中国网络约会产业蓬勃发展

Speed dating, on-line dating and TV dating shows are on the rise in China. And with one of the country’s largest dating websites now listed on the Nasdaq in 2011, it looks like there’s money to be made from China’s singles.
中国的闪电约会、网上约会和电视相亲节目不断增加。作为2011年Nasdaq上全国最大型的交友网站之一，它似乎可以从中国的单身人士那里赚到钱。

China’s single population is reshaping the market for dating websites. China has more than 180 million people who are currently single.
中国的单身人群正在重塑交友网站市场。目前，中国的单身人士已超过1.8亿。

By 2011, nearly half of the country’s wanna-be-marrieds had registered on one of the country’s three leading dating agencies -- bringing the companies multi-million Yuan profits.
截止至2011年，全国近一半想结婚的人已在国家三大婚姻介绍所登记——为这些公司带来数百万元的收益。

Baihe.com is one of them. Mu Yan, co-founder of Baihe.com, said, “We have over 36 million registered users, and for the active users each month, we have several million. The profit is good; the revenue is roughly over 200 million RMB."
百合网是其中之一。百合网的联合创始人慕岩表示：“我们有超过3600万的注册用户，每月的活跃用户有几百万。利润是很可观的；收入粗略计算超过2亿人民币。”

Circulating client data and membership fees are the main sources of profit. Clicking on a message takes the recipient to a payment page, which has membership packages from 200 to 500 yuan.
传播客户资料和会员费是主要的收益来源。点击信息可以将接受者带到带到付费页面，会员包的价格从200元至500元不等。

Charges are payable for sending and reading messages, as well as online chatting and virtual gifting.
发送和阅读信息都要付钱，网上聊天和虚拟礼物也要钱。

But the big question is why these dating websites are so popular?
但是问题在于为什么这些交友网站如此受欢迎？

Zhou Xiaopeng, Baihe.com relationship counselor, said, “The main body of our clients are young adults in their 20s, people born in the late 1980s. They’re the generation that grew up with the internet. The internet helps them make sense of the world, so when it comes to finding love, it’s quite natural for them to use the internet.”
百合网爱情顾问Zhou Xiaopeng称：“我们的客户主体是一些20多岁的年轻人，他们出生于1980年后。他们是伴随互联网成长的一代。互联网帮助他们认识世界，所以当涉及到寻找爱情，很自然，他们就会使用互联网。”

It looks like matchmaking sites might be "the fast track to love" for some of the young adults in China.
对中国一些年轻的成年人而言，红娘网站好像是“爱情的快速路”。

Wang Shanshan, online dating website client, said, "I use the dating site since it’s fast and convenient."
交友网站用户Wang Shanshan称：“我使用交友网站是因为它快速、方便。”

Meng Xiangyun, online dating website client, said, “It’s good to have more options. I’ve had my doubts before, but a lot of the sites are adopting a real-name system now, so it’s much better."
交友网站用户Meng Xiangyun称：“有更多选择是很好的。我以前也有怀疑，但是许多网站现在都采用实名制，所以现在还多了。”

A real-name system, a broader platform to meet more potential dates, a screening practice that cuts out the trial-and-error time usually involved in conventional forms of dating..
实名制、遇见更多潜在约会对象的广阔平台、筛选以减少尝试时间，这些通常都涉及到约会的传统形式。

All these make matchmaking sites especially appealing to today’s young adults in China.
所有这些都使红娘网站特别吸引中国今天的年轻成年人。

Young adults in China are busier than ever, they often have little free time outside of their studies or work for socializing or dating. There’s simply too much pressure and too little time for them to go through the process of spending time and effort to find the right person, which sometimes could be frustrating.
中国的年轻人比以往更加忙碌，学习、工作之余，他们通常都没有什么空闲时间参与社交或约会。对他们而言，有太多的压力、太少的时间来度过这个花时间和努力寻找合适的人的过程，这有时是让人泄气的。

The increasingly busy modern lifestyle is believed to be the other reason that behind the booming online dating industry.
日益忙碌的现代生活方式被认为是网上交友行业繁荣背后的另一个原因。

Raymond Zhou, senior columnist of China Daily, said, “I think the fundamental reason for the popularity of online dating services and television dating shows is that today’s young people are postponing their marriage and you can site a lot of reasons, a lot of factors, such as work related pressure because with affluence comes with work related problems, people feel that career is more important than their personal lives."
《中国日报》资深专栏作家Raymond Zhou表示：“我认为，网上交友服务和电视相亲节目受热捧的基本原因是现在的年轻人都在推迟结婚，你可以提出很多原因、很多因素，例如工作方面的压力，因为随着与工作相关的问题的增加，人们觉得事业比个人生活更加重要。”

The numbers are snowballing. The vast volume of singles and flash marriages, as well as escalating divorce rates are all creating a larger market opportunity for cyber dating websites.
数量像滚雪球似地迅速增加。大量的单身人士、闪婚以及逐渐提高的离婚率都为交友网站创造了一个更大的市场机遇。

And as the internet continues to expand, more and more people are likely to embrace the concept of finding the right person online.
随着因特网的持续扩张，越来越多的人可能会接受在网上寻找合适的人的想法。