China's homegrown gay hookup apps seen as cash cows

China's biggest gay dating app announced on Saturday it would suspend registration for a week amid claims it was encouraging the spread of HIV among juveniles due to a lax registration mechanism.

"HIV prevention is one of our greatest concerns," said the Beijing-based Blued, which is also very popular in Southeast Asia, in a statement on its Sina Weibo account on Saturday.

Blued noted that they had always banned juveniles from registering and vowed to enhance HIV prevention awareness.

They said they would launch a campaign to screen juveniles who lied about their age to register, and manage content involving teenagers.

They also vowed to put a more prominent notice to ban juveniles from registering, the statement said.

The Blued app was launched in 2012. It claims to have more than 40 million users, 30 percent of whom are from overseas, news portal Caixin reported Sunday.

Peng Xiaohui, vice-chairman of the China Sexology Association, told the Global Times on Sunday that it was unreasonable for Blued not to take measures to check the age of those registering.

Peng noted that sex education and gay people regulation remain lacking in China, which leaves space for unregulated gay social media platforms.

Among the 809 HIV infection cases of people between 0 and 14 years old reported in China in 2015, 25 were transmitted by men who had homosexual sex, Caixin reported.

Among the 25 cases, 19 were transmitted between sex partners met on social media while the youngest infected person was only 7 years old, according to Caixin.

Peng pointed out that one way of solving the problem is by eliminating social discrimination against gay people.

"Only after treating them equally can we regulate them as heterosexuals," Peng said.

Blued's statement came after Zhang Beichuan, an expert on HIV intervention and sexologist at Qingdao University, accused Blued of encouraging HIV infection among juveniles due to a lack of an identification verification mechanism, Caixin reported.

Zhang spoke with 56 gay men and medical professionals between January and October 2018, and was told that the youngest user of Blued was 14.

Zhang claimed to have found many HIV infection cases involving gay people who had sex with people they met on Blued, according to Caixin's report.

Zhang said he believes 35 million gay people live in China.