Online Personals Watch: News on the Online Dating Industry and Business

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

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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

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments

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.

See full article at SCMP

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.

by Yi-Ling Liu
See full article at New York Times

See the top news on Blued

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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Top Dating News - Facebook Dating, (Ask)Match, and Blued's IPO

OPW - Sep 3 - Here's the top dating news in ~2 minutes. Subscribe to Two Minute Tuesdays (TMT) on Youtube (and turn on notifications) or to the podcast on Breaker, Google podcasts, Spotify, Anchor or Stitcher. 

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.

See full article at MenaFN

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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.

by Syed Qayam Ali
See full article at The Siasat Daily

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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.

See full article at Hindustan Times

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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'.

See full article at Business-Standard

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Summarized by the IDEA team

Grindr IPO Plans Shine Light On China LGBT Acceptance

BUSINESS TIMES - Sep 7 - Grindr is planning an IPO overseas. Grindr owner, Beijing Kunlun Technology, did not publicize where or when the IPO will take place. The LGBT community continues to thrive in China. Rela is one of the most popular social networking platforms that cater to the LGBT community in China. During its peak, the platform had ~5M registered users. Blued, the country's second-largest social network for the LGBT community claims to have 27M registered users. Based on the latest data, the Chinese LGBT population currently stands between 70M to 90M. The Chinese LGBT community has an annual purchasing power that stands at a massive $938B in 2017 alone.

by Vera Dee
See full article at Business Times

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Summarized by the IDEA team

Gay Dating App Thrives In China

CBC.CA - July 5 - Based in Beijing, Blued is the most popular gay dating app in the world. Blued operates mostly in China and Southeast Asia, but has plans to expand to Mexico and Brazil and eventually to North America and Europe. It's also moving beyond dating to offer adoption services to gay couples and free HIV testing clinics in China. Beijing's approach to homosexuality has been ambiguous and sometimes contradictory. "The government has its 'Three No's,'" said Xiaogang Wei, the executive director of the LGBT group Beijing Gender. "Don't support homosexuality, don't oppose and don't promote." In 2016, Beijing banned depictions of gay people on TV and the internet in a sweeping crackdown on "vulgar, immoral and unhealthy content." Regulations said any reference to homosexuality promotes the "dark side of society," lumping gay content in with sexual violence and incest. Yet in April, when Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo decided to impose its own, apparently unofficial ban on gay content - erasing 50k posts in one day - Beijing seemed to mirror the disapproval of internet users.

by Saša Petricic
See full article at CBC.ca

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Summarized by the IDEA team