Popular dating app for gay men Grindr has successfully hooked up with a prominent Chinese gaming company. According to an announcement from the two companies on Tuesday, Beijing Kunlun Tech Co., would be buying a 60 percent stake in the Los Angeles-based online gay matchmaking company, reports CNN Money.
Since launching back in 2009, Grindr has been quite self-sufficient, building up its base of more than 2 million daily users in 196 countries around the world without any help from outside investors. This time, however, it is a matter of expansion.
"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," Grindr's founder Joel Simkhai said, according to The Guardian.
For its part, Beijing Kunlun, which has already become one of China's largest game developers since being founded in 2008, would be able to diversify its digital portfolio.
Apart from this, Beijing Kunlun would also be able to take a crack at the massive gay demographic in the world's most populous nation, which so far has been dominated by Blued, a homegrown gay dating app in China, according to ABC News.
Investors in China have reacted positively to the purchase of Grindr's majority stock, as Beijing Kunlun's stocks in Shenzen surged 10 percent on Tuesday.
For more Business News, click here.
