A few short years ago if someone had mentioned "China" and "dating" to me in the same sentence I would have assumed they had a Tang Dynasty vase they were trying to authenticate...

Pacific Epoch called it a ménage à trois: MSN China is now in bed with two different dating sites - Marry5 and Love21cn.

Marry5 was already profitable, but the new connection with MSN China has has meant that membership sign ups have speed up considerably. The company hopes to accelerate its IPO offering as a result.

Love21cn had just over 5 million registered users in May. Marry5 had about 4.5 million users when it joined up with MSN late last month. Part of the force driving the success of dating websites in China is statistical; Magic Statistics pointed out earlier this year that about 30 million Chinese men will probably never find wives because the the gender disparity created by China's One Child policy and the preference chinese culture has for sons over daughters.