Happy Birthday, Grindr! 3 Years. 3.5 Million Users. 192 Countries. And Growing.

Grindr Doubles Its Growth in the Last 12 Months, Adds 34 Employees, Extends Its Global Reach

News provided by

Mar 26, 2012, 09:37 ET

LOS ANGELES, March 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Coinciding with its third anniversary, Grindr today announced that the premier all-male, location-based social networking app has amassed more than 3.5 million users. The app has become a global sensation in three short years, having engaged with iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Android and BlackBerry users in 192 countries around the world. In addition, Grindr's corporate momentum continues to grow, as the company just completed the biggest hiring spree in its history during the past several months and today unveiled its redesigned website, Grindr.com.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120326/NY77018LOGO )

In 2009, Grindr started out as a small company with a mere $5,000 in self-financing and an office headquartered in Founder and CEO Joel Simkhai's living room. From those humble beginnings, Grindr officially launched on March 25, 2009, and the response was resounding: Within one month, 10,000 users downloaded the free app and became Grindr guys. Fast-forward only three years, and Grindr has nearly 10,000 new users around the world joining up every day.

Today, 908,000 Grindr users log on and send 7 million chat messages and 2 million photos to one another on a daily basis. (For perspective: In June 2011 – less than a year ago – Grindr had a little more than half that many daily users and 1.2 million fewer total users.) These days, Grindr users spend about an hour and a half of their day using the app, and they log in an average eight times every day. That's a lot of traffic for an app that had a third as much activity two years ago. And that's traffic on a global scale.

In fact, Grindr has become something of a worldwide phenomenon. The app is most popular in the United States, which boasts 1,443,500 users, but has seen incredible popularity in the United Kingdom, France, Australia and Canada, in addition to an emergent following in far-flung, unexpected spots such as Iran, Moldova, Malawi, Yemen, Albania and Djibouti.

The United States may have the greatest penetration of Grindr users among countries around the world, but Grindr is bigger in London than any other city – London is No. 1, with 195,000 users. No. 2 is Paris, with 155,000 users. New York clocks in at No. 3, with 127,000 users. Sydney (92,000 users) and Chicago (80,500 users) round out the top five Grindr cities.

One-sixth of the app's total downloads occurred in the last six months, indicating accelerated interest in Grindr. All indications say Grindr's numbers are on the rise as the app continues to make an increasingly major impact by helping men around the world meet those around them.

"Over the past three years, Grindr has become an extremely valuable social networking resource for men," said Joel Simkhai. "We're grateful for the Grindr community's steadfast grass-roots support as we celebrate our third birthday and an assortment of significant milestones. Furthermore, the app's success is a testament to the time, effort and creativity of our dedicated team."

That team, based in Los Angeles, has swelled to a total of 45 full-time employees, 34 of whom were hired in the last six months. Obviously, they're not working out of Simkhai's living room anymore; a still-bootstrapped yet fully-fledged company with an executive team and multiple departments, Grindr moved into an exciting new office space in Hollywood in August 2011.

"We secured the new office space to support our aggressive 2012 hiring plan, which includes new positions across technology, product, customer support and marketing," said Simkhai. "Our continued growth reflects our intent to remain a pioneer and market leader of social app services."

As a result of the app's vast reach, Grindr formed Grindr for Equality in February 2012 to raise awareness for LGBT rights and spur action across the globe. Grindr for Equality can specifically target particular segments of Grindr's massive 3.5-million-and-counting user base in order to let them know about local actions and issues. That ability originates from the power of Grindr's location-based technology, as well as the company's determination to unite its users to advocate for social change.

"Grindr pioneered location-based social networking apps," said Scott Lewallen, Grindr co-founder and Senior Vice President of Product and Design, "and as part of a recent survey we conducted, it's evident that Grindr's geo-mobile feature is attractive to our users. Such data underscores the importance of the technology in the current app culture, and proves that the age-old real estate adage – 'Location, location, location!' – transcends sectors."

The industry has taken notice: Grindr was honored by TechCrunch's 2011 Crunchies Awards as having the Best Location App. The company received additional accolades from the 2012 iDate Awards in two categories: for Best Mobile Dating App and Best New Technology.

As a way of showing appreciation to its valued users, Grindr hosted birthday parties throughout March in cities such as New York, London, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Sydney, in addition to a special Los Angeles gathering that is slated for March 30.

Grindr – By the Numbers
Grindr recently conducted a survey of more than 22,000 of its members on their usage and engagement trends. The survey was taken online on March 1-2, 2012, among male adults (18 and over).

The results affirm the growing social appeal of the app for making friends (66 percent) and users' strong interest in the app's location-based technology (61 percent), followed by the real-time socializing feature (32 percent). More than half of Grindr and Grindr Xtra users have made friends with or dated someone they met on the app. Some of those connections have budded into life-long friendships or long-term relationships. For fun and heartwarming Grindr stories, please visit Grindr.com/Stories.

The survey also reveals an increasing popularity for the app among users while traveling internationally, either for business or leisure (46 percent).

Some other notable findings from the survey include the following facts:

58 percent of respondents are between the ages of 18-30.
58 percent of respondents are iPhone users, while 36 percent are Android users.
56 percent of respondents have made one to five new friends using Grindr.
60 percent of respondents enjoy using Grindr for chatting, and 56 percent of respondents like being able to see who in their vicinity is of the same/similar sexual preference.
39 percent of respondents believe that Grindr can help with LGBT rights around the world.

About Grindr
Launched in 2009, Grindr is the premier all-male geo-social network that uses location-based technologies to bring together a global community of more than 3.5 million users in 192 countries. Currently, Grindr is available on the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android and most BlackBerry models. For more information about Grindr, please visit Grindr.com.

SOURCE Grindr