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Meetic, the gigantic EU dating sites, has taken a 70% stake in EfriendsNet, the online dating leader in China.
Founded in November 2003 and based in Beijing, eFriendsNet – the owner of efriendsnet.com web site launched in January 2004 - has rapidly become China’s leading social networking and dating Mobile Community Network. With roughly 4 million registered profiles, eFriendsNet provides web, wap, SMS and IVR services. eFriendsNet’s 2005 earnings totalled an estimated $2.8 million.
Marc Simoncini, Founder and CEO of Meetic:
MEETIC is happy to announce its entry onto the Chinese market via the strategic investment in eFriendsNet, which validates the development of the group’s market plan in line with the strategy announced at the recent IPO. This operation will definitely give us a new dimension and confers on Meetic the leadership in China.
I’m not sure how Europeans gauge the term “leader”, does that mean most members total, most paying, least upset with the service, traffic, revenue or what?
Meetic (sorry Marc, I can’t stand all upper caps) has dibs on the remaining 30% over the next four years. The 70% was paid for in cash.
Update: Marc tells me the $20-25 million USD is for the 100% valuation. They only have the China Alexa ranking, but most use their mobile anyway. EFN made several million dollars in revenue last year.
PaidContent link to press release PDF.
[tags: meetic]
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