THE BAY AREA REPORTER – Sep 18 – A class action complaint against Grindr for privacy violations may not be able to proceed in traditional court but may go through arbitration. User Robert Bergeron sued Grindr after allegations it shared personal user data with third parties to the highest bidder without obtaining consent of users or telling them who those entities are, the initial federal court complaint states. Data included 'chat message text, chat images, e-mail address, display name, About Me, HIV status, linked Facebook & Twitter data, and more. They're claiming $5m+, which if the case went forward as a class action lawsuit would be spread among the members of the class. A 98% stake in Grindr sold a 98% stake in March to U.S.-based San Vicente Acquisition Partners.
Category: All Gay
Blued Introduces “Community” Feature
GLOBE NEWSWIRE – Sep 16 – Blued now enables users to join groups covering diverse topics and express themselves, similar to Facebook Groups. As of Jun 30, 2020, Blued had 6.4m monthly active users worldwide, up 11.2% YOY. ~Half are outside China. Each active user spends 60 mins and 16 sessions on Blued every day.
BlueCity CEO Named Among Business Insider’s 100 People Transforming Business in Asia
GLOBE NEWSWIRE – Sep 9 – Baoli Ma, founder, chairman and CEO of BlueCity, a world-leading online LGBTQ platform, has been named among Business Insider's 100 People Transforming Business in Asia. BlueCity is best known for its dating app Blued. Entrepreneurs are classified into ten industry categories with ten winners for each in each region. Ma was awarded under the Consumer Tech category. Other winners in this division include Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, and Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify.
Grindr ‘Disappointed’ by Pakistan Block
WHTC – Sep 3 – Grindr is disappointed by Pakistan's decision this week to block it and four other dating apps including Tinder after they were deemed to be disseminating "immoral content". Pakistan, the second largest Muslim-majority country in the world after Indonesia, is an Islamic nation where extra-marital relationships and homosexuality are illegal. Grindr did not say whether it would seek to discuss the matter further with Pakistani authorities.
Parent Company of Blued Buys Lesbian Platform
REUTERS – Aug 26 – BlueCity, the owner of China's biggest gay men dating app Blued, has bought a Chinese lesbian dating app LESDO, marking the first ever deal within the country's LGBT market. Launched in 2014, LESDO is an app for lesbians. It is believed to be the second most popular lesbian social app in China after Rela. BlueCity raised $84.8M in a Nasdaq IPO in July that valued it at $614M.
by Colin Qian & Brenda Goh
See full article at Reuters
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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.com
BlueCity Sees 32% YOY Increase in Total Revenue in Q2
CGTN – Aug 26 – BlueCity, China's leading online LGBTQ platform, saw a 32.2% increase in total revenue YOY, with its net loss significantly improved. The Q2 revenue was 247.4M yuan ($35M). Q2 net loss was 3.3M yuan ($479K), a significant improvement compared with a net loss of 12.2M yuan ($1.8M) in Q2 2019. Monthly active users (MAUs) on the Blued mobile app reached 6.4M, up 11.2% YOY.
As You Are – A Homegrown LGBTQ Dating App in India
INDIAN EXPRESS – Aug 25 – Indian LGBTQ dating app called "As You Are" aims to offer a safe space for people to make connections while keeping their identity confidential. The app was created by two women – Sunali Aggarwal and Aditi Gupta. For close to two decades, the duo has closely worked with various startups. The app has a strong verification process to filter out fake or junk profiles early on. New users have to provide their email and phone number and a selfie for verification. The app is about two months old and is seeing ~60 signups on a daily basis.
Blued Hits 50K Mark on Appointments for HIV Testing
CAPITAL WATCH – Aug 18 – Blued, Asia's top LGBTQ platform, has facilitated 50K online appointments for HIV testing at ~200 partnered testing establishments in China as of 2019. The company said it has recorded ~10M page views for HIV-prevention content on BlueCity's platforms.
Dating App Taimi Wants to Evolve Into a Social Network
WHICH-50 – Aug 18 – According to founder Alex Pasykov, who also previously launched another dating app, Hily, "We're currently in the process of enhancing and expanding the world's largest LGBTQI+ platform." Dating will remain a key part of the app, he said, "However we have shifted our focus to the social network and have seen steady growth in terms of numbers." Since March 2020 the numbers have grown by ~50%. The company is also developing new initiatives including live streams.
by Andrew Birmingham
See full article at Which-50
This post also appears on VerySocialNetwork.
Grindr Offers New Security Features in Partnership With UrSafe
