TIME – Sep 14 – Zhou Yahui, who purchased a controlling share in the gay-dating app Grindr early this year, was ordered by a Beijing court to hand over 705.4M shares of his online gaming company, Beijing Kunlun Tech, to his wife Li Qiong in a divorce settlement. The shares are worth about $1.1B based on the stock's closing price of $3.90 per share on the day of the ruling, making it one of the most expensive divorce settlements China has ever seen.
Category: All Gay
Indonesian Police Wants To Ban Gay Dating App
Egyptian Police Using Gay Dating Apps To Hunt Gays
THE JERUSALEM POST – Aug 25 – Egyptian government authorities have reportedly been using gay dating apps to locate and detain members of the LGBT community, according to online lifestyle and entertainment magazine CairoScene. The outlet claimed that the online dating apps, such as Grindr, are jeopardizing the safety of the conservative Muslim country's homosexual population.
PrEP Anti-HIV Medication Awareness Is Grindr’s Key Priority
IBTIMES – July 23 – In 2012 'Grindr for equality' was launched to raise awareness of gay health issues and rights. One initiative particularly stood out… its work to inform users about PrEP. PrEP is for people who are at very high risk of HIV. It involves taking a daily combination of two HIV medicines sold under the name Truvada which prevents people from contracting the virus. Truvada for PrEP provides a 92%-99% reduction in HIV risk for HIV-negative individuals. Last year, Grindr conducted a survey which revealed that only 1 in 4 Grindr users was on PrEP in the US. 72% said they were interested in starting someday, but many pointed out a lack of info. "Following our survey, we decided to make PrEP a key priority for 2016", said Jack Harrison Quintana, director of Grindr for Equality. In the most recent survey, Grindr found that ~46% of respondents were now taking PrEP.
Researchers Give Out H.I.V. Self-Testing Kits On Grindr
NEW YORK TIMES – July 11 – The study used banner ads on Grindr to offer free test kits. Recipients received a kit in the mail, a voucher that could be redeemed for a kit at a pharmacy, or a code that would produce a kit from a vending machine in the parking lot of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center. The study was confined to Los Angeles, and fewer than 400 test kits were distributed, but the idea has broader potential.
by Donald G. McNeil Jr.
See full article at The New York Times
Her Goes Live On Android
Hornet Acquires Vespa, The Leading Gay City Guide
PR NEWSWIRE – July 5 – "With the acquisition of Vespa, Hornet will provide the most innovative set of apps to the 250M strong consumer segment of gay men worldwide, and will be able to extend its innovation lead by integrating gay places and events in 300 cities in 70 countries worldwide into its products." Vespa's founder and CEO Christof Wittig, who co-founded Hornet in 2011, has been appointed the new CEO, while co-founder Sean Howell is now Chairman and President of Hornet. With 15M total and 3M monthly active users, Hornet is the second largest gay social network worldwide after Grindr.
See full article at Hornet Blog
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
ChristianMingle Opens Doors To Gay Singles Under Settlement
by Jacob Gershman & Sara Randazzo
See full article at WSJ
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Hornet Rolls Out New Features
GAY TIMES – June 8 – While they've promised to keep their traditional grid feature they're also offering up Discover and the Activity Feed. With Discover users can browse guys that have similar interests and use hashtags to make searches more effective, as well as 'New Guys' and 'Who Checked You Out' features.
by Anthony Sinclair
See full article at Gay Times
Blued Now Twice As Big As Grindr
GAY STAR NEWS – Jun 4 – The China-based gay social networking app has announced that it has completed its latest rounds of investor financing and has a value of $300M with 27M registered users. 20% of those are now outside of China. It is one of the most-downloaded social networking apps in App Store. Blued is aiming for a stock market flotation within the next 1-2 years but which stock market it hopes to list on remains unknown.