Newsmaker: China's king of online dating

Editor's note: Cliff Miller, CEO of Mountain View Data, has conducted interviews with Asian tech leaders that will appear on CNET News.com. Miller has traveled and worked extensively in Asia for several years.

Marine Ma is not yet 30, but he's already on his third company.

Currently, he's the CEO of EFriendsNet, a social-networking company that also functions as a dating service. EFriends claims to be the market leader in China for Internet dating, in both membership numbers and revenue.

Marine and I first met in late November of 2005 at the Asian Ventures conference organized by Dow Jones, where we were both making presentations.

Recently, I sat down with Marine to talk about the ins and outs of starting an Internet company in China, the future of Internet dating, and the various issues surrounding censorship.

Q: The last time I talked with you, you told me about Fanso, the first company you started.
Marine: That was from...1999 to 2001, founded by me and some alumni from Tsinghua University. We focused on providing information such as news, (and) music downloads to the students in universities in China.

It was the first company in China that was run by students that was given permission to operate by the Chinese government, right?
Marine: Yeah. In the past if a student wanted to do some business in the university, it was...illegal. At that time the Education Ministry wanted to change something. They (had heard about) Microsoft in America (and how) Bill Gates quit his course while in university to start the company. So, we were lucky enough to get the chance.

What kind of music downloads did Fanso support?
Marine: It was all free music--illegal--but at that time no one cared. The Internet industry was not mature, so no one came to us saying, "Hey, your music is illegal." I think the basic reason is we did not charge the users.

I think China is changing--the mind, the whole system. But today if we want to do business, if we want to win in China, we have to accept the current situation, play by the rules.

So what was the downfall of Fanso? What was the problem?
Marine: In 2000 and 2001, the bubble of the Internet burst, and no more VCs came to China--there was no more money; we'd run out. But I think another reason was more fatal: That is, we had never done business before, so we did not know how to do business.

How much money did you raise?
Marine: Six million renminbi (about $750,000). It's not big bucks, but it's big bucks for students.

How many partners did you have?
Marine: We had five. We used to have nearly 80 employees within Fanso, but we didn't generate any revenue, and the worst thing is that we didn't think generating revenue was necessary.

How did you get along with the other founders?
Marine: I think every time people start up a company--at the very beginning everyone is a good guy, an angel, but when you are facing pressure, facing difficulties, problems will appear. We had a chance to sell the company for 10 million renminbi (about $1.5 million). We set up a board meeting to discuss it. After a long meeting--six hours or more--we discussed and we quarreled, and finally we decided to refuse it.

More Newsmakers

[Jackson Cracker]

first met in late November of 2006?

I realize China is in a later time zone than the USA, but I didn't think it was that late.

[katamari]

Hahaha

Had me laughing. Good comment in jest.

Cliff, fix your article. Makes you look bad...

[Jon Skillings]

Typo fixed

Even on that side of the International Date Line, China's clocks don't run that far ahead. The year was actually 2005.

[Kushan]

Interesting interview.

Seems like a neat guy.

[ss_Whiplash]

No revenue???

"but we didn't generate any revenue, and the worst thing is that we didn't think generating revenue was necessary"

Way too many companies had this mindset a few years back and it absolutely floors me. How do you come to the conclusion that generating revenue is not necessary for running a business???

[jabbotts]

better products come from less revenue focus

well, that'd be my guess anyhow as I'm not business genious. Here's my thoughts though:

In the technology industry, the better technology rarely wins out over the better marketed technology.

A revenue focused business produces the cheapest "good enough" product that they can to maximize profit margin (revenue). All that revenue means great advertising and a loss for the better technology.

A innovation focused business produces the best possible product that they can for minimal profit margin because they're concern is moving technology forward not investor's bank accounts. But then, less revenue for marketing means the "good enough" technology and greed win over the better technology.

I can see how a couple of students would focus on the ideals of their first business and overlook the need for revenue. Unfortunately, in tech, you always have to compete against the usual greed gluttons who survive by keeping the better technology from threatening there slow and steady release schedual.

[Mark C. Brooks]

Beijing - iDate2006

I met Marine Ma at the Asian internet dating convention in Beijing earlier this year

Mark Brooks
editor, onlinepersonalswatch.com
media relations, internetdatingconvention.com