Can “Wang Po’s Matchmaking” replace Jiayuan.com?

This article explores the "Wang Po Matchmaking" phenomenon and its impact on the cultural and tourism industry, analyzes its differences and potential problems with traditional dating platforms, and guides your reading, hoping it will be helpful to you.

From Zibo barbecue to "Erbin" ice and snow tours and Tianshui spicy hot pot, Wang Po's matchmaking has become a new cultural and tourism hotspot and has successfully broken the circle.

In fact, "Wang Po Matchmaking" is an offline dating program in Wansui Mountain Dasong Wuxia City in Kaifeng City, Henan Province. Wang Po is a character in Water Margin, the one who instigated Ximen Qing and Pan Jinlian.

Zhao Mei, 61 years old this year, has been playing the role of Wang Po in Wansui Mountain for six years, and has been helping single young people find their partners.

Through short videos and live broadcasts, Wang Po's matchmaking model has become popular. It continues to heat up in the continuous dissemination and has almost become the hottest cultural and tourism topic in recent times.

Many people use a popular Internet saying: "It's not that I can't afford If You Are the One, but that Wang Po's Matchmaking is more cost-effective."

Wang Po’s matchmaking is inseparable from her sincere hosting style and personal charm. To use the Internet’s terminology, she is a big IP.

Because there was no script on the scene, it all depended on Wang Po's on-the-spot performance, and the effect was maximized directly. Realism was the magic weapon for victory.

In this era of short video live streaming, this kind of thing is scarce, so its sudden popularity is an inevitable coincidence.

Wang Po herself said that among the couples she had brought together, one was already married and the other was engaged. In her one year as a matchmaker, she had helped bring about 40 to 50 marriages.

1. Wang Po’s matchmaking has boosted the cultural tourism boom, and imitators have emerged in various places

At one time, young people from all over the country flocked there.

According to Tongcheng Travel data, as of March 26, the tourism search popularity of Kaifeng Wansui Mountain Wuxia City Scenic Area, where "Wang Po" is located, has increased by more than 700% month-on-month, and ticket bookings have increased by more than 200% month-on-month. The tourism search popularity of Kaifeng has increased by 94% month-on-month in the past week, and hotel bookings have increased by 44% compared with the same period last year.

In this regard, a relevant person in charge of Tongcheng Research Institute pointed out that "Wang Po's Matchmaking" is a new type of cultural experience activity. The emergence of such activities not only shapes the cultural heritage for scenic spots and destinations, but also helps to enhance the city's tourism attractiveness.

People's Daily commented on Wang Po's Media: "Cultural tourism business requires not only professionalism, but also warmth."

People from all over the country began to imitate Wang Po's matchmaking and acted as "Yue Lao".

Wang Po imitators appeared in Pingdingshan, Zhangzhou, Zhoukou and other places.

To be honest, this is a bit like the IP of Dong Yuhui, Li Jiaqi and Wang Po in live streaming sales. It is difficult to replicate, and everyone already has a preconceived impression.

Moreover, in my opinion, as time goes by, the popularity will drop significantly and it will be difficult to maintain it for a long time.

Now driven by traffic, Wang Po seems to have been deified, but with fame comes gossip, and doubts are gradually emerging.

2. Wang Po herself has no script, but she can’t prevent people from taking advantage of her traffic, and married people pretending to be single are also hard to prevent

Since Wang Po is so popular, those who want to take advantage of her traffic will naturally not let her go.

Recently, an internet celebrity with millions of fans came on stage with a microphone and a team live streaming the show, but this was discovered by Wang Po.

Of course, Wang Po is not a real matchmaker, and she is not always accurate in judging people.

What was quite embarrassing recently was that a married man also came on the blind date stage and claimed that he was willing to "run for love". He told the girl that he was willing to quit his current job in Zhengzhou and move to Sichuan. The two then exchanged WeChat accounts.

However, the man’s wife soon revealed and shared the marriage certificate, and she herself was far away overseas, which made her very upset.

It is understood that the two had been married for only half a year. The girl said she would return to China to deal with the divorce.

A dating show that was supposed to be a good match has turned into a divorce drama, which is really laughable.

After this incident, Wang Po gave a solution, which was that in the future, one must register before going on stage, and only after the information is reviewed can one go on stage.

In fact, this is the only solution. The original purpose of the show is to be sincere, but now there are too many people playing tricks, and a good show feels less sincere.

