Century Jia Yuan History: The entrepreneurial story of China's chief matchmaker

1.2003-2006: From the Internet to find the edge of the site pioneering century Jia Yuan founder Gong was born in Hunan Province, Taoyuan County, a poor peasant family. Junior high School after a car accident, senior secondary school because of poor and choose to drop out. In the three years of dropping out of school, Gong opened a student supplies shop, south of Zhuhai in Panasonic as a migrant sister.　　1996 Gong back to high school class, 1998, Taoyuan County, the results of the arts students into the Chinese department of Peking University, 2002 walk to the School of Journalism, Fudan University graduate. Century Jia edge of the birth by gong known as "solve their own lifelong events," the entrepreneurial impulse, in order to find the lover and online dating process, gong found that most of the dating network user identity is not true, "one Night Stand" and other information widespread. After several times cheated experience, October 2003 gong registered "Shanghai Flower Tree Technology Information Technology Co., Ltd.", and the introduction of Century Jiayuan website. Century Jia Yuan with the existing dating site is different from "positioning in marriage rather than making friends", and in a line on the "serious marriage" signs, the implementation of identification system, to encourage users to submit real information.　　At the beginning of the site 1000 users from gong around the friends, students, after the spread of Word-of-mouth, began in universities, research institutes and other people have visibility. After the establishment of the century Jiayuan, Gong did not envisage its creation as a profitable company, only as a "public welfare" social practice, so the site from the beginning is free mode.　　With the increase in the number of members, Century Jiayuan began to meet the needs of the online meeting activities, the collection of organizational costs, which is also the best margin of the century the first profit model. The growth of the website user, let the century good margin also felt the capital turnover and the manpower demand pressure. May 2005, New Oriental Vice President Qian Yongqiang as an angel investor, to the century Jia Yuan capital injection 2 million. After getting the first fund, Gong rented office in Xuhui District of Shanghai, set up art, technology, customer service, market and other departments, began the formal expansion of the company's operations.　　By the end of 2005, "century Jia Yuan" members reached 320,000 people, although there is no advertising and publicity, century Jia margin for more than a month for Baidu dating site ranking champion. 2.2007-2009: Venture investment under the pressure of profit model April 2007, Century Jiayuan won the new Oriental three Senators Qian Yongqiang, Xiaoping, Wang Qiang, 40 million Yuan Angel Investments; June 2007, The Century Jiayuan won the United States Qiming venture investment of 10 million U.S. institutions.　　After two rounds of huge investment, century Jiayuan began to promote the campaign and seek a clearer profit model. Century Jia Yuan to try the first paid products for the "bright list", that is, home page member display services. For example, users pay 10 yuan per day on the home page of the century Jia Yuan or on the home page on the display of their own information, the product launched after the general welcome, prices are gradually rising. Follow the unified thinking, Century good margin continue to tap user demand, the introduction of paid search ranking services. Because with the rapid increase in the number of users, search often face difficult to be found in the situation, in order to improve the searchThe user will be happy to use a paid search ranking service. In the exploration of profit model, the most effective is the "pay by effect" value-added postage stamp service. The stamp is the century Jiayuan common currency, each 2 yuan. After a user has registered with the century Jiayuan, if you do not receive a letter from the opposite sex, you do not need to spend money, and only a very small number of members of the letter will not need to pay, because the user can be through the positive behavior of the friends received a small number of letter stamps; Because "20% of beautiful women are always in the pursuit of 80% or more men," the suitors usually pay for the stamp service and are willing to buy more stamps for the suitors, so that the suitors can write back for free.　　The "Pay by effect" mode soon becomes the core profit model of the century Jiayuan. In addition, due to the century Jiayuan site itself for the huge flow of vertical web site, so also accept advertising, but the advertising profits this piece only occupy a relatively small portion of income.　　Gong has always been cautious about advertising mode, and she believes that "no ads are more attractive to the user than the opposite sex." Online business Growth Meanwhile, century Jiayuan continued to expand offline activities and VIP hunting services. According to the prospectus, since 2008, the average of the century has been held every year in China to hold 670 large-scale dating activities, online dating activities to publicize the century Jiayuan brand, and in turn to make the online platform to benefit.　　and the VIP service of the century Jiayuan, for richer users, provide personalized search service, make the company's income structure diversified. 3.2000-2011: From vertical integration to the U.S. listing into the 2000, Century Jiayuan continues to lead the Chinese marriage market, but still faced with the problem of user stickiness-although users frequently log on during dating, but after successful friends to leave quickly. In fact, back in 2008, Gong said that the establishment of an independent wedding site for the wedding to provide one-stop service, "hope to be able to make a B2B2C platform, the new people can find in the above wedding company, bridal chamber Decoration Company and Marriage Service Company", which means that this successful new couple in wedding photography, wedding banquet processing, Honeymoon travel, new house decoration and even baby-related services, continue to contribute value to the century good margin.　　But it was not until 2010 that gong a specific exploration. October 2010, Gong from investment 20 million, the founder of marriage portal Happiness Magpie Web. Happiness Magpie is located in the vertical portal of marriage information, in the century Jia margin of success and create marriage needs of users, will be led to Happiness Magpie online, access to information on products and services, and so on, currently on the Happiness Magpie online can see wedding photography, wedding rings, wedding dresses, wedding planning and other products and services.　　Happiness Magpie Network revenue model for the transaction division and advertising. In addition, starting in the second half of 2010, the century Jiayuan has been on the news of the overseas listing, but until April 21, 2011, Century Jiayuan finally to the SEC submits IPO application, plans to finance 100 million dollars in Nasdaq IPO, code for "DATE". BofA Merrill Lynch and Citi are the IPO main underwriters. As of March 31, 2011, the total number of registered users at Jiayuan was 40.2 million, and the average active user account for the first quarter of 2011 was 4,744,705, according to the prospectus.　　In the first quarter of 2011, the average monthly pay account for Jiayuan was 882,471, up from 306,136 in the first quarter of 2010 and 188.2% per cent year-on-year. (I U.S. stock Jtliu)