BlueCity has released its 2020 ESG report. The new report offers a comprehensive look into the company’s ESG (environmental, social, and governance) philosophy and efforts across wide-ranging areas, among them diversity, pandemic response, HIV prevention, user privacy and the environment.
From sponsoring the movie Made on the Rooftop, which closed the Seoul Pride Film Festival in 2000, to the #liveyourpride campaign during the Pride month to cheer up the community during the pandemic, BlueCity has been striving to build a more inclusive and equal society for all.
In terms of diversity and inclusion, the report found that BlueCity’s Board of Directors boasted a female-male ratio of 2:3 at the end of 2020, while the proportion of female employees increased by 6 percentage points year-on-year to reach 24% of the global workforce. In January 2021, BlueCity’s Chairman and CEO, Baoli Ma became the first mainland Chinese executive to be recognised on the global inclusion network Involve’s OUTstanding 100 LGBT+ Executives List.
The report found that when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, BlueCity immediately explored new ways to fortify bonds and connect users in an unprecedented era of social distancing. Social networking app Blued, which already had a livestream function, introduced a Quick Chat feature that enabled users to participate in live video speed dating, while the new Voice Chat Room allowed those who preferred voice messages to keep connected. Moreover, in Mexico, the digital #StayHomeWithBlued campaign was run from April-May 2020 to raise awareness of pandemic prevention, with 26 influencers joining in. The campaign attracted nearly 4,000 user posts.
For BlueCity’s virtual #StayProud Pride celebration that year, Blued teamed up with entertainer and LGBTQ icon Todrick Hall for a special livestream, which also brought together influencers and users from around the world. All proceeds went to the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Pride Pantry, which provides groceries to the city’s most at-risk LGBTQ residents.
One of BlueCity’s biggest focuses is HIV prevention. In addition to supporting local community efforts, Blued is expanding access to HIV services with its digital prevention feature. It has on-boarded 163 NGOs by the end of 2020, enabling users to seamlessly access critical services. Moreover, Blued has provided 3,654 consultations and testing services via its online health platform, totalling 10,647 service hours. Blued has also used design to raise awareness with 89 unique app launch images conveying HIV prevention messages, displayed a total of 250 million times.
Baoli Ma, founder, chairman, and CEO of BlueCity, said: “Driven by our mission to propel positive change in the lives of our users and across societies, BlueCity has bolstered our ESG commitments over the years. We believe in the power of stakeholder capitalism to disrupt the status quo, and will leverage our unique role as a global LGBTQ platform to help forge a safer and more inclusive future in which we all thrive.”
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