Momo reached 60.2 million monthly users in about three years by helping people in China talk to strangers. The Beijing app used a phone's location to show who was nearby, then let users chat, join groups and meet in person. It launched in August 2011, just as smartphones spread across the country. By its December 2014 IPO, Momo had 180.3 million registered users and was learning to turn that crowd into revenue.

Location as the Hook

Yan Tang founded Momo in 2011, with Yong Li as a co-founder. The bet was that the phone in every pocket could do more than message old friends. Momo built a mobile social platform around location and interests, so users could find people nearby and move from online chats to real meetings. Growth came fast. By September 2014, Momo counted 25.5 million average daily active users, up from about half that a year earlier.

From Momo to Hello Group

Momo priced its IPO at $13.50 per American depositary share in December 2014 and listed on Nasdaq as MOMO. The sale came with a concurrent private placement. In 2021 the parent company changed its name from Momo Inc. to Hello Group Inc., and the Momo app kept its name. Hello Group still files with the SEC from China and still trades on Nasdaq under the ticker MOMO.

Cover: First Meeting (Miai), from the series "Twelve Stages of Matrimony (Konrei jûni-dan)", Torii Kiyonaga. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a first meeting between strangers.