'Pink Economy' set to soar as companies target LGBT community

Zhu Qiming, CEO of mobile game developer Star-G Technologies, makes a speech at the business innovation competition.[Photo by Blued/provided to China Daily]

To promote the games, Zhu plans to cooperate with Blued, an international gay hookup app headquartered in Beijing that has more than 27 million users, about 20 percent of them from outside China.

With such a huge, strongly targeted user base, Blued has so far attracted five rounds of investment totaling tens of millions of dollars, according to Geng Le, the CEO.

He declined to disclose the financial details, but said business is a smart, subtle way of raising the visibility of China's LGBT community and gaining greater social tolerance.

"That's one of the social merits of the booming pink economy that we cherish most," said the former police officer, who is gay.

The company has forged partnerships with other businesses that want to tap into the "pink market," particularly in areas such as entertainment, shopping, travel, insurance and even assisted reproductive technologies, he said.

In October, Blued jointly launched China's first Pink Economy Innovation and Entrepreneurship Contest in conjunction with Mars, an investment management company in Beijing.

The winners will receive funding from investors willing to finance their plans, and as of last week, more than 60 business plans had been received from both home and abroad, according to Zou Shenglong, Blued's senior public relations manager.