ADVOCATE – 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.
Category: All Gay
Grindr To Go Public
BBC – 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.
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Gay Dating App Scruff Isn’t Interested In Third-Party Relationships
ADEXCHANGER – 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.
Personals: A New Instagram Dating Community For LGBT
NEW 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.
Gleeden Claims 270K Users In India
NEW 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.
Grindr Used To Sell Drugs
Grindr To Host HIV/AIDS Policy Experts & Advocates At Its First HIV Data Privacy Summit
PR 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.
Grindr Announces ‘Kindr’ Version To Be Released In Sep 2018
Grindr Sets Up Office In Taiwan
Asian Man Is Bringing A Class Action Against Grindr For Allowing Racial Discrimination
THEGAYUK – July 10 – A man is planning to sue the gay dating app, Grindr, for racial discrimination and is looking for co-plaintiffs across the US's fifty states so that he can bring a class action. Sinakhone Keodara, the CEO and founder of the Asian Entertainment Television company says that Grindr allows "white gay men to write in their profiles 'no Asians', 'not interested in Asians' or 'I don't find Asians attractive'," which he says, leads to people feeling "offended, humiliated, degraded and dehumanised" by the app.