Chinese dating service targets westerners

A NEW DATING SITE has tipped up in China, offering 'working professionals' aged over 25 the chance to meet and mingle with foreigners.

The site, Yuanlaishini88, uses the fact it is 'uniquely bi-lingual' as a selling point to pull in what it describes as busy over 25 working professionals, seeking to meet new people. Especially foreign people.

"In a world where dating websites are commonplace, and cater to the mass market, this new bi-lingual dating website caters to a niche-market," says founder and CEO of Yuanlaishini88, Eve La Rosa, adding that the service increases the, "chances of finding Mr or Miss Right." Hopefully a Mr or Miss Right with a nice foreign passport.

The site boasts about creating a safe and 'sophisticated environment' without any advertising or sponsorships, which it says is 'annoying'. Instead, Yuanlaishini88 will charge users for membership to its exclusive bi-lingual club, after an initial promotional period letting in the first 20,000 members for free one-year memberships.

There is little doubt that China’s online social not-working is a booming industry. A report released by Iresearch in 2006 pegged the country’s social(ist) not-working market at over $25 million, having leapt up 169.2 per cent since the previous year. Predictions already have the market pushing up to $175 million by 2010, growing at an annual rate of 84.7 per cent.

It is something Yuanlaishini88’s CEO is well aware of. "China is in the midst of an economic boom, and is fast becoming the World's most powerful economy," noted La Rosa, who has plans for a further five websites targeting what she calls, "small underrepresented niche markets," this year.

Obviously business acumen is not exactly a 'foreign' concept as far as La Rosa is concerned then. µ