Beijing Kunlun to Relaunch Gay Dating App Grindr IPO
Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech announced on July 29 that the company is relaunching the process to float popular gay dating app Grindr. Kunlun decided to revive its plans for an IPO after a U.S. national security panel dropped its opposition to the plan.
In 2016, Grindr sold a majority 60 percent stake to Kunlun for $93 million. In May this year, Kunlun agreed to sell Grindr before June 2020 as requested by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, thus putting preparations for an IPO of Grindr on hold.
Kunlun’s control of Grindr sparked concerns in the U.S. about how the data collected on the platform is used. Reuters reported in May that Kunlun had given Beijing engineers access to the personal information of millions of Americans, including private messages and HIV statuses.
Kunlun said it would shut down Grindr’s China operations and would not send any sensitive user data to China, in an effort to address concerns over data privacy.
Grindr will be listed on a stock exchange outside China, with the timing of the move to be decided according to overseas capital market conditions, Kunlun said in a filing to the Shenzhen stock exchange on July 29.
