Gay Dating App Blued Aims at $50M US IPO

BlueCity Holdings Ltd, the parent company of China’s biggest gay dating app Blued, submitted a prospectus to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today.

According to the document, the company will be listed on Nasdaq under the stock code BLCT. While it did not disclose the proposed valuation and initial offering price, Blued said it aims at $50 million. AMTD Group, CLSA Ltd. and Tiger Brokers are the underwriters of the IPO.

Funds raised will be used for business expansion, including marketing and promotion, research into artificial intelligence and other technologies, daily operations, potential strategic acquisitions, investments and alliances.

Founded in 2012, Blued is one of the biggest and oldest gay dating apps in the world, with more than 49 million registered users in 210 countries and regions as of the first quarter of 2020. Nearly half of its 6 million monthly active users are based overseas.

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Blued provides communication, social networking and live streaming services based on geolocation. It also includes services such as health and family planning, and aims to address the “full life cycle needs” of the LGBTQ population.

Live streaming accounts for most of the company’s revenue at 88.5 percent of its 2019 earnings, but its income structure is becoming more diversified. Revenues from membership services increased by 390.6 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2020.

Though Blued has yet to achieve profitability, its net loss rate has narrowed during the past two years, by 18 percent and 6.9 percent respectively. In Q1 2020, the company’s revenue reached 207 million yuan and its net loss narrowed to 3.7 percent.