believes that less than 5% of LGBTQ+ Chinese come out to friends and family. The country is home to an estimated LGBTQ+ population of some 70 million-larger than the entire population of France-but the U.N. Privacy remains a key issue in China, too. The CFIUS expressed concern that data from Grindr’s 27 million users-including private messages and HIV status-could be accessed by the Chinese government and potentially leveraged for blackmail. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) warned that Chinese ownership constituted a national security threat. Last year, Chinese gaming giant Beijing Kunlun sold L.A.-based gay dating app Grindr after the U.S. But Chinese tech firms remain under special U.S. Ma emphasizes that BlueCity is certified according to the highest ISO/IEC 27001 data security protocol and abides by all local laws and regulations. The U.S., however, might be a tough nut to crack. “In the future, we aim to see more growth in North America and also Europe,” says Ma.
It is already the market leader in many Asian countries and has grown rapidly in markets like Mexico and Brazil.
“Being a policeman also helped me as I know how to work within the system.” “That the government recognized the importance of our work in this field is very encouraging,” says Ma. Photos of Ma meeting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Michel Sidibé, the former executive director of UNAIDS, now adorn his Beijing office. “A lot of people in China, especially in big cities, increasingly know how to protect themselves from HIV/Aids,” says Ma. Today, Blued users can access healthcare information and 7,000 testing centers across China. He has been involved in advocacy since 2008, when some of his friends revealed they were HIV positive. In recent years, Ma’s work in AIDS awareness has helped polish the image of Blued and spurred official recognition. And those same people became my friends in the end.” “My strategy was to keep communicating with people, sharing my story, my confusion, my loss, my setbacks in the early years. “All discrimination comes from ignorance,” says Ma. Read more: Homophobia Is Not an Asian Value
in 2019, after media reports of underage users, Blued paused new user registrations and pledged to tighten age and content controls. At times, it has been blocked by the authorities for content that could only be imaginatively described as risqué.
Even now, Blued is frequently decried as pornography and a forum for sordid hook-ups. But it has been a long, often agonizing journey. Ma’s work has helped break down the stigma and isolation by allowing LGBTQ+ people to share advice and experiences. While Ma was in the police force, the common perception was that being gay was “perverted, a mental illness,” he says-it was something to be “treated” by invasive therapies like electric shocks. The success of Blued underscores the strides that the LBGTQ+ community has taken in a nation where homosexuality was illegal until 1997 and classified as a mental illness until 2001. “I never thought things would get this big.” “At the beginning, I just wanted to do something for myself and my gay friends,” Ma tells TIME in his Beijing office, festooned by rainbow flags and featuring meeting rooms named after gay luminaries like Oscar Wilde. Although it has yet to turn a profit, losses have narrowed considerably since paid memberships, live streams and ads were introduced. Last July, BlueCity debuted on Nasdaq with an $85 million IPO as the world’s most popular LGBTQ+ dating community.