Developer of gay dating app meets quick success with 8 million users
Print Edition
WHEN gay dating app Blued first became available at the end of 2012, the server was inundated with an unexpectedly large number of users. Soon, the app’s founder, Geng Le, received two rounds of venture capital investment and expanded his team.
“It’s a rigid demand,” Geng tells Shanghai Daily. “Consumption of gay people has been proved very powerful in the United States, and we believe the potential is equal, if not larger, in China. We have statistics proving that.”
Now, Blued has 8 millions users, while Geng and his team are developing a lesbian version called Pinked. Zank, a competitor gay dating app, got its first investors only 20 days after entering the market.
While designing Blued, Geng made it clear that it was tailor-made for the gay community.
“Privacy, with no doubt, is the top priority,” he says. “After all, most gays haven’t come out even to their families. We made sure privacy is protected through various means, such as no traceable email addresses.”
The gender box was also changed to sexual orientation to enhance user experience, while a rainbow is used extensively in the design to make its target crystal clear.
Geng’s team is about to launch a survey on gay consumption, or pink money, in the Chinese market in August in Shanghai.
“We have more spendable income,” he says. “First all, there is no family or kid, hence less financial pressure to support a family. Also, gay people often work very hard to be financially independent, so many are successful with high-income jobs.”
He adds that this group is known to spend a lot on travel, cosmetics, fashion, health, and design, among many other products and services.
“I did find myself spending a lot more than my colleagues and friends, especially married men with children,” says Jonathan Liu, a marketing specialist in a joint venture consulting firm.
“But on the other hand, I feel very insecure since I’m all by myself, so I make a lot of purchases of products that make living more convenient, enjoyable and inspiring, such as beautifully designed furniture, gym cards that help me stay healthy and membership at various places that enrich my social life.”
Liu has recently also been involved in a research project that intend to study the gay community in China as a focus group of consumers.
“Like globally, it is well-acknowledged that gay people have good tastes in terms of fashion, home deco and style. In developed markets, there have been successful cases of products that mainly target gay community. In China, it has not been done yet, due to the ambivalent standard and regulations on whether or not it is taboo,” he says.
“But the increasing exposure of the LGBT community allows us to believe that this group will be seen as a powerful consumer group very soon.”
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