Is China’s gay hook-up app bigger than Grindr?

Blued claims to have millions of users in country with spotty history on LGBT rights

The gays love their hook-up apps, be they in Canada, Italy or, of all seemingly unlikely places, China.

Pink News has reported that the Chinese gay dating app Blued claims 15 million active users. That’s about three times more than international hook-up app Grindr’s active monthly users.

Blued has now secured a $30 million investment and hopes to go international.

“In 16 months, Blued has completed three rounds of financing and our valuation far exceeds that of some heterosexual social products,” says Blued CEO Geng Le. “Our development can make more people to see the value of the gay internet, as well as the diversity and progress of Chinese society.”

It makes sense that there is no shortage of gay people in China. With an estimated population of 1,357,380,000 in 2013, if you consider the accepted standard of one in 10 people being gay, that would still leave hundreds of millions of gay people. Fifteen million users is just a shade of how many LGBT people would actually exist in China.

Michael Lyons is a queer-identified, chaotic neutral writer, activist, misanthrope, sapiosexual, and feline enthusiast. He is a columnist, blogger and regular contributor with Xtra and has contributed to Plenitude Magazine, KAPSULA Magazine, Crew Magazine, Memory Insufficient e-zine, The Ryersonian, Buddies Theatre blog, Toronto Is Awesome blog and Fab Magazine and more.

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