Momo love to give: uncensored insight into behaviour, desires of Chinese using dating apps
Creative agency executive Kevin Choi, in extracurricular research, reveals some trends on the way men and women in China, whether gay or straight, find love or sex through apps
Dating apps are now a normal part of modern courtship, with popular Western programmes like Tinder, Grindr, Happn and Scruff revolutionising the way people meet.
A similar movement is occurring in mainland China, especially among the young and urbanised, but little is known about how this has changed the way they find love and sex.
Momo or Tantan might sound like items on a trendy cocktail list, but Momo is in fact China’s largest online dating app with an estimated 180 million users and has already had an IPO in the US.
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Then there is publicly listed Jiayuan coming in close with 150 million users, followed by newcomer Tantan, which has a Tinder-style “swiping” interface that allows users to swipe their fingers to peruse through thousands of profiles of potential partners.
Kevin Choi, head of strategy and digital at French creative agency Air Paris’ Shanghai office, decided to get a closer look, launching a research project outside of work to find out more. He had a team of researchers who helped him in his extracurricular research.
“We created fake profiles” of a gay man, straight man, straight woman and gay woman – all generically attractive, he explains. “But [we] tried to standardise responses and chat initiations across the board where possible.”
