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Showing posts with the label #Grindr

Grindr turns 10: How a decade with GPS 'dating' apps changed us all

#Grindr  #JoelSimkhai  #LGBTQ #App  What Uber did for cars, so Grindr did for hooking up. A decade after its release, NBC Out reflects on the impact Grindr has had on the gay and bi community. On the day he launched Grindr — exactly 10 years ago this Monday — founder Joel Simkhai said the only phone call he received was from the competitor, Manhunt, with a buyout offer of “$20,000 or $35,000.” Simkhai declined. But after actor and comedian Stephen Fry demoed Grindr live on the British TV show “Top Gear” a few months later in June 2009, everything changed. Simkhai said there were 10,000 downloads overnight and it “felt like every gay man knew about it.” “It’s basically a gay cruising application,” Fry told “Top Gear” host James May. “Get this, when you load it,” Fry said, “up appear all kinds of faces and pictures. And what’s so amusing is, you press them and it goes like, ‘Hi, I’m Mike,’ and it tells you how close they are — it says 20 yards away.” Now, a decade after