The social media for gay men known as Grindr has just announced that it has sold a part of its controlling stake to a Chinese gaming company. The deal between Grindr and Beijing Kunlun Tech is reported to have reached a value of $93 million USD. With the deal finalised, the startup company's value has risen to about $155 million USD. The deal with Beijing Kunlun Tech is the first outside investment that the company has received within the six years of its existence.
The deal took place at a time wherein gay rights in China are currently a very sensitive topic. Many people around the country are still condemned to following a more conservative society. This conservative society has only removed homosexuality from its national list of mental disorders in 2001.
During that time, services like Blued, which is nicknamed the "Grindr of China," has increased and has moved to attempt using the Internet to get around the conservative country's laws. So far, there is little progress, but it has since improved a bit.
With the gay dating app having an outside investor and the Beijing Kunlun Tech at that, there is still no confirmation whether the social media will be making its way into China. But according to Grindr CEO Carter McJunkin, the two companies have an agreement to maintain the company's original operating structure and let the original team remain intact. In short, only minor changes will occur within Grindr, and there will be no major changes any time soon within the startup company.
Meanwhile, Grindr founder Joel Simkhai said in a post that they have allowed the outside investment into their company in order to help the company grow and expand their services for the comfort of their consumers. Accepting the investment also ensures the company that they will be able to make it the number one app and brand for all their millions of users.
Grindr is one of the first that started the trend on popular dating apps like Tinder. This app uses a user's smartphone GPS to match men within a certain radius to each other. On the other hand, Beijing Kunlun founder Zhou Yahui became one of China's latest tech billionaires after his company managed to make it to the Shenzhen stock exchange list of 2015.
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