Chinese Flirt App Momo Reaches 80m Users

Chinese messaging app Momo, the “magical tool to getting laid”, has amassed 80m users according to its founder.

This number has more than doubled since March.

Momo’s founder Tang Yan said on his Weibo page that the app now has 13m daily users, and 39m monthly users.

Launched in September 2011, the app is a location-based messaging service that lets you chat to people in your vicinity.

Tan said the app sees 500m messages a day, and has twice as many users as FourSquare.

Users can also share photos, audio and their location – as well as set up group chats.

Last week Momo launched a social gaming feature – letting users play games against each other – which Yan says has been downloaded 2m times.

The app has earned a controversial reputation as a hookup app, something compounded by comedian Mike Sui calling it the “magical tool to getting laid” in his viral video 12 Beijingers.

It received some bad press in February when a video surfaced of prostitutes being lectured on how to use the app to entice customers.

In August Momo received $40m in Series B funding, with rumours circulating that huge e-commerce company Alibaba had provided a large portion of the funding – something that neither party has confirmed.

An English version of the app was released in October, which you can download here.