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Chinese Gay Dating App Gets Funding From State-Run Newspaper

Blued now tops 27 million followers.

Though depictions of homosexuality continue to be widely censored in Chinese TV and film, a recent boom in gay dating app users has sparked the interest of at least one state-controlled media group in the form of a multi-million dollar investment.

Blued

Blued, China's largest gay dating service, announced last week that it was receiving "tens of millions" of renminbi (several million US dollars) in investment from The Beijing News, a state-run newspaper.

The popular app had already received $30 million in its second round of funding in 2014, so the investment from the news group has put Blued's total valuation at $300 million.

“The gay business is a piece of virgin territory in China, and we hope to become a leader of this lucrative market,” Blued founder Geng Le said this summer. “The substantial spending ability of gays and the funding support we got indicate the strong power of the so-called pink economy.”

As of last year, 27 million men had created accounts on Blued with 7 million users logging in every day, giving it more regular logins than Grindr.

Zank, Blued's main competitor, counts at least 10 million registered users and Lesdo, an app for gay and bisexual women, has 1.5 million.

Getty Images

Gay and lesbian activists form a human chain around a rainbow flag during celebrations marking the fourth annual International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) in Hong Kong on May 18, 2008. The International Day Against Homophobia, marked in most places around the world on May 17, was launched in 2005 to commemorate the day in 1990 when the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from its list of disorders. AFP PHTO/TED ALJIBE (Photo credit should read TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images)

While these apps might be growing in popularity, attitudes toward the country's LGBT community continue to be less than tolerant.

Early last year, the China Alliance of Radio, Film and Television released a new set of guidelines banning inappropriate sexual behavior on TV, including incest, sexual assault, adultery, one-night-stands and homosexuality. Two months later, a gay couple faced immense backlash for publicly declaring their love on their college campus.

Interestingly enough, however, both Grindr and Hornet have received millions of dollars from Chinese gaming companies aiming to take advantage of the lucrative LGBT market.

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