ECONOMIST – July 15 – America's government viewed Grindr with Chinese ties as a national-security concern. Can Blued that has just listed in New York expect similar treatment? Blued launched in China in 2012, 11 years after homosexuality was removed from the country's list of mental disorders. An international edition of the app was released in 2015. Just over half of Blued's 6M active monthly users are in China. The rest are mainly in other parts of Asia. BlueCity's revenues reached 207M yuan ($30M) in the Q1, up by 43% YOY. On July 8th its parent company, BlueCity, listed on New York's Nasdaq exchange, at a market value of over $600m. Blued has so far avoided the sort of scrutiny from American regulators that befell Grindr. Unlike Grindr, which was popular in America before Kunlun bought it, Blued is a minnow outside Asia. Its relative obscurity may shield it from examination for a while. If it starts to gain a foothold in America, regulators are likely to take a closer look.
Category: Grindr
Grindr Cleared for Small-business Loan
REUTERS – July 7 – Grindr was approved for a $1M to $2M loan for small businesses suffering from the coronavirus outbreak. China's Beijing Kunlun Tech sold Grindr last month to an investor group called San Vicente Acquisition, after the U.S. government ordered the divestment amid concerns over the safety of personal data stored in the app. Grindr generated net profit of ~$31M in 2019, according to Kunlun's annual report.
Grindr Ditching the Ethnicity Filter Has Created New Problems
QUEERTY – July 3 – Last week, Grindr announced it was finally ditching its "ethnicity filter" after dragging its feet for over a decade. But as it turns out, removing the filter has actually created a new set of problems. Gay Black writer Otamere Guobadia explains how some BIPOC users actually used the filter to escape the overwhelming sea of white profiles. Guobadia argues that many BIPOC users have felt so abused by white gays that they are not particularly interested in engaging with them on the app and are instead looking to meet guys who share their experiences.
Grindr’s New Owners Want to Create a ‘Positive Place for Everyone’
ADVOCATE – June 15 - Grindr officially has new owners. The popular LGBTQ+ dating app has announced Jeff Bonforte, Rick Marini, and Gary Hsueh as its new CEO, COO, and CFO, respectively. The trio is part of a group of investors that purchased a 98.59% stake in Grindr through San Vicente Acquisition Partners for $608.5M from Beijing Kunlun Tech, a Chinese company that acquired it in 2016. As background, both Bonforte and Marini identify as straight and boast robust résumés in Silicon Valley. A former member of the executive team at Yahoo!, Bonforte helmed Yahoo! Mail, Messenger, and Flickr, among other key areas of the company. He also founded and ran five startups. Marini is the former head of Digital Innovation at Hearst Corporation and was the founder & CEO of BranchOut, the Facebook professional networking app. He was also named one of 2018's Top 50 Angel Investors by Forbes; as an angel investor, he has helped grow Snapchat, Reddit, Opendoor, Poshmark, PAX, and OutReach. "I don't think you have to be gay to want to have a strong, healthy, safe LGBTQ community," Bonforte said. "And so I think we see Grindr's role in that, and we hope we can further it." "It won't be a perfectly smooth road, there will be challenges in the future," Bonforte predicted. Priority on "day one," they said, is user safety and security. In this area, the company has already conducted a partial audit, and a full audit of these features is now under way. However, don't expect any sweeping redesign. "You have to be careful not to dabble with the core product," Bonforte said, adding, "We don't want to hurt Grindr. It's so good."
Queer Dating Apps Partner for NiceAF Campaign
PRESS RELEASE – June 3 – In the first ever cross-site collaboration of this kind, Building Healthy Online Communities (BHOC) and dating apps for gay and bisexual men (Adam4Adam, Daddyhunt, Grindr, POZ Personals, SCRUFF and Jack'd) have teamed up to make their online communities kinder for everyone with the NiceAF.org campaign. The team behind NiceAF.org has compiled a number of videos featuring men telling stories of how they keep the online experience NiceAF. Starting June 3rd, the collaborating apps will invite their users to vote for the video that does the best job of embodying NiceAF's mission of promoting nicer, kinder interactions between users.
Grindr Has Removed Its Controversial Ethnicity Filters
Winning Bidder for Grindr Has Ties to Chinese Owner
REUTERS – June 3 – An investor group San Vincente that got U.S. approval to buy Grindr has financial and personal links to the dating app's current owner, China's Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) had cleared the sale of Grindr to San Vicente Acquisition for ~$600M. Grindr spokeswoman said: "The buyers for Grindr were selected after an extensive and unbiased bidding process that complied fully with all applicable regulations, as the receipt of all necessary approvals – including CFIUS – demonstrates." A regulatory filing shows San Vicente was incorporated on Feb. 19, just weeks before the deal with Kunlun. The company is named after the LA street where Grindr has its headquarters.
U.S. Approves Sale of Grindr
WALL STREET JOURNAL – May 30 – U.S. national security officials have approved an investor group's purchase of gay-dating app Grindr that is being sold by a Chinese company after the Trump administration raised concerns about the potential theft of Americans' personal data. China's Beijing Kunlun Tech said that the buyer – San Vicente Acquisition – has secured approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. Grindr could be sold for $608.5M. In 2016, Kunlun paid $93M for a 60% stake in Grindr. It acquired the rest of Grindr for $152M in 2018.
Grindr Is Not a Cure for Coronavirus Anxiety
OUTSPORTS – May 26 – LGBT mental health researcher Jack Turban explains the vicious relationship between Grindr and mental health. He says Grindr works like a slot machine: once in a while you score, but more often, you fail. A survey of 2K iPhone users showed that 77% of Grindr users felt regret after logging on. "The big problem is, as a society, we have not created enough safe spaces for LGBT young people to explore their gender and sexuality in a developmentally appropriate way," Turban says. "As a young gay, lesbian or bisexual person, if you're closeted, you're probably not going to have a high school prom, you're probably not going to have a classroom valentine. Because kids don't have that place to explore, a lot of them go online. It feels safer and more discreet and more anonymous." Even for those who aren't struggling with their identities, the coronavirus quarantine can be an exceptionally isolating experience. Many LGBT people are closer to their chosen families than biological families, and it can hurt to not see them. Stuck without in-person socialization, it can be tempting to turn to Grindr for some instant gratification.
Grindr Is Now Available on Desktop
PINK NEWS – May 4 – Grindr Web offers users an array of ways to keep their use of the service discrete. "It looks like a typical email interface so your business stays private, no matter who's looking over your shoulder," the website says. The interface style has an "office mode" option which makes all profile pictures invisible.