Grindr

The app industry saw revenue spike to $50.1 billion for the first two quarters of 2020, in part due to people isolating at home to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Dating app Tinder topped the list of non-game app revenue earners.

This marks a 23.4% increase from the first half of 2019 according to Tech Crunch, compared with a 20% increase for the same time period between 2018 and 2019. The data seems to also point to a growing new user base. First time app installs were up 26.1% in the first half of 2020 compared to the same time period in 2019, and reached a total of 71.5 billion downloads.

Topping the non-game app list was dating app Tinder, followed by YouTube, and popular social apps TikTok and Tencent. Netflix was the fifth-highest earner.

Dating apps like Grindr, Hinge and OkCupid have been weighing whether or not to keep an ethnicity filter on their apps in the wake of protests against police violence in the U.S. and around the world. 

According to Forbes, Grindr announced that it would be dropping the filter as an option from its app in its next update. The company posted a statement on Twitter, adding: “We will not be silent. Black Lives Mater.” But this decision created a backlash among many who saw this move as too little, too late. @guillotineshout responded: “In solidarity we are removing our racism button” is the most tech company thing I could imagine.”

Grindr had received criticism before for the ethnicity filter, but other dating apps like OkCupid and Hinge who also have them, have chosen to keep theirs.

Grindr is set to sell for $608.5 million. The sale comes after the US government expressed national security concerns regarding Beijing Kunlun Tech’s ownership of the gay dating app. San Vicente Acquisition Partners — a group of entrepreneurs and investors in the technology, media and telecommunications industries — will acquire a 98.5 percent stake in Grindr in the deal. 

Kunlun is one of China’s largest mobile gaming companies. The company took a majority stake in Grindr in 2016 for $93 million. In 2018, Kunlun purchased the remaining percentage of the popular dating platform for $152 million. The agreement was met with apprehension on the part of journalists, China experts and former intelligence officials, who suggested that it put the Chinese government in a position to demand sensitive data about the app’s users, including those who are not Chinese citizens.

Grindr's Descreet App Icons

Image: grindr

Grindr is upping its privacy practices by giving users the option of hiding the app on their phones.

The Discreet App Icon allows users the option of replacing the Grindr app icon on their phone with another symbol, effectively to hide the fact that they are using Grindr if someone else gets hold of their phone. The feature is accessible in the security section of the app’s settings. Grindr first made the Discreet App Icon available in countries where gay, bi and trans people are in the most danger, and now is launching the feature for all users no matter where they reside.

According to a company press release, the feature was developed with London-based human rights organization Article 19, The Guardian Project, and Grindr for Equality to help keep users safe, not only within countries where gay rights are not sanctioned, but anywhere that people are threatened due to their LGBTQ or gender status. This is especially timely as gay, trans and non-binary rights are being threatened around the world.

Grindr’s 2020 is off to a difficult start. In just a few short weeks, Grindr was accused of violating the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) data protection legislation by the Norwegian Consumer Council, found itself the subject of three complaints filed with the Norwegian Data Protection Authority, and was suspended from Twitter’s ad platform as a result. The popular gay dating app is also under investigation by the U.S. House Oversight and Reform subcommittee for doing an inadequate job of screening minors.

Adding to Grindr’s growing list of concerns is new research showing that the company’s Android application was exploited to defraud advertisers. According to a report from Pixalate, the Palo Alto-based fraud detection firm that discovered the scam, the app was used to facilitate a cross-device ad fraud scheme that tricked advertisers into thinking they were purchasing ads on Roku-connected devices. Pixalate named the scheme “DiCaprio” after discovering the A-list Hollywood name used in a file containing some of the malicious code.

A committee from the U.S. House of Representatives is investigating popular dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble and OkCupid following a report that found underage users and sex offenders were using the apps.

According to a report from AP, the House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on economic and consumer policy sent separate letters on Thursday January 30th to Bumble, Grindr, The Meet Group, and Match Group (which owns Tinder and OkCupid among others). The letters asked for information on “users’ ages, procedures for verifying ages, and any complaints about assaults, rape or the use of the services by minors,” according to AP.

The subcommittee is also seeking additional information on privacy policies for each of the apps, and what users see when they are asked to review or accept such policies. Recently, dating apps have also come under fire for third-party sharing of personal data, where user information wouldn’t be protected by the dating app’s own privacy policy.