Key Takeaways
- The Cybersecurity Administration of China has allegedly ordered the App Store and Google Play store to delist top LGBTQ+ dating apps Blued and Finka.
- LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in China already face pressure to close, and with Blued and Finka gone, Chinese daters have lost another safe space.
- Blued and Finka’s removal from app stores in China coincides with rising demand for dating platforms, niche and otherwise, in the Asia-Pacific region.
Starting Nov. 10, the “Great Firewall” has expanded to block two major gay-dating apps, Blued and Finka, from appearing in Apple’s App Store, The Google Play Store, and smaller app stores that serve Androids in China.
The decision to remove these apps comes at a pivotal time for China’s dating industry, as the government’s crackdown on online content, including LGBTQ+ identities, coincides with the skyrocketing popularity of dating apps in the country.
In a statement to Wired, Apple referred to the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the country’s main internet content regulator. “Based on an order from the Cyberspace Administration of China, we have removed these two apps from the China storefront only,” Apple said. “We follow the laws in the countries where we operate.”
Blued and Finka have not yet responded to being delisted, and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups have been forced underground in recent years, making it dangerous for them to comment. If one thing is clear, it’s that dating platforms tailored to the LGBTQ+ experience in China may face an uphill battle against the Cyberspace Administration of China.
The Great Firewall Interferes With Dating Market Growth
“The CAC is no ordinary Chinese regulatory agency,” according to The DigiChina Project, a collaborative research effort from Stanford University. “It is a merged party-state institution listed under the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.”
As an arm of the Communist Party, the Cyberspace Administration of China allegedly exerts its influence in the tech space to further the government’s political agenda, which includes widespread internet censorship.
This practice creates what is known as The Great Firewall, as it heavily regulates and limits access to information hubs throughout China, such as Facebook, Wikipedia, and even Google.
As DigiChina puts it: “The CAC undertakes rulemaking and administrative licensing and punishment activities” — it sets the rules and hands out punishments when those rules are broken — “generally in compliance with legally mandated procedures governing administrative agencies.”
However, DigiChina also notes that the Cyberspace Administration of China “lacks many formal attributes of an administrative agency in the Chinese system, including institutional transparency and accountability.”
This turns China’s niche dating market into a Wild West of censorship, where apps dedicated to LGBTQ+ connection are given the boot.
With ties to the Communist Party’s propaganda system, it’s no wonder apps catered to China’s marginalized LGBTQ+ community have been targeted — and, in effect, silenced — by The Great Firewall.
Shrinking Safe Spaces for Queer Daters
Blued has seen brighter days. The New York Times described Blued as “one of the biggest gay-dating apps in the world” in 2020; the app did, in fact, make an $85 million debut on Nasdaq that same year. Known as HeeSay outside of China, the app boasts more than 54 million global users.
Finka may be smaller, but it’s no slouch; The China Project once described Finka as “the second-largest dating app for gay men in China” after Blued.
The former rivals became sisters when Blued’s parent company, Blue City, acquired Finka in 2020. They’re not the only queer-centered dating apps in China to face regulatory pressure.
Grindr was delisted from the App Store in China in 2022 because the app wouldn’t comply with data privacy laws, according to The New York Times.
Blued and Finka were not only sources of connection but of community for marginalized LGBTQ+ daters in China. As advocacy groups and charity organizations face pressure from the government, safe spaces for the LGBTQ+ community are becoming few and far between.
“The living space for sexual minorities has been shrinking over the past few years … but hearing this news now, it caught me off guard that online spaces are also shrinking,” an anonymous LGBTQ+ community organizer in China told The Guardian.
Homosexuality may be legal in China, but this doesn’t mean LGBTQ+ dating platforms have free reign. Pride events and other public displays of LGBTQ+ identities have been discouraged, closed down, and even banned throughout the 2020s, making the future of LGBTQ+ singles and dating industry professionals unclear.
As Niche Dating Demands Grow, So Does Censorship
Ironically, Blued and Finka being delisted from app stores in China coincides with rising demand for dating apps in the Asia-Pacific region. Straits Research found that growing enthusiasm for dating apps in China and India have made the Asia-Pacific region the fastest growing in the dating app market.
“With over 400 million singles, demand is high despite government scrutiny on dating apps,” Straits Research acknowledged.
Niche dating apps, which typically includes apps tailored to the LGBTQ+ community, are also gaining popularity on a global scale, according to Straits Research.
Unlike Blued, Finka did not have an international presence, and was only available in China. HeeSay lives to matchmake another day, but there’s no telling when, or whether, Blued and Finka will return to Chinese users.