In fact, when it comes to blind dates, it is very important that the information provided is true. After all, it is only a one-time meeting and you know very little information about the person. If even all of this is false, how can you continue?

Originally, Wang Po's matchmaking was an entertainment project in the scenic area, and everyone just had fun, and most people just watched for fun. But it became so popular that many young people really wanted to find a partner through this, and the difficulty increased dramatically.

It's like people are just playing basketball on the court for fun, but you treat it as the NBA. It would be strange if there weren't problems.

If you can’t even get the blind dates introduced by relatives and friends, how can you count on strangers you’ve only met once and whose background you don’t know?

3. Wang Po Matchmaking is not Jiayuan.com or If You Are the One. It is just a tourist attraction program.

Some people describe Wang Po's matchmaking as an economic version of If You Are the One, but there is a big difference between the two.

One is a scenic spot project hosted by a single person for informal chats and matchmaking for single young people. It is deeply tied to the scenic spot and Wang Po herself.

This is a strong IP of a single person. Wang Po opened an account on Douyin, and her fans increased by more than 5 million in just a few days.

Wang Po's Matchmaking is a non-profit performance, while If You Are the One is a real commercial program with a complete team. Wang Po can be said to be fighting alone.

However, someone registered the "Kaifeng Wang Po" matchmaking company, but Wang Po Zhao Mei was not found in the company information.

Tianyancha information shows that recently, Kaifeng Wangpolai Dating and Marriage Service Co., Ltd. was established, with Li as the legal representative, a registered capital of RMB 300,000, and business scope including marriage introduction services, wedding etiquette services, photography and enlargement services, housekeeping services, etc. The company's address is No. 1, No. 306, Ximen Street, Longting District, Kaifeng City, Henan Province. Shareholder information shows that the company is wholly owned by Li.

The fact is that this is another attempt to take advantage of the situation. Wang Po has already posted a video to deny it.

Playing the role of Wang Po is just Zhao Mei's job. In fact, the author feels that Wang Po's matchmaking is more like a blind date corner, except that there is Wang Po, an excellent folk host.

If You Are the One is a purely commercial program, a variety show that is edited to make the audience enjoy watching it, but I feel that the sense of sincerity is minimal.

Looking further ahead, will Wang Po's matchmaking become a new business model for blind dates? I don't think so.

Compared with Internet dating platforms such as Wangpo Matchmaking and Jiayuan.com, the audience it covers is too small, one is offline and the other is online.

CCTV's 3.15 Gala exposed the phenomenon that many dating platforms took advantage of age anxiety, fertility anxiety and other pain points to induce consumers to buy membership services that cost tens of thousands of yuan. Among them, Zhenai.com, Jiayuan.com and Baihe.com were all named. And cases of users of these websites being deceived are not uncommon.

Although Wangpo Matchmaking also has people with fake identities, its short video live broadcast is open to a wider audience and is also useful in identifying and filtering out "scammers". This is something that dating websites need to learn.

Even though there are matchmaking programs in various tourist attractions, to be honest, how many people are willing to go on stage? Blind dates are still a private matter, and there are still only a few bold people. Although the program is very effective, the success rate may not be as high as imagined.

Moreover, judging from the current imitators, they have almost no voice. Wang Po is not so easy to copy.

Moreover, after the real-name system was implemented for Wang Po’s matchmaking, the number of blind dates will probably decrease as the popularity declines. After all, it’s just a way to chat and there’s no money to be made, so why bother working so hard?

The commercial monetization of Wang Po’s matchmaking service is more about the operation of Wang Po’s personal IP, but Wang Po said that she dare not promote the products for fear of being criticized.

I have concerns even about selling goods, let alone starting a company.

The reason why Wang Po’s matchmaking app became so popular is that it hits the pain points of young people’s marriage and love problems, and it is made possible by Wang Po’s format, as well as the dissemination methods of short videos and live broadcasts.

It is also deeply tied to the region, just like Zibo BBQ and Erbin Ice and Snow City. Just thinking about how popular these were back then, one can foresee the future of Wang Po's matchmaking.

But it is also a little different. Other cultural and tourism hotspots are usually popular for a category of things, while Wang Po is specific to individuals. Compared with generalized cultural and tourism hotspots, Wang Po's IP is more sustainable in operation. It is more concentrated and specific.

If Wang Po doesn't act as a matchmaker, will you still love her?

Author: Yu Guoer Source: WeChat public account: Sanyan Pro (ID: sycaijing)