twitter Dating. Like Qingliao, Pengyou continues to be being tested on a basis that is invite-only.

Should Momo be concerned?

Tencent plainly wants to leverage the effectiveness of its WeChat and QQ ecosystems to achieve fresh footholds into the online market that is dating. This may be bad news for Momo, which struggled with decelerating development in MAUs and revenue throughout the year that is past