Chinese livestreaming company YY has relaunched one of its social media apps with a heavier focus on online dating.
Shiting PK was rebranded as Zhuiya, which roughly translates to “Chase ‘em” and will continue to target a young millennial audience.
The new product looks to connect users based upon their interests and hobbies. When they first log in, singles choose tags that are most relevant to their interests before entering into a public chatroom with people who made similar selections.
Within this room they can start up to nine private “speed-dating sessions”, which last just three minutes and can be either text or audio conversations. The chatroom is constantly moderated by a “matchmaker” who keeps track of how the relationships develop.
Like with the majority of YY subsidiaries, there is a livestreaming element to the product. Two performers go head-to-head to see who can receive the most amount of virtual gifts from the watching audience.
Representatives explained that it is not a completely new product, describing it at an update to an already established app. They also emphasised that this doesn’t mark a change of direction for the company because Zhuiya isn’t “of strategic importance”.
YY completed the acquistion of Singapore-based livestreaming company Bigo in March as part of its expansion into South East Asia markets.
A documentary was released at the end of last year which detailed the supposedly glamorous lifestyle of two Chinese streamers. The Meet Group’s former VP of Livestreaming Lauren Hallanan called the film “overly dramatised”.
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