"Livestream Blind Date Tips" Support an IPO
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In recent years, online applications focused on making friends with strangers have become increasingly popular among young users, with apps such as Tinder, QingTeng Zhi Lian, SUGO, Momo becoming important choices for many young people to make friends online.
This has also contributed to the stock market listings of Tinder's parent company MATCH (MTCH.O), SUGO's parent company RedCity Technology (9911.HK), and Momo's parent company Hello Group (MOMO.O).
Now, a new player may be entering the realm of listed online dating companies: Milian Technology Co., Ltd. ("Milian Technology").
Recently, Milian Technology has submitted an IPO application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Milian Technology's core app, "Yidui," focuses on livestream matchmaking, where matchmakers guide users to interact via video to achieve a successful match. During this process, users top up and purchase virtual gifts, which become Milian Technology's source of income, similar to livestream tipping.
In 2024, Milian Technology's revenue and net profit were 2.373 billion yuan and 146 million yuan, respectively, with revenue more than doubling year-on-year.
The strong money-magnet capability has also attracted many well-known investment institutions, such as Blue Lake Capital, Xiaomi, and Lighthouse Capital, all of which are shareholders of Milian Technology.
With the Hong Kong IPO process underway, Milian Technology also plans to bring apps like Yidui to overseas markets such as Japan and South Korea, raising the question of whether this can provide more incremental growth for the business.
Main Focus on Livestream Matchmaking Tips
Compared to its peers, Milian Technology's revenue scale remains relatively limited, reaching 2.373 billion yuan in 2024. In the same period, Momo, MATCH, and RedCity Technology reported revenues of 10.563 billion yuan, 24.723 billion yuan, and 5.092 billion yuan, respectively.
Milian Technology owns two major apps, Yidui and Tietie, with Yidui being the main revenue source. In the first half of 2025, its revenue reached 1.5 billion yuan, ranking first among online emotional social platforms in China.
Yidui mainly targets users around the age of 30 in China. Based on data analysis from user's social network relations, it matches users through profiles such as age, lifestyle preferences, and relationship intentions, which is basically consistent with the current dating app algorithm logic.
“From my observation and research on dating apps, the core logic of algorithmic matching focuses on two aspects: one is the physical distance (so that people who meet online can more easily meet offline); the other is user tags, such as algorithmic recommendations based on hobbies or ideal partner profiles,” a social platform researcher at a Beijing university told Xinfeng.
Although there hasn’t been significant algorithm innovation, Yidui has precisely addressed pain points in lower-tier markets in its operations and business model.
Unlike QingTeng Zhi Lian, Tinder, and other dating apps aimed at highly educated urban populations, Yidui focuses on lower-tier cities, a result of repeated trial and error by the management team.
Yidui once experimented with Tinder-like left-swipe/right-swipe functionality, but later found this was more suitable for young people in first- and second-tier cities who were more skilled at socializing, and for Yidui at that time, it almost had no effect on user retention. (Note: In left-swipe/right-swipe, swiping left means disinterest, swiping right signals interest.)
Afterwards, Yidui changed its operation strategy to directly display match info by swiping up, focusing on the lower-tier demographic and introducing matchmakers to guide both parties into video interaction.
In the first half of 2025, Yidui’s average monthly active users reached 4.8 million, ranking fourth among China’s online emotional social platforms.
Currently, Yidui’s income mainly comes from virtual gifts and memberships during the video interaction process.
On one hand, users need to top up and send virtual gifts to their desired match or the matchmaker to win their favor or boost the matchmaker’s enthusiasm; these virtual gifts can be cashed out, similar to live video tipping.
As of the end of June 2025, prepaid items (contract liabilities) formed by user top-ups reached 104 million yuan.
On the other hand, users can also subscribe for membership to access visitor records, exchange chat credits for video and text communication, and obtain exclusive virtual items, at a price of 30 yuan per month.
Although Yidui has achieved over one billion yuan in revenue through livestream matchmaking tips, a significant portion of this income still needs to be shared with matchmakers.
During video interaction, whether users send virtual gifts to the matchmaker or their desired match, the matchmaker can receive a share of 20%-52% as commission, which is used to incentivize them to stay active and help users pair up.
As a result, revenue sharing expenses are Milian Technology’s largest cost, reaching 1.255 billion yuan in 2024, accounting for nearly 90% of operating costs.
“The revenue sharing mechanism plays a crucial role, incentivizing host users (matchmakers) to actively encourage user connections and interactions. Looking ahead, we aim to drive sustainable revenue growth by improving overall monetization efficiency and promoting high-quality interaction activities,” said Milian Technology.
Behind the business model centered on video livestream and virtual gifts, sharing commissions with matchmakers and other influential hosts is a rigid cost for such companies.
For example, in 2024, Momo's parent company Hello Group paid out 5.496 billion yuan in commissions to hosts, representing over 80% of its costs.
Continuous Marketing Through Ads
The core matching process relies on intervention by matchmakers rather than algorithms, which to some extent caps Milian Technology's gross margin.
This may also be one reason why both Milian Technology and Hello Group are unable to compete with MATCH, which mainly matches users through algorithms.
In 2024, Milian Technology's gross margin was 45.62%, about 26 percentage points lower than that of MATCH.
Comparing cost structures also provides a glimpse into the types of devices used by user groups on Milian Technology and other platforms.
MATCH’s main cost is channel commission (in-app purchase fees), meaning Apple and Google app stores take a share of virtual gifts, subscription fees, and other transactions.
In 2024, MATCH’s “in-app purchase fees” amounted to 697 million US dollars, 20% of its revenue.
In contrast, possibly because Milian Technology’s users use mostly Android devices, it pays relatively low transaction fees to app stores—50 million yuan in 2024, only 2.1% of its revenue, slightly lower than Hello Group’s ratio by 0.5 percentage points.
Milian Technology’s users are indeed strong spenders.
In 2024, its revenue reached 2.373 billion yuan, more than doubling year-on-year—a stark contrast to industry leaders.
For example, as users became less willing to pay, Hello Group faced a growth bottleneck, with 2024 revenue declining by over 10% year-on-year.
However, as revenue scales, Milian Technology’s marketing expenses have also risen sharply, reaching 655 million yuan in 2024, more than doubling year-on-year.
These marketing expenses are mainly used for user acquisition through advertising on various platforms.
Currently, Milian Technology’s acquisition channels include media platforms and app stores—the former including Douyin, Kuaishou, and Tencent, the latter primarily being app stores operated by OPPO, VIVO, Apple, etc.
For this IPO, one stated use of funds raised by Milian Technology is to increase marketing overseas, with plans to promote its products in Japan, South Korea, North America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
There is attention on whether Milian Technology’s domestic experience can be replicated in overseas markets.
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