Grindr (Photo : Grindr)
Gay dating app Grindr is now 60 percent owned by Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun. In selling the majority stake to Beijing Kunlun, Grindr Chief Operating Officer Carter McJunkin says it got the Chinese gaming firm as a partner to reach the next phase of its business and expand faster.
The $155-million company has users in all 196 nations in the world and is one of the leading gay dating sites globally. But Grindr suffers from consistently low scores in user reviews because of spam bots and persistent bugs, reports Engadget.
With its technical expertise, Beijing Kunlun hopes to help Grindr address these digital issues, and also add to the app's users which average 2 million a day. In contrast, China-based Blued enjoys 3 million average daily users and is considered a competitor of Grindr.
Joel Simkhai founded Grindr in 2009 with a few thousand dollars. The mobile app allows users to see the photos of another gay based on location. Users could also share photos and text messages with one another.
Grindr users spent an average of 54 minutes daily using the app, according to the company which earned $32 million in 2014, a 29 percent improvement from its 2013 revenue of $25 million, reports The New York Times.
However, dating apps, such as Grindr and Tinder, have been blamed for over 400 criminal offenses in the UK in 2015. The offenses include attempted murder, rape, blackmail and assault. The numbers are up from only 55 dating-app crimes in 2013 to 135 in 2014.
Andy Cooke, deputy chief constable of the Merseyside Police in UK, urged users of dating apps to be security conscious and not to share personal data right away until they are sure about the person they are communicating with.
