Analysis Of Grindr A Geosocial Networking Application

Grindr: a geosocial networking application (or app) exclusive to gay and bisexual men that is designed to establish a community of men commonly interested in connecting with one another for dating, friendship and/or sexual encounters. Opening and Purpose This memo will provide a history and an analysis of Grindr as well as a strategy for how Grindr can improve its partnerships with advertisers, its brand awareness, its user numbers, and its presence amongst non-users. Grindr is approaching its ten-year anniversