PR NEWSWIRE – Nov 13 – Online Buddies, the company behind Manhunt.net, acquired Jack'd, a location based gay dating app. Jack'd, Manhunt, and the Manhunt Daily blog receive a combined 2M unique visits daily, making Online Buddies the largest gay dating company. Jack'd launched in 2010 and since then 5M men have installed the app.
See full article at PR Newswire
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SBS.COM.AU – Oct 28 – Grindr-like app are surging in popularity among gays living outside Beijing and Shanghai. Founder of Blued, an app that allows gay men to search for potential partners nearby using their phone, says third and second tier cities make up 80% of the users. Seeing the market grow, Sense Lou, founder of gay dating site Xuanta, decided to launch a new location-based LGBT dating app before the end of this year. A study found that one in ten gay men live in fear of being outed by their partners – a threat particularly potent in China where Confucian traditions and the importance placed on having children keep many in the closet.
STAR OBSERVER – Sep 25 – Grindr has considered threatening the Turkish government with legal action over their ban. The app was blocked by Istanbul’s Criminal Court of Peace this month. Grindr is now working via its geo-targeted advocacy service “Grindr for Equality” with KAOS GL and online LGBTI advocacy group All Out to pressure the Turkish government into lifting the ban.
by Benjamin Riley
See full article at Star Observer
TECH CRUNCH – Sep 21 – Dattch is a dating app exclusively for lesbians, bisexual and/or bi-curious women, designed by a female team. The app has just closed a £100,000/$160,000 angel/small seed round. "The gay female dating scene is badly served," says founder and CEO Robyn Exton. “Nobody was thinking about a female user, and actually how do women behave? What kind of triggers are they looking for?" So what are gay women looking for? Firstly, lots and lots of photos. Photos of where you live, what you wear, things you like, places you want to go. Dattch is taking its design inspiration from Pinterest. The app’s other focus is a text-based messaging feature.
by Natasha Lomas
See full article at Tech Crunch
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GAYSTAR NEWS – Sep 18 – Grindr is working with leading Turkish LGBT association, KAOS GL and digital LGBT activists at All Out to petition Turkey to lift the ban. There were 125K active monthly Grindr users in Turkey. Istanbul’s Criminal Court of Peace blocked Grindr as a ‘protection measure’ on Sep 11th.
TIMES OF INDIA – Sep 15 – Grindr has ~11K monthly users in India. "In conservative regions where being gay may be taboo, Grindr allows for connections that wouldn't happen face-to-face so it's not surprising that it is popular in India," says a Grindr spokesperson. SinglesAroundMe claims they have 66K Indian subscribers. "India is third after the US and UK and represents only 5% of our user base presently, but the number is growing very quickly," says CEO Christopher Klotz. Thrill is another app that is getting popular in India. Thrill's 'he applies she decides' approach enables women to choose the men they want in. Thrill won't be enabling their locator technology at the moment.
by Sonal Nerurkar
See full article at Times if India
GAY STAR NEWS – Sep 11 – According to the gay rights group, Istanbul’s Criminal Court of Peace blocked the app as a ‘protection measure’. ‘It is most likely related to “general morality”, an ambiguous term used often against trans sex workers.’
by Joe Morgan
See full article at Gay Star News
THE VERGE – July 26 – Earlier this year, users of Grindr started seeing a sharp increase in the number of attractive men saying hello to them. Some of the most provocative profiles on Grindr aren’t men at all, but spambots designed to lure credulous users into turning over their credit-card information. Spambots are not unique to Grindr; the world of dating apps is filled with scam artists. Grindr will soon release an update that requires users to verify their accounts by providing a valid email address and creating a password. Joining Grindr requires only downloading the app and opening it up — immediately, the user is greeted with profiles of dozens of nearby men. Competitors like Scruff and Jackd have long required users to create an account, and seem to be less prone to spam. But they’re also less popular.
WSJ – July 24 – Carl Sandler is the CEO of Mister, a newly relaunched mobile dating app for gay and bisexual men. Carl helped design Gay.com, and also writes an advice column for the Huffington Post. The relaunch of Mister comes with several new design elements, including “Mr. Right,” a feature which acts as a “digital wingman". Gay men were among the earliest adopters of mobile dating apps. Grindr, Scruff and Manhunt are all enormously successful apps with millions of users. But one of the side effects of their success is that they may be contributing to a “hook-up” culture. “The hookup world is a vestige of the past,” Carl said. “We’re looking for a way that creates more space for something else to emerge.”
by Eric Sasson
See full article at WSJ
Q: What were you doing five years ago?
A: I worked in finance and in news for a little bit. I had my own magazine subscription business.
Q: You founded Grindr because you wanted an easier, discrete way to hook-up?
A: The main reason for me was just to find out who else is gay.
Q: So gaydar is a myth?
A: It's not a sure thing, right?
Q: Can you tell us about your premium business model?
A: A paid version doesn't have ads, shows you more guys, has push notifications, and has a bunch of extra features. The cost varies from $3.75 to $5.99 per month. 75% of our revenue comes from our subscribers and the other 25 percent comes from our advertisers.
Q: Do you advertise Grindr at all?
A: We don't currently. Most of our growth is based on word of mouth, press-mentions.
Q: How is Blendr doing?
A: It's growing nicely. We quite like where it's at right now but it's not our focus.
Q: Can you tell us about your backers and how you gained funding?
A: We're self-funded and we are glad for it.
Q: What sort of return you've had on your $5,000 investment?
A: I don't know; I've never quite calculated it. But as you can imagine it's been a good return.