When Gong Haiyan's grandmother was the village matchmaker in their native Hunan province, grateful parents and couples thanked her with gifts of embroidery and a seat of honour at weddings. Times have changed. Now the mainland's most successful matchmaker, Gong is rewarded much more richly for bringing lonely hearts together: Jiayuan.com, the dating website that she founded, now earns 10 million yuan (HK$11.4 million) annually.
As the CEO of the mainland's largest internet dating service, Gong counts the matches she makes in the millions. The 33-year-old claims she has helped 3 million people find spouses since the website launched in October 2003. Gong includes herself among that number - she met her husband through an advertisement she placed in February 2004 and they married two months later.
Better known on the mainland by her online name of xiaolongnu, or little dragon lady, Gong is at the forefront of the mainland's booming internet dating business. Some 20,000 people sign up every day to Jiayuan.com, which now has 17 million members.
According to research firm iResearch, that market was worth US$43.9 million last year and the number is expected to double by 2010. The global recession may have wiped out many mainland manufacturers, but it has brought a surge of people signing up with online dating companies such as Jiayuan.com, Baihe.com and Hongniang.com.
'The economic slowdown has made a lot of people panic. They've realised careers and finances can be unreliable and so they've started to think about settling down and having a family,' says Gong, who is now pregnant with her first child.
She expects Jiayuan's membership to top 25 million by the end of the year, swelled by growing numbers of single, professional women in big cities who had put careers before personal lives. But she thinks the impact of the financial crisis - a poll by Sina.com earlier this month found that two-thirds of respondents were worried about losing their jobs - has focused their minds on marriage like never before.