Category: All Gay

Grindr IPO Plans Shine Light On China LGBT Acceptance

Posted on September 11, 2018

Grindr icon on mobileBUSINESS TIMES – Sep 7 – Grindr is planning an IPO overseas. Grindr owner, Beijing Kunlun Technology, did not publicize where or when the IPO will take place. The LGBT community continues to thrive in China. Rela is one of the most popular social networking platforms that cater to the LGBT community in China. During its peak, the platform had ~5M registered users. Blued, the country's second-largest social network for the LGBT community claims to have 27M registered users. Based on the latest data, the Chinese LGBT population currently stands between 70M to 90M. The Chinese LGBT community has an annual purchasing power that stands at a massive $938B in 2017 alone.

by Vera Dee
See full article at Business Times

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For India’s LGBTQ Community, Scrapping Section 377 Is Only The First Step

Posted on September 10, 2018

India gay rightsQUARTZ – Sep 6 – On Sep 6, the supreme court delivered a historic verdict, striking down the section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalised homosexual activity. "Any discrimination on basis of sexual orientation amounts to a violation of fundamental rights," chief justice Dipak Misra said in his judgment. Though the verdict marks a win, the fight is still on inside and outside the courtroom as the LGBTQ community seeks acceptance in terms of marriage laws, adoption laws, and more.

by Ananya Bhattacharya
See full article at Quartz

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Scruff’s Latest Update: Fighting Gay App Racism

Posted on September 4, 2018

Scruff screenshotADVOCATE – Sep 3 – Gay dating app Scruff has removed all programmatic advertising; it also no longer requires users to list their race or ethnicity. The first change means that Scruff will not display third-party ads from companies like Google's AdMob and Twitter's MoPub. These ads are automated by targeting specific demographics like the gay community, using data provided by the app. Instead, Scruff's advertising will focus on partnerships with LGBTQ nonprofits, health, and advocacy groups, as well as lifestyle and travel companies. In terms of the second change, Scruff will now only require users to share their name, email, and birthday – ethnicity and all other profile fields are optional.

by Daniel Reynolds
See full article at Advocate

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Grindr To Go Public

Posted on August 30, 2018

Grindr logo new dec 13BBC – Aug 29 – Gay dating app Grindr is going to list its shares on international stock exchanges, under a plan submitted by its Chinese parent company Kunlun Group. Kunlun Group's board said that going public would "strengthen" Grindr's competitiveness and help the business continue to develop. The Chinese tech firm originally bought a 61.5% stake in 2016 from the company's US founders. It then took full control in January.

See full article at BBC

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

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Gay Dating App Scruff Isn’t Interested In Third-Party Relationships

Posted on August 28, 2018

Scruff logoADEXCHANGER – Aug 27 – When the gay dating app, which now has ~12M users, first came on the scene in 2010, its monetization strategy could pretty much be summed up in one word: AdMob. But in January, the Grindr competitor decided to remove all its banner ad slots and stop selling its inventory programmatically. Today, subscriptions and in-app purchases make up ~80% of its revenue, and a direct ad sales team is responsible for rustling up the remainder. Some brands shy away from dating traffic, citing brand safety concerns, which makes it tricky for Scruff to monetize with advertising.

by Allison Schiff
See full article at ADExchanger

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Personals: A New Instagram Dating Community For LGBT

Posted on August 6, 2018

Personals screenshotNEW YORK TIMES – Aug 4 – Old-school personal ads are the currency of Personals, an Instagram dating community built for lesbians; bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual women; and gender-nonconforming and nonbinary people. The page, which has 40K followers, works like this: Text-based personal ads are submitted once a month. Ms. Rakowski then publishes them as Instagram posts and tags the people who submitted them. Interested parties can get in touch directly. Ms. Rakowski, 39, is a photo editor at Metropolis magazine and the creator of Herstory, an Instagram account that surfaces lesbian imagery from as early as the 1800s. This summer, she raised ~$48K on Kickstarter for a prototype version that will still use the typewriter font and gender-neutral aqua palette. Instead of swiping, users browse a continuous feed, much like the user experience of Facebook or Twitter.

by Jamie Lauren Keiles
See full article at New York Times

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Gleeden Claims 270K Users In India

Posted on August 6, 2018

Gleeden logo 2017NEW INDIAN EXPRESS – Aug 4 – Should adultery be tried as an offence in India, or should the state and its courts stay out of it? A petition submitted to the Supreme Court has started a debate around this. Meanwhile Gleeden, an app that provides a platform for 'extramarital dating' is doing very well in India. It has 2.7 lakh (270K) users in India. Gleeden was launched officially in India in August 2017 but Indians were using its services way before that. Gleeden Indian users mostly come from big cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi and Bengaluru. Most of the members have a privileged professional background. A lot of them are senior executives, doctors, lawyers or bankers, says Solene Paillet, Head of Communication Management of Gleeden.

See full article at New Indian Express

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Grindr Used To Sell Drugs

Posted on August 6, 2018

Grindr-pot-and-cokeNBC NEWS – Aug 2 – "Today with Grindr, men can have sex and drugs delivered to their door instantly," said Phil McCabe, a social worker and president of the National Association of LGBT Addiction Professionals. Grindr has previously taken steps to address the buying, selling and promoting of drugs on its platform. However, those who use the app say it is still home to a robust market for illicit substances. The terms "parTy and play" and the acronym "PNP," which can be seen on Grindr and beyond, are used by some gay men to describe a sexual encounter while under the influence of drugs. Beyond code words, there's also a plethora of symbols and emojis that are used to indicate drugs. Grindr users discreetly reference crystal meth by putting a diamond emoji in their profile, and snowflake emojis are used to get the attention of those looking to purchase cocaine. According to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1.4M people in the U.S. used methamphetamines in 2016, and gay men use the drug at double the rate of the general population. Under U.S. law, Grindr is not required to do anything when it comes to moderating drug-related content on its app. Like all websites and apps, the gay dating platform is protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

by Denio Lourenco
See full article at NBC News

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Grindr To Host HIV/AIDS Policy Experts & Advocates At Its First HIV Data Privacy Summit

Posted on August 2, 2018

Grindr iconPR NEWSWIRE – July 30 – Grindr will be hosting its first-ever HIV Data Privacy Summit in Los Angeles this October. The summit will convene HIV/AIDS policy experts and LGBTQ+ community leaders to provide feedback on the recent changes made to Grindr's privacy policy and to develop a set of guiding principles that could be adopted industry-wide to ensure protection and transparency for social app users who self-disclose sexual health information. The full list of participants, official date and agenda will be announced in the weeks leading up to the October 2018 summit.

See full article at PR Newswire

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Grindr Announces ‘Kindr’ Version To Be Released In Sep 2018

Posted on July 30, 2018

Grindr kindr screenshotPINK NEWS – July 28 – Grindr has hinted at a new version of the app which will tackle the racism and bullying on the platform. The dating site tweeted a cryptic video with a voiceover discussing racism, which says: "When someone says something like I don't date black people, that's all black people, that's what I refer to as sexual racism." It also tweeted a link to a website called kindr.grindr.com, which currently only has the voiceover and the tagline: "It's time to play nice." The site's vague announcement comes just days after model and activist Munroe Bergdorf called on the company to address hate speech.

by Eve Hartley
See full article at Pink News

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