THE MOTLEY FOOL - July 14 - Shares of BlueCity Holdings, owner of a Chinese LBGTQ+ dating app, were tumbling almost 16% in midday trading Monday. BlueCity, which owns the Blued app, only went public last Wednesday, soaring 46% in its debut and raising $85M. It sold 5.6M shares to the public. Investors still might be gun-shy about small Chinese start-ups going public in the U.S.
42 posts categorized "Blued"
Why BlueCity Holdings Is Tumbling 15%
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Chinese BlueCity Focused on Asia After IPO
REUTERS - July 9 - China's biggest gay dating app's owner BlueCity is focused on expanding in Asia, its founder said after it made its Nasdaq debut despite a U.S. securities regulator warning against investments in Chinese firms. BlueCity, which says its Blued app already has the largest market share in China, India, South Korea and Vietnam, raised $84.8M in an IPO which valued the Beijing-based company at $614M. Blued claims 49M registered users in 210 countries, and 6M monthly active users (MAUs), 49% of them outside China.
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Blued Gay Dating App Plans to Raise $85M in US IPO
STAR OBSERVER - July 7 - Last week, Chines gay dating app Blued revealed that it plans to raise ~$85M in an IPO of American Depositary Shares (ADS). The IPO scheduled to hit the market on Wednesday July 8 is planning to sell 5.3M ADS at a price of $15-$17 per ADS. The app claims ~49M registered users. For comparison, Grindr has ~27M users and Tinder ~57M users around the world. Blued said it was planning to use the IPO proceeds for geographic expansion, investment in technology and development, AI and big data capacity.
by Shibu Thomas
See full article at Star Observer
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments
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Blued Gay Dating App Plans Nasdaq IPO
REUTERS - June 16 - BlueCity Holdings, owner of China's biggest dating app for gay men, aims to raise $50M from an IPO of American depositary shares (ADSs). The offer price for each ADS is yet to be finalised, and it will be traded on the Nasdaq global market under the symbol "BLCT". Founded in 2011, BlueCity says it has 49M registered users in ~210 countries. It added that it has 6M monthly active users, 49% of them from outside China.
by Colin Qian & Meg Shen
See full article at Reuters
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments
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Top Dating Apps in China During Coronavirus Pandemic
SCMP.COM - May 1 - The nine largest dating apps by China iOS app store ranking are Yidui, Tantan, Momo, Soul, Yimu, Zhenai, Hezi, Blued and Rela. ~622M people used dating apps in China last year, and the market is set to hit $290M in revenues by 2024, according to Statista.com.
- Yidui
Video-based speed matchmaking app, targeting singles in lower-tier cities, it later introduced a professional matchmaker in the app and added a live-streaming feature to speed up matches - Tantan
China's Tinder clone, launched in June 2014, raised ~$120M. In 2018, the company was acquired by Momo - Momo
Launched in 2011, evolved from a simple location-based dating app to a general social platform that, in addition to its original features, also includes group chats, live-streaming, short-video, and casual games. The company went public on Nasdaq in Dec 2014. - Soul
Launched in 2015, it matches users based on a personality test, targeting young users. Soul has closed a Series C round of an undisclosed sum last year. - Jimu
Released in late 2016, the app melds features of dating apps with youth social networking functions, targeting urban residents who like art, fashion, and music. The company raised "tens of millions of yuan" in June last year from a Series B round led by Bluerun Ventures and Sequoia Capital. In July 2019, Hong Kong-listed Chinese live-streaming firm Inke bought Jimu for $85M. - Zhenai
Founded as early as 2005, is one of the oldest and well-known matchmaking websites in China, which also offers offline services. Zhenai has made several updates to its app in a bid to reach younger users as well, adding features including personal assessments, live-streaming, and a status-posting section. - Hezi
Voice-based social app Hezi was launched at the beginning of 2019, founded by two senior executives from Momo. - Blued
Launched in 2012 by the Chinese LGBTQ community website Danlan, Blued is the top gay dating app in China. The company has raised ~$130 M. - Rela
Founded in 2012, the first location-based dating app for lesbians in China.
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How a Dating App Helped a Generation of Chinese Come Out of the Closet
NEW YORK TIMES - Mar 5 - Blued, one of the biggest gay dating apps in the world, has succeeded because it plays by the ever-shifting rules for L.G.B.T.Q. China - bringing together a minority community without activism. China is home to an LGBTQ population larger than all of France, ~70M people. But according to a United Nations estimate, less than 5% of gay Chinese choose to come out. Blued has a reported in-country user base of some 24M. Homosexuality was formally considered a mental illness in China until 2001. But in recent years, the government has neither expressed explicit support for the LGBTQ community nor sought to crush it. Whereas Russia has adopted a position "that LGBT rights is a Western conspiracy designed to weaken the nation," says Darius Longarino, a fellow at Yale Law School's Paul Tsai China Center. China's one-child policy further increased pressure on some gay Chinese to stay in the closet and enter heterosexual relationships, because parents pinned all their hopes on one child to provide genetic, legally recognized grandchildren to continue the family line. Blued app launched in 2012. The company, once kept alive by 50-to-500-yuan donations, received its first angel investment of $480K in 2013. It then raised a Series A round investment of $1.6M led by the VC firm Crystal Stream and in 2014 raised an additional $30M from another VC firm, DCM. In the last few years, having monopolized the gay-dating app market in China, Blued has expanded to Mexico, Brazil and India.
