Pink Dollar aims to end gay discrimination by promoting Hong Kong’s LGBT-friendly businesses

Paul Ramscar got a strange look from a sales staff when he once entered a jewelry store with his boyfriend. He could tell that the sales person behaved awkwardly — a reaction he didn’t get when he entered the same shop alone.

While Hong Kong is one of the most gay-friendly places in Asia, gay discrimination is still prevalent. That personal encounter was one of the things that prompted Paul to create Pink Dollar, a mobile app that serves as a directory of LGBT-friendly businesses.

Sounds straightforward, but there’s more to it. One challenge Pink Dollar faces is to determine which businesses are safe zones for gays.

“Some of them just want to ride on the pink dollar. We want to be careful about who we add onto platform,” said Paul, who decided to leave behind his 20-year banking career to start the new business.

Paul assesses each establishment for gay-friendliness by sending out mystery customers. The app also relies on user ratings and reviews to ensure that the businesses live up to their billing. The end goal is to create a directory of places that LGBTs can go to without facing harassment or discrimination.

The app launched on the iPhone on 4 October, and has since listed over a hundred establishments, all of them paying Pink Dollar a subscription fee of between HKD500 (USD65) and HKD2,000 (USD258). The startup is self-funded at the moment, and relies on outsourcing for app development. Some of the partners that have come on board include Barclays, Din Tai Fung, and Porsche Center Hong Kong.

Although Pink Dollar is still in the early stages, it is moving beyond being a simple business listing app. It is leapfrogging into ecommerce, introducing mobile coupons that users can utilize with partner merchants. It has even organized private shopping events, such as one with bedlinen retailer Burnt Orange which had a turnout of over 50 people.

Pink Dollar is also working on Android and Mandarin versions of the app. It’s also building a rewards scheme that incentivizes users to leave ratings and reviews. He will soon give out stickers with the Pink Dollar logo for establishments to display on their storefront windows.

Paul is also looking at Singapore as a potential market to expand into.