Gay social networking app Grindr set for flotation

The world's largest LGBT social networking app, Grindr, is set for an initial public offering (IPO), its parent has confirmed.

Grindr – a wholly owned unit of the Chinese internet gaming firm Beijing Kunlon – will list overseas at an unspecified time, the company said.

The timing of the share sale will be determined by regulatory approval as well as capital market conditions, it said in a stock exchange filing.

West Hollywood-based Grindr lays claim to being the “world’s largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people” with more than three million daily active users, according to its website.

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Its users send an average of 228 million messages and 20 million photos across the platform every day, 2017 data shows.

Kunlun bought a majority stake in the app for just $93 million in 2016, at the height of a wave of Chinese outbound acquisitions that resulted in $150 billion of deals that year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Beijing-based company founded by Zhou Yahui acquired the remaining shares this year.

Like many social media outfits globally, the app has come under fire this year over potential privacy violations.

Norway’s consumer watchdog filed a complaint against Grindr for violating data protection laws by sharing its users’ sexual preferences and HIV-status with third parties without proper consent.

Grindr said at the time that data sharing was standard practice and that it has policies in place to protect its users’ privacy. – Bloomberg