Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The South China Morning Post reports:
Grindr, the gay dating app owned by Chinese gaming company Kunlun Group, has received approval from its parent’s executive board for an overseas public listing. The timing of the listing is dependent on conditions in the international capital market and progress of approval from domestic and overseas regulators, Kunlun said in a public filing on the Shenzhen stock exchange on Wednesday.
Los Angeles-based Grindr, established in 2009, was initially financed by personal savings from its founding chief executive Joel Simkhai. Kunlun’s investment was the first outside money raised by Grindr. Kunlun, however, did not bring Grindr to China as people had expected. The most popular gay dating app in the country is Beijing-based Blued which claims to have 40 million registered users.
The BBC reports:
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. In a public filing on the Shenzhen stock exchange, Kunlun Group said that after the initial public offering (IPO) was completed, financing arrangements would be made to support Grindr’s expansion.
Bloomberg reports:
West Hollywood-based Grindr lays claim to being the “world’s largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people” with more than three million daily active users, according to its website. Its users send an average of 228 million messages and 20 million photos across the platform every day, 2017 data shows.
Like many social media outfits globally, the app has come under fire this year over potential privacy violations.
Norway’s consumer watchdog filed a complaint against Grindr for violating data protection laws by sharing its users’ sexual preferences and HIV-status with third parties without proper consent. Grindr said at the time that data sharing was standard practice and that it has policies in place to protect its users’ privacy.