When 26-year-old Chris created an account in Blued, it was – he stressed – to look for a relationship. “I think this notion that (gay-centric geosocial networking) apps are just for finding sex is really not fair to so many people joining these apps whose purpose is to gain friends and, yes, find life-long partners,” he said, adding that this very belief automatically “invalidates those who are there who are not just aiming to find sex.”

According to Evan Tan, Country Marketing Manager in the Philippines of Blued, there are people who look down on apps like Grindr, PlanetRomeo, Jack’d, Hornet, Tindr and – yes – Blued as just sources of sex partners. But he said that “no, this is not a fair observation. I think the platform can also set the context for the interactions that could happen.”

Tan said that for Blued, in particular, “we value our role in building connections of varying degrees. While we are sex-positive, we’ve seen different non-sexual connections that happen on Blued.”

The focus not just on sex is in the blueprint of Blued, which was launched in 2012 by Geng Le (a.k.a. Ma Baoli), a married former police officer in northern China. For 12 years, he secretly managed Danlan.org, a website for gay people. But his superiors discovered the website also in 2012, and Geng Le lost his family and job. It was this that drove him to create Blued.

Blued counts 27 million users (majority of them still in its country of origin, China), making it the largest gay social network in the world. Every day, Blued sees active use from 11 million pax.

“Blued actually allows you to add friends, join groups, and even broadcast your hobbies and interests to other people,” Tan said. “We encourage people to keep it wholesome, because ultimately, they can always go to other apps if they’re just solely looking for sex. We want Blued to be more than just that. We want it to be a safe space where people can be who they are, without fear of judgment or discrimination.” Read more via Outrage