Tantan Climbs Chinese Grossing Ranks After Returning from Ban

Tantan recently returned to mobile app stores in China following a government-imposed 10-week ban. 

The penalty period, which saw monestisation pause, was implemented after a newspaper in the country suggested that it was common to find prostitution on the platform. 

Before the suspension, the swipe-based service pulled in over $44 million in Q1 revenue. It had acquired more than 5 million paying users in total after introducing a Tinder Gold-esque premium tier.

The Communist Party of China often intervenes if social media content fails to align with its goals – something which has been a cause for concern among investors in the past. All eyes were on Tantan as it relaunched on 29 June. 

Though many metrics are difficult to track in China, the service appears to have seen success since its return. It performed even better than it had previously on top grossing rankings for iOS, reaching the top 15 immediately upon its reintroduction. 

Last week, it made the top three – far above its typical ranking outside of the top 25. 

One Seeking Alpha analyst covering the return has suggested that virtual gifting could help the app to hit further heights in the coming months. There are no features like this on Tantan at present, but parent company Momo is a pioneer of the model.

Having the option to shower matches with gifts, signalling status within the context of dating, is likely to attract large numbers of high-spending ‘whales’.

The coverage concludes: “The same way Tinder has created more than $10 billion worth of market cap for Match Group, Tantan is about to become a true growth engine for Momo. 

“Now that the recent regulatory issues and performance concerns have been cleared for Tantan, I believe more than ever that investors not buying shares of Momo when it’s trading at a $7 billion market cap will be regretting it dearly.”

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