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Credit Suisse Halts Work on Chinese Gay Dating App Blued's IPO
BLOOMBERG - Jan 13 - Credit Suisse Group AG has stopped working on the upcoming U.S. IPO of Chinese gay dating app Blued. Credit Suisse joins other investment firms, including Citigroup and Bank of America that in recent months have dropped off the U.S. debuts of high-profile Chinese companies. It wasn't clear why Credit Suisse dropped off Blued's IPO, but it did so before the company filed publicly. Founded in 2012 by former policeman Geng, Blued has become an icon for the Chinese LGBTQ community and attracted ~$130M in venture capital as of March last year. Besides providing dating services to 40M users, the app also offers live streaming and connects men who want to become parents with overseas surrogates. Blued has said it's eyeing an IPO ideally in the U.S., which offers a simpler process and deeper capital markets.
by Julia Fioretti & Lulu Yilun Chen
See full article at Bloomberg
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Gay Dating App Blued Plans U.S. IPO at $1 Billion Value
BLOOMBERG - Aug 30 - Blued, China's largest gay-dating app, is planning a U.S. IPO that could raise ~$200M. The share sale will likely take place next year and could value Blued at ~1 billion. Founded in 2012 by former policeman Geng Le, Blued has become an icon for the Chinese LGBT community and attracted ~$130M in venture capital as of March. The dating app also offers live streaming and connects men who want to become parents with overseas surrogates.
by Crystal Tse, Lulu Yilun & Manuel Baigorri
See full article at Bloomberg
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Blued Launches LGTBQ Anti Cyber Bullying Campaign in India
MENAFN - July 11 - The campaign focuses on making people aware about being bullied or mocked online as well as the threats an individual faces when one encounters someone who isn't what they claim to be. Blued, has partnered with Queerythm and Ya.All, community based organizations that provides support groups for the LGBTQI community, and launched helpline numbers to report such incidents. These helplines will also work toward counselling people who have been a victim to cyber bullying or physical abuse. In a recent survey report, 42% of the LGBTQ members have been a victim of virtual harassment and the numbers of incident have swiftly been rising. Launched in 2012, Blued is the largest gay dating social media app with ~40M users globally.
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Blued Launches Blued Queer Flicks
THE SIASAT DAILY - May 15 - Blued, a gay dating app, has launched their first ever queer film making contest called Blued Queer Flicks. The contest will be followed by a screening scheduled to be taken place on June 8, 2019, in Delhi. ~60 entries have been received since the contest was launched in April. Out of the total received entries, there are 10 selected contestants whose short movies will be shown at the fest and the winners will be awarded the cash prizes and awards. The movies are based on queer themes, struggles, love, fun, education and social perception.
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A Chinese Dating App for Gay Men Is Helping Them Have Kids, Too
BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK - Mar 21 - The urge to have a child hit Blued's founder Geng Le hard after age 35. Surrogacy is illegal in China. Another option was Thailand, but by 2015 that country had banned foreign surrogacy. Geng decided on California, which offered the best legal protections for "intended parents" such as himself, excellent advanced medical care for the surrogate and the newborn, and a U.S. passport for the baby. The surrogacy process was a long drumbeat of tests, contract signings, and administrative details. When the due date came around, Geng flew to LA for the birth and held his son for the first time. He returned home with his son, Xiao Shu, in March 2017. He also brought back a new idea for Blued: an overseas surrogacy service for gay men - Bluedbaby. Bluedbaby shepherds clients through such choices, connecting them with steps such as choosing an egg donor, finding a surrogate, signing contracts, and navigating American culture.
by Dune Lawrence & David Ramli
See full article at Bloomberg Businessweek
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VCs Aren't Falling in Love With Dating Startups
CRUNCHBASE - Feb 14 - In 2018, venture investors put $127M globally into 27 dating-focused startups. It's certainly tiny compared to the ~$300B in global venture investment across all sectors last year. While the US is home to the majority of funded startups in the dating category, the bulk of investment has gone to China. In 2018, ~80% of dating-related investment went to a single company - Blued, a Grindr-style hookup app for gay men. In 2017, the bulk of capital went to Chinese mobile dating app Tantan, and in 2014, Beijing-based matchmaking site Baihe raised ~$250M. Meanwhile, in the U.S, we are seeing an assortment of startups raising smaller rounds.
by Joanna Glasner
See full article at Crunchbase
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Blued, Chinese Gay Dating App, Halts Registration After Underage HIV Report
REUTERS - Jan 5 - Chinese gay dating app Blued is halting new user registration for a week, following media reports that underage users caught HIV after going on dates set up via the app. In response, Blued vowed to launch a "comprehensive content audit and regulation," and crack down on underage users posing as adults. Blued, which was launched in 2010 and now boasts 40M registered users, is backed by state-run media Beijing News.
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Gay Dating App, Blued Launches #whatsnext377 Campaign
BUSINESS-STANDARD - Nov 20 - Blued, the largest gay dating app globally, has launched #whatsnext377 campaign in India, aiming to strengthen and spread awareness about the LGBTQI community and its rights. According to the Section 377, the Supreme Court judgment ruled that 'consensual adult gay sex is not crime, saying sexual orientation is natural and people have no control over it'.
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