Chinese firm buys major stake in gay dating app Grindr

SAN FRANCISCO, California — Popular gay dating application Grindr said Monday that it has hooked up with Chinese online game titan Beijing Kunlun Tech.

Grindr said in a blog post that it has taken on a “majority investment” from Beijing Kunlun Tech Co., referring readers to a New York Times story pegging the stake at 60 percent and valuing the almost seven-year-old start-up at $155 million.

It should help Grindr compete in the increasingly competitive online dating market, and will give Beijing Kunlun an opening to spread beyond online gaming, as well as outside of China.

It was not immediately clear whether Beijing Kunlun intends to take Grindr to the market in China, where attitudes towards homosexuality — long taboo in the country — are slowly changing.

Grindr founder and chief executive Joel Simkhai touted the investment as “a huge vote of confidence in our vision to connect gay men to even more of the world around them.”

Grindr opened the door for the investment to accelerate growth and improve the mobile application for its “millions of users,” according to Simkhai.

The amount invested was not disclosed. Simkhai founded Grindr with his own money and he said that this is the first time it has raised money from an outside investor.

“It will generally be business as usual for us here at Grindr, but with a renewed sense of purpose and additional resources to deliver a great product to you,” Simkhai said.

Los Angeles-based Grindr was founded in 2009 and the gay dating application — versions of which are tailored for Apple or Android devices — is reportedly used in 196 countries.

The application lets users see pictures of other users and then lets them connect by sharing locations, photos or messages.

source: interaksyon.com

China dating app helps gay men banish the blues - and AIDS

BEIJING -- Hua Ruobin started using Blued two years ago to meet other gay men in China, setting up weekend dinners or dates in karaoke bars.

The gay dating app has been a godsend for Hua, allowing the university student in the southern city of Guangzhou to privately contact Chinese men seeking same-sex companionship.

Homosexuality is not illegal in China, but remains a taboo subject in the world's most populous country.

"I found nine (gay friends) through the app," said Hua, 22, who felt he could never talk to his heterosexual friends about being gay. "Now I have a group of friends just like me to whom I can open my mind."

Blued is the brainchild of Ma Baoli, 36, a former policeman who quit his job to play Cupid to millions of gay men in China.

The free Chinese-language app uses the GPS capability of users' smartphones to identify nearby members. As with other dating apps, users can scan profiles, chat privately with the potential Mr Right or hang out in a group chatroom.

Blued quickly found favor with gay people, adding 15 million users in two years. There is scope for expansion, with Ma's company raising $30 million last year from a US venture capital firm. Its long-term goal is to list on the Nasdaq.

"That would be an even better way to show off China's development than a big advertisement in Times Square," said Ma, referring to New York's most famous intersection.

Not just a dating app

LGBT activists in China say Blued has helped gay men develop a positive self-image and fight social prejudices that force homosexuals to stay anonymous.

"It is not only a hook-up app any more, but also spreading knowledge about the community," said Raymond Phang, an organizer of the annual Shanghai Pride celebrations.

Ma's efforts to prevent HIV/AIDS have found support from a government eager to promote safe sex among gay Chinese.

At the Beijing headquarters of Ma's firm, app users can take free HIV tests, administered only by gay members of a staff of more than 50, so as to minimize any potential embarrassment.

A red ribbon icon on the app gives Blued users easy access to information on condom use and AIDS. It offers authorities a way to reach out to gay men, a group the World Health Organization says is at high risk of catching the disease.

"On the street, it is difficult for researchers to find gay groups," said Ma. "We could help the government to help the people that it can't reach."

source: interaksyon.com

7,000 same-sex couples tied the knot in France last year

PARIS  - About 7,000 same-sex couples tied the knot in France last year after gay marriage was legalised in May, the national statistics agency said Tuesday.

France legalised same-sex marriage after months of intense and sometimes violent protests, in keeping with an election pledge by Socialist President Francois Hollande, who faced a huge backlash from the opposition right and the powerful Catholic Church.




Same-sex unions made up around three percent of the total number of 238,000 marriages registered in France in 2013, the Insee statistics agency said.

Three out of every five gay marriages involved male couples, it said.

The average age at which male gay men got married was 50, while it was 43 for women. The corresponding average age for heterosexual couples was 37 and 34.

The first gay marriage in France was held on May 29 in the southern city of Montpellier, which has a gay-friendly reputation.

But many die-hard conservatives have continued to oppose the measure. Some mayors argue that the lack of an option not to perform gay marriages violates the French constitution, which stipulates that freedom of conscience is a fundamental human right.

Several have refused to conduct gay marriages on the grounds it goes against their beliefs, but the Constitutional Council, France's top court, has ruled they cannot do this.

source: interaksyon.com