More Chinese males continue to come out of their closets, not so much to their conservative families and relatives, but by becoming members of gay dating apps.
27 Million Members
At Blued, the most popular gay dating app in China, male members reached 27 million, Financial Times reported. Of this number, 7 million log in daily, exceeding the number of daily logins in Grindr, its counterpart in the west banned by China’s censors.
After Blued comes Zank where there are 10 million Chinese gay males registered. Its counterpart for lesbians is Lesdo which has 1.5 million members.
Because of its sheer numbers, Blued continues to attract investors with the company recently getting $30 million from The Beijing News in a second round of fundraising initiated in 2015 when Blued was valuated at $300 million. Technode reported that Blued announced on Tuesday that it sealed an eight-digit yuan strategic funding from The Beijing News’ investment arm.
Support for 13 Languages
The investor pointed to the growth in live streaming, e-commerce, gaming healthcare and entertainment why it invested in Blued. The gay dating app supports 13 languages and has offices in Vietnam, Thailand and U.K. To reach the Latin American and North American lucrative gay market, Blued invested in Hornet, a gay dating app in the U.S.
The Grindr too got its share of Chinese investors as Beijing Kunlun Tech, a gaming company, acquired a majority stake in the gay dating app for $93 million.
However, while gay dating apps are beyond the scope of the Chinese censor, LGBT movies and TV shows are within its jurisdiction which explains why a hit on-line drama streamed, “Addicted,” was banned in 2016. But it has been noticed that self-published online platforms escape censorship because of their smaller reach.