Born This Way: China Gets its First Gay Flirting App, Blued

We’ve seen quite a few Chinese location-based apps for lads and ladies to flirt and get together – such as Mix and Momo – and now there’s one for gay guys too. Called Blued, it’s newly launched on Android and iOS, with all the usual photo and chat features that you’d expect. It also allows for sign-up and pulling images from other local social networks, such as Sina Weibo or Tencent QQ.

Blued is Chinese-made, which is quite remarkable in a country where family-oriented traditions have long forced suppression of gay relationships in either men or women. But the web is helping to change that. There’s not just this new Blued app, but Chinese youngsters seem to be embracing alternative views and are discussing them openly online, such as on the Twitter-esque Sina Weibo. An insightful article on Tea Leaf Nation highlights how social chatter on the Chinese web is increasingly accepting and supportive of gay people.

Just like with Momo or Mix – or worldwide flirting apps like Skout, or the gay-only Grindr – Blued shows nearby users of the same app, along with a distance meter. Then you can chat with anyone and add those you fancy to your contacts list. It’s not clear if Grindr is blocked in China at present [1], but there are other apps like Blued out there which have Chinese-language support, such as Skout’s other app, BoyAhoy.

The startup behind Blued is called DanLan, but it has no public profile or info right now, so we’ve contacted the team to find out about its plans for the new app.

Grab the Blued app for iPhone or Android from its homepage.

[Source: Showeb 2.0 – article in Chinese]