NEW YORK - Jiayuan.com International Ltd, the largest online dating platform in China, closed down 4.36 percent at $10.52 in its debut on Nasdaq on Wednesday, but founder and CEO Gong Haiyan was still upbeat.

"It (initial public offering) is a major first step for the company. It takes time for investors to get to know a new company," she told China Daily before ringing the closing bell.

"We firmly believe in the meaning and value of our work. We believe in the value created for our users and we believe there will be returns," said the 35-year-old, who started the dating site in 2003 when she was a graduate student in the journalism school at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Jiayuan.com opened on Nasdaq at $11 a share, same as its IPO price. The company sold 7.1 million shares at the midpoint of its expected $10-12 range, raising a total of $78 million.

According to consulting firm iResearch, Jiayuan.com ranks first in China's online dating market and has a 44 percent share of the total money spent in that market in 2010. By the end of March, the company had 40.2 million registered user accounts. There was an average of 4.7 million active user accounts in the first quarter of this year.

Gong brought five couples dressed in suits and wedding gowns to Times Square as part of the celebration to mark the trading debut. Jiayuan.com was the matchmaker for those couples.

Gong said she is confident that the company's market share will only grow further as it grows its brand, network, funds as well as its human resources department.

"There were hundreds of competitors when I started the company in my student days. I had no resources and I knew nothing about technology then, but the company still became No 1 in the industry," she said.

Jiayuan.com only started to charge fees three years ago. It offers users free registration and full search access to the site. However, either the sender or recipient must pay a small fee to have their first message read. After that, all subsequent communication is free. Fee plans are offered for users who send or receive a large number of initial messages. Gong called its payment system "results-based" because users only pay for the messages they want to send or read.

Proceeds raised from the IPO will be mainly used to expand market share, such as in second- and third-tier cities, investment in new product and technology that aims to give users a better experience of online dating and new businesses, such as wedding-related services.

For Gong, it was a long journey to this big day. Born into a poor farm family in Central China's Hunan province, she had to quit in the second year of her high school since her family was unable to pay her tuition after borrowing 3,000 yuan ($460) to treat her bone fracture. She was wounded in a traffic accident while pedaling ice sticks during the summer. For several years, she worked in stores and factories in different cities before returning to high school at the age of 21.

On Wednesday, jumbo screens in Times Square broadcast Jiayuan.com advertisements.

Gong explained that Jiayuan.com is only interested in providing services to people who are serious about relationships that lead to marriage and has no intention to include business such as casual dating.

She hinted that the casual dating business might be subject to occasional government campaigns to crack down on pornography and vulgar cultures.

She admits it's impossible to do a background check for every user, but the company will educate users to be smart in protecting themselves, watching for scams.

Unlike the United States, where online dating is at a more mature stage, Jiayuan.com is still part of an industry that is in its infancy. Scams and frauds on the numerous dating sites are a source of frequent complaints, earning little reputation for the industry.

China has the world's largest Internet population of more than 450 million and more and more people are finding love online.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup were the underwriters for Jiayuan.com's IPO. It was the 10th Chinese company that launched a Nasdaq IPO this year. Last year, a total of 45 Chinese firms went public on Nasdaq, according to Bob McCooey Jr., senior vice-president of New Listings and Capital Markets of Nasdaq OMX.

China Daily

(China Daily 05/12/2011 page14)