Chinese gaming company NetEase has rolled out Xinyu, a matchmaking app for iOS users, but only available to a small group of people with invitations currently,36Kr reported on Friday.
Xinyu, developed by NetEase Cloud Music, NetEase’s music unit, allows users to meet dates, chat online with strangers living in the same city, and see app-generated recommendations.
The app does not currently have an Android version.
This marks NetEase’s latest attempt in the social networking sector. The company has been operating Tongcheng Yuehui, a web-based dating site, for 10 years. The website has more than 52.8 million registered users of whom about 2 million are active. Tongcheng Yuhui also has an app version, which has been downloaded more than 500,000 times on Xiaomi’s Android app store.
Despite an early entry into the online matchmaking market, which is expected to generate USD 186 million in revenues this year, NetEase is still a minor player, with no product among the nine most popular dating apps in 2020 by China iOS app store rank.
In 2019, more than 622 million people used dating apps in the country.
Read this: The nine most popular Chinese dating apps in 2020 aren’t what you would expect
36Kr is KrASIA’s parent company.
This article is part of KrASIA’s “China Brief” section, where KrASIA’s reporters will provide quick daily updates about the tech ecosystem in China.