Grindr sells majority stake to a Chinese gaming company
Because love (and fooling around) is just a game. Worth $93 million.
The majority stake of gay dating app Grindr is now in the hands of Beijing Kunlun, a Chinese gaming firm. The company will pick up 60 percent of the app, which it valued at $155 million. "We have users in every country in the world, but in order to get to the next phase of our business and grow faster, we needed a partner," Carter McJunkin, chief operating officer of Grindr. Mr. McJunkin told the NYT the pairing made sense for Grindr because the gaming company agreed to let the app's founders continue its current structure and keep the existing team. The gay dating app is available across 196 countries and has become one of leading gay dating apps. However, Grindr consistently scores low in user reviews. Many users cite issues with spam bots and persistent bugs — problems that Beijing Kunlun's "digital expertise" might help solve.
The app might find stiff competition in China, however. As a Bloomberg report mentions, Blued, a Chinese-based gay networking app, sees 3 million visitors a day. Grindr's latest factsheet pegs visitors at around 2 million a day.
