Grindr, the dating and social networking app for gay and bisexual men, has hooked up with a Chinese partner for its first injection of outside capital.
Beijing Kunlun Tech, a gaming company, has bought a 60% stake in Grindr, valuing the US business at $155m (£107m). The rest of Grindr will remain in the hands of its employees and Joel Simkhai, who founded the app with a few thousand dollars of his own money six years ago.
Grindr lets men find others near them by displaying pictures of users arranged from nearest to furthest away. Each day 2 million regular users in 192 countries tap on a picture to read a brief profile, chat, send pictures and share location.
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In a message to Grindr’s users, Simkhai said Beijing Kunlun’s investment was “a huge vote of confidence in our vision to connect gay men to even more of the world around them”. He said the investment would let Grindr add new features and services but it would mainly be business as usual for staff.
He said: “For nearly seven years, Grindr has self-funded its growth, and in doing so, we have built the largest network for gay men in the world. We have taken this investment in our company to accelerate our growth, to allow us to expand our services for you.”
Carter McJunkin, Grindr’s chief operating officer, said the company needed a partner to grow faster. Beijing Kunlun’s digital know-how and willingness to let Grindr continue operating as before made it the right company to work with, he told the New York Times.
Zhou Yahui, the chairman of Beijing Kunlun, said: “We have been very impressed by Grindr’s progress to date and are extremely excited about the future of the company. We will continue to seek out and invest in high-quality technology companies led by top-tier management across the globe.”
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