Despite being owned by a Chinese company, Grindr will have its stock market launch overseas.
When the announcement was made that Grindr was going public, there was talk that the IPO would be on the Shenzhen stock exchange. However, it has now been revealed the company will list elsewhere.
Beijing Kunlun Technology Group, the majority owner of Grindr, is still yet to say exactly where and when the IPO will take place.
The reasoning behind the decision may be linked to the negative attitudes towards the LGBT community in China. Six months ago, China’s second biggest social network Sina Weibo imposed restrictions that limited what LGBT content was being shared on the platform.
Despite public opinion generally becoming more accepting towards the LGBT community in recent years, the government still remains firm on its socially conservative ideas.
Blued, the largest gay social network in China, is controlled by the state government to an extent – content on the platform is still widely censored.
Kunlun Technology Group is yet to launch Grindr in China, as it may struggle to compete with the government-backed Blued.
Western users of Grindr have recently raised concerns about the safety of their private data. The company was forced to release a statement to explain that it had never given user data to the Chinese government, nor did it intend to.
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