This Saturday, Zhao Xin won't be spending another lonely Valentine's Day. She has finally found her Mr. Right on a dating website. The 27-year-old earns a handsome salary at a radio station in Beijing and registered for the dating service three years ago.
"Maybe I was too picky about my future husband," says Zhao, who met about 20 men introduced by the website, but didn't fall for any of them.
Last December, when she checked her dating invitations - the pretty girl often received more than 10 messages everyday - one of them drew her attention.
"He looked like the one I had been dreaming of," Zhao says. "I called him and we arranged to meet at a cafe."
"He is a gentleman who cares about me. Besides, he has a well-paid job in a shipping company and his parents like me very much," Zhao says of meeting her future parents-in-law during the Spring Festival holiday.
She also changed her dating status from "seeking a husband" to "making ordinary friends" on the website.
Google "online dating and matchmaking website", in Chinese, and about 1 million results will pop up, indicating how prosperous the industry is here.
Gong Haiyan's company Century Love (Shiji Jiayuan), is one of the leading players. The 33-year-old calls her website "the country's most serious matchmaking website".
"Chinese people are usually shy about meeting strangers. Our culture is introverted," Gong says.
"For example, in Western countries, it is common to hear men praising the merits of women, and women can accept the compliments easily. But in China, it is inappropriate to do so," she adds.
"The Internet is an ideal place for us. Users can search for someone suitable - age, job, salary, education, interests, and personality," Gong says. "Thus they can avoid frustration."
On Valentine's Day, Gong's company will hold dating parties across major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou for lonely bachelors and single ladies.
In Beijing, there are already 2,400 applicants for a dating party, which is set to take place in Beijing Asia Hotel on Saturday.
Gong's nickname, "Xiao Long Nu" or "Little Dragon Maiden", is well known because domestic and foreign media have covered her story.
After graduating from Peking University, Gong, from Hunan province, went to Fudan University in Shanghai to complete her master's degree. She started her matchmaking business on campus.
"At that time, my mother was often urging me to get married since I was 26 then. But I neither had the time nor opportunity to meet guys, so I decided to try the Internet."
At that time, some matchmaking agencies had started their services on Internet and online dating companies were burgeoning. But neither were able to meet the booming needs of marriage seekers. Some of them were frauds. Gong paid 300 yuan ($43.9) to become a member of a matchmaking agency.
Once, she decided to call a man she contacted, but was told the number was no longer available.
"I was so angry about being cheated, but I felt there was a huge market for online dating," Gong says.
She found there were many people past the traditional marriageable age, with a good education, like her, who wanted to find partners but were finding it difficult to do so.
In 2002, Gong created a simple web space.
"My first client was one of my friends, who allowed me to upload her pretty pictures on the website," Gong recalls with a smile. "The first hundreds of users were all from my friends' circle."
Gradually, Gong's website became popular at her university and some colleges nearby.
In 2004, the website had over 2,000 users. She also found her future husband on her own website.
In 2005, as she was about to graduate, Gong was in a dilemma whether to continue her website or seek work.
"I had become a bit famous already. When I went to job interviews, the interviewers often recognized me and were puzzled as to why I wanted to give up such a good business," Gong says.
That summer, two things eventually inspired Gong to continue her Net-matchmaking career. One French online dating company became a listed company in France, the first of its kind in the world.
The other thing was a returned overseas couple sought out Gong and offered her 5 million yuan ($731,700) to buy her website - but she rejected the offer.
In July 2005, Gong registered her company in Shanghai. In the same year, she received her first investment of 2 million yuan.
Now, Gong's matchmaking website www.jiayuan.com has snowballed into a company with 130 full-time employees and 17 million registered users. It is valued at about $40 million, according to Gong, who owns 40 percent of it.
"The trend is exciting. Not only young people, but people of different ages have begun to accept online dating," she says.
In October 2008, an 81-year-old professor from the China Academy of Fine Arts and a 58-year-old woman from Sichuan held their wedding in Beijing. The couple met each other through Gong's website.
"I am often invited to attend those weddings which my website matched up. Every time I see the grateful and happy couple, I believe I have done something right and meaningful," Gong says.
In January, the company held a controversial matchmaking party in a five-star hotel in Guangzhou. Each of the 30 bachelors, all millionaires or billionaires, paid 20,888 yuan ($3,057) to meet 40 eligible girls, who were selected from 6,350 applicants through a series of psychological tests and interviews.
"People of different social status have different needs for their spouses, which is natural. I think society should tolerate it," says Yao Yue, the event organizer, who works in Century Love's Guangzhou branch.
The online dating industry has inevitably brought some social problems. Many dating websites are fronts for crimes, prostitution and one-night stands.
Gong says many bars or nightclubs hire good-looking young girls to date men on the Internet, and then get them to spend money at those bars or clubs.
"Online dating is a phenomenon which mirrors the progress of our society after opening-up and reforms," Gong says.
"We shouldn't stop this promising business, in the same way that people shouldn't shut their doors just because some flies have flown in with the fresh air."
"While we are endeavoring to build a harmonious society, people mostly focus on issues like employment, education and economy. Marriage, however, is also crucial for the stability of our society, especially in our family-oriented culture," Gong says.
译文:
在网上找你的另一半
这个周六的情人节对赵馨来说不再孤单。最终，她在约会网上找到了她的白马王子。27的她在北京一家电台有份不错的收入，3年前她在这个约会网站上注册。
“也许我对未来的丈夫要求过高了”，赵说道，她已在网上相了20次亲，但是没有一个是中意的。
去年12月，当她检查约会邀请时（这个的漂亮的女孩经常每天都能收到多达10条信息），其中有一条引起了她的注意。
“他看起来就像我一直梦想中的那样，”赵说，“我给他打了个电话，我们约在一家咖啡厅见面。”
“他是那么地绅士，处处体贴人，此外，他在航运公司有份不错的工作，他的父母也非常喜欢我，”赵还谈到这个春节与她未来婆婆见面的事情。
她还改变了在网络上的目的，从“寻找一个丈夫”变成“交个普通朋友”。
谷歌“在线约会和相亲网”在中文网站中每天都会有冒出约100万的相亲人马可见在这块领域里有多么地繁荣。
龚海燕的公司，世纪之爱（世纪佳缘），就是其中一个佼佼者。一个33岁的网民称她的网站是“全国最相亲网站最牛的”。
“中国人通常在见陌生人的时候都显得很腼腆。我们的文化原本就很讲究内敛，”龚说道。
“举个例子，在西方国家，一个男士夸一个女士的有点是很常见的，女士也很容易接受这种夸奖。但是要是在中国的话，这样做是不合适的，”她补充说。
“互联网对我们来说就是一个理想的场所。用户可以寻找适合自己的人-年龄，工作，工资，学历，兴趣和人品，”龚说。“这样一来他们就可以避免失败。”
情人节这天，龚的公司会在一些主要城市，像北京，上海和广州为单身汉和单身女士组织一些聚会。
在北京，已有2400个为参加聚会提出的申请，这个聚会已定在在星期六，北京亚洲酒店举行。
龚的网名是“小龙女”，她在网络上已经很火了，因为国内媒体曾报道过她的事迹。
自北京大学毕业后，来自湖南的龚去到上海的复旦大学攻读研究生学位。她的相亲事业开始与校园。
“那个时候，自我26岁后我妈就老催我结婚。但是我既没有时间也没有机会去见那些男士，于是我决定在网上试一试。”
那时，一些相亲机构已经在网上开始了他们的相亲服务，在线约会的公司不断地出现。但仍然无法满足那些寻求婚姻的人们的需求。他们当中的一些人是骗子。龚付了300元（折合43.9美元）成为了一家相亲机构的会员。
有一次，她想给个在网上聊得来的男士打电话，却被告知号码已经过期了。
“知道被骗后我很生气，但之后我意识到在线约会有很大的市场，”龚说。
她发现其实很多像她一样拥有高学历的人都已经过了传统的结婚年龄，想找一个伴侣却发现不是一件易事。
2002年时，龚创建了一个简易的网站。
“我的第一个客户是我的一个朋友，她让我帮她上传她的靓照到网上，”挂者一丝微笑，龚回忆说，“前100个客户都来自我的朋友圈子中。”
渐渐地，龚的网页在她的大学和周围一些学院流行起来。
到了2004年，这个网站已有超过2000个用户。同时她也就是在这个网站上遇到她的未婚夫的。
2005年，就在她将要毕业的时候，龚陷入了进退两难的抉择中，是继续经营这个网站呢还是去找一份工作。
“我已经有点名气了。当我去面试的时候，面试官尝尝会认出我然后疑惑为什么我会放弃如此好的事业，”龚说到。
就在那个夏天，发生的两件事最终激发了龚继续她的相亲网站事业。一个法国在线约会的公司在法国成为了上市公司，世界上第一个这样的上市公司。
另一件是一对海外归来的夫妇找到龚并给她500万元（约731700美元）要求买下她的网页，但是她回绝了。
2005年7月，龚在上海注册了她的公司。同年，她迎来了她的第一笔200万元的投资。
现在，龚的相亲网站：www.jiayuan.com已经发展壮大成为拥有130个全职员工和1700万注册用户的公司。它市值4000万元，龚拥有40%的股份。
“这种趋势让人无比兴奋。不仅仅对年轻人，不同年龄段的人已经开始接受在线约会了，”她说道。
2008年10月，一位来自中国艺术学院81高龄的教授和一位来自四川的58岁的女士双双在北京举办了她们的婚礼。这两对夫妇就是通过龚的网络认识的。
“我经常被邀请去参加那些通过我的网站结缘的夫妇的婚礼。每当我看着那些幸福的情侣，我就觉得自己做的事情是有意义的，”龚说到。
1月，龚的公司在广州的一家五星级饭店举办了一个颇有争议性的聚会，30个单身汉每个都是百万富翁甚至一万富翁，他们付20888元（约3057美元）约见40个条件优越的女子，这些女子是从6350个申请者中经过一系列心里测试和面试的佼佼者。
“不同社会地位的人们对于他们的配偶有着不同的需求，这个很正餐。我认为社会应该理解这点，”姚月说到，她是这次活动的组织者，在广州分部，世纪之爱公司工作。
在线约会这项事业已不可避免地带来了一些社会问题。许多约会网站充斥着犯罪，淫秽，和一夜情。
龚说，许多酒吧和夜店雇佣貌美的年轻女子在网上与男子约会，然后劝诱那些男子到他们的酒吧和夜店消费。
“在线约会的现象折射出自改革开放后社会的进步，‘龚说。
“我们不应该阻止这个有前景的事业，同时人们也不应该因为会有苍蝇飞进来就关上他们的大门。“
“在我们致力于建设和谐社会的时候，人们总是会关注一些像就业，教育和经济的问题。然而，婚姻也是我们社会稳定的关键，尤其在我们这个重视家庭的文化的国度，“龚说。