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Chinese Company Buys Grindr - Completely

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The world’s largest gay social media app is now owned by the Chinese, after a little-known Beijing tech company agreed to acquire full control of America’s Grindr for US$240 million, and fully engage in its daily operations. 

Beijing Kunlun Tech, a game developer owned by 38-year-old billionaire Zhou Yahui, said on Wednesday it planned to pay US$152 million to buy the remaining 38 per cent stake in Grindr that it does not already own. Kunlun paid about US$88 million for a 62 per cent stake of the social media app in January. 

The takeover comes at a time when China, the world’s most populous nation but lagging the West in achieving equal legal status for its homosexual citizens, is cultivating a lucrative industry catering to the social needs of the gay community. China, estimated by a study to have an LGBT group bigger than the entire population of France, is also changing its attitudes towards this community.

Grindr, founded in 2009 in the United States, is the world’s largest LGBT social-network application, counting over 27 million registered users across 196 countries and territories across the world.“It is of strategic importance for us to fully engage in the daily operations of Grindr and make it our development milestone,” Kunlun said in a statement. 

The Chinese company expected to bank on Grindr as a new growth engine, as the eight-year-old app proved to be a cash cow that had posted US$13.7 million in net profit for 2014, thanks to its rapidly growing membership.

While it is uncertain how the marriage between a Chinese game developer and an American gay dating app will bolster each other’s prospects, Grindr’s founder and chief executive Joel Simkhai described the deal in a blog post as “a huge vote of confidence in our vision to connect gay men to even more of the world around them."

China’s gay dating and hook-up industry is still in its infancy, partly because homosexuality has long been a cultural taboo. But the thriving LGBT communities in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have already led to the remarkable success of Blued, a Chinese gay dating app start-up, which boasts of over 27 million registered users  – almost on par with Grindr.

Blued, founded in 2012 by former policement Ma Baoli , last year completed its latest round of fundraising, boosting its net worth to US$300 million, exceeding the US$240 million price tag for Grindr. It has also extended its footprint overseas, competing head on with Grindr and Jack’d.  Chinese tech giants have scrambled to invest in social networking apps, which normally make money out of charging members fees for exclusive access or through advertising, with Alibaba and Tencent's  stakes in Snapchat.

Although homosexuality is irreconcilable with the mainstream values in China, the LGBT community has made huge gains in social acceptance since homosexuality was decriminalised in 1997......

But analysts warn of regulatory risks to gay-focused businesses as the country’s stringent regulations designed to stop dissemination of “pornography” could easily bar users’ access to gay social media apps or censor relevant contents. 

-----"Chinese tech firm to fully buy gay dating app Grindr", South China Morning Post, 25 May 2017

FuelMix says:

1.  On the same day that Taiwan became the first Chinese society to legalize same-sex marriage, a Mainland Chinese company made an outright purchase of Grindr, the world's largest gay social media app.

2.  Two Chinese companies now own the 2 biggest gay social apps, one of which is US-based and the other Chinese-based:

• Beijing Kunlun Tech - Grindr;
• Blued -

3.  The assumed result..?  The Chinese now know the location, age, stats, sexual habits and sexual history of virtually every gay man on the planet.

4.  Just think how useful that information could be.....

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