Blued is currently the largest

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

social network A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for an ...

app in the world. Launched in 2012 in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, the app now has over 40 million users worldwide in 193 countries. The application is available on Android and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

. Its features include verified profiles, live broadcasting, a timeline, and group conversations. In 2016, the app was valued at 600 million dollars.

History

Ma Baoli, ( zh, s=马保力, p=Mǎ Bǎolì; also known as Geng Le; zh, s=耿乐, p=Gěng Lè, labels=no), then a closeted police officer in

Qinhuangdao Qinhuangdao (; ) is a port city on the coast of China in northern Hebei. It is administratively a prefecture-level city, about east of Beijing, on the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea. Its population during the 2020 national ...

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

, set up Danlan ( zh, s=淡蓝, p=Dànlán, l=light blue, labels=no, a reference to the

Bohai Sea The Bohai Sea () is a marginal sea approximately in area on the east coast of Mainland China. It is the northwestern and innermost extension of the Yellow Sea, to which it connects to the east via the Bohai Strait. It has a mean depth of a ...

) a message board for gay men, in 2000. As the site gained more attention, his supervisors eventually discovered in 2012 that Ma ran the website and forced him to resign. He then came up with Blue'd, which was initially based on the American app

Jack'd Jack'd is a location-based chat and dating app catering to gay and bisexual men. It is available for Android, iPhone, and Windows phones. Jack'd was previously owned by Online Buddies, owner of Manhunt. In 2019, Perry Street Software, the parent ...

, and released it the same year after seeking investors. Today, Blued employs over 200 staff at its headquarters in Beijing, China, and has recently opened new offices in London, UK, and India to overview the rapid expansion of the app overseas. Within 4 years, Blued has become the largest gay social network in the world with over 27 million registered users. The app, the BlueCity group in general and Ma himself have been recognized for their health promotion efforts, particularly in the prevention of HIV/AIDS infections. Danlan had collaborated with health officials in Beijing to promote HIV testing to higher-risk demographics soon after its launch. After one of Ma's friends told him he was infected with HIV in 2009, BlueCity took a more comprehensive approach, eventually hosting forums with Chinese CDC and UNAIDS members, and premier Li Keqiang met with Ma in 2012 to discuss HIV/AIDS in China and discrimination against the LGBT community. This role has also been credited with giving the company more lenient treatment from the Chinese government, which has a mixed record on LGBT rights and has shut down or censored other LGBT online spaces. In 2016, Blued partnered with

Hornet Hornets (insects in the genus ''Vespa'') are the largest of the eusocial wasps, and are similar in appearance to their close relatives yellowjackets. Some species can reach up to in length. They are distinguished from other vespine wasps by th ...

, a social networking platform for gay and

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

men. Commenting on the global partnership between Blued and

, Hornet president Sean Howell declared: “Gay apps have evolved over the past few years to more fully engage users, who demand a richer, mobile experience”. Ma announced that he would resign from BlueCity in August 2022, shortly after it was delisted form

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

BlueCity Group

The BlueCity group, of which Ma is CEO of, owns the following platforms: * Blued * Danlan Public Interest, a HIV prevention nonprofit * He Health ( zh, s=荷尔健康, p=Hè'ěr jiànkāng, labels=no, a platform for men's health, including through delivery of

PrEP PowerPC Reference Platform (PReP) was a standard system architecture for PowerPC-based computer systems (as well as a reference implementation) developed at the same time as the PowerPC processor architecture. Published by IBM in 1994, it allo ...

* LESDO, a social platform for lesbian and bisexual women that was founded in 2014 and was acquired by BlueCity in 2020; reportedly China's second-biggest dating app for lesbians * Finka ( zh, s=翻咔, labels=no), a social media app targeted at gay and bisexual LGBTQ men with a userbase of 2.7 million as of 2019, acquired by BlueCity in 2020 * Blued Baby, a surrogacy platform for gay Chinese men looking for surrogates in other countries; ceased operations in 2021 after the Zheng Shuang surrogacy controversy

References

External links

*
Danlan
{{app-stub Android (operating system) software IOS software Windows Phone software Cross-platform mobile software Mobile social software Male homosexuality Same sex online dating Online dating services of China

History

BlueCity Group

See also

References

External links