Grindr

Submission 14,274

Part of a series on Online Dating. [View Related Entries]

About

Grindr is a mobile dating and social networking application that serves as a matchmaker for gay and bisexual users within close proximity. The GPS allows users to see how close other users are and begin chatting. It is available for iOS, Android, and Black Berry.

History

Grindr was founded by Joel Simkhai and launched on March 26th, 2009.^[1]^[5] Simkhai came up with the idea for the location based app when he became frustrated that dating sites couldn't tell you when a match is in your immediate proximity.^[7] Grindr has received many awards including Best Dating App from About.com's 2012 Reader's Choice Award^[8] and Techcrunchies' 2012 awards in Best Mobile Dating App, Best Location Application, and Best New Technology.^[9] On September 13th, 2013, Grindr released Grindr Xtra, which gives users access to the app with no banner ads and unlimited blocking.^[14]

Online Presence

As of February 2014, Grindr’s official Twitter account^[10] has over 44,200 followers and its Facebook page^[11] has over 77,000 likes. The site has sparked many YouTube parodies and pranks. On April 12th, 2012, popular gay vlogger Davey Wavey uploaded a video to his YouTube channel titled “Real Life Grindr!” that outlined a few of the “types” you often see on Grindr. As of February 2014, the video has over 1.1 million views.

On April 9th, 2013, YouTube prank channel Break^[12] uploaded its first Grindr-based prank video, which featured girls on spring break gaining basic information about straight men on the beach, then a Break man approaching them and using the information to convince those around them that they had been talking on Grindr. As of February 2014, the video has over 2 million views, and a second “Grinder Prank” video was uploaded on April 16th.

Tumblr Blogs

In August 2011, the Tumblr blog grindrlulz^[2], which posts screen shots of gross or weird conversations on Grindr, launched. A similar Grindr screenshot Tumblr, grindrstories^[3], was launched in June 2012.

In July 2011, Douchebagsofgrindr^[4], similar to Nice Guys of OkCupid, launched. The blog uploads screenshots of Grindr profiles that make the users come off as jerks.

Traffic

As of March 2013 Grindr had more than 5 million users.^[6] Their user base is spread over 192 countries and the app receives around 10,000 new downloads every day.^[13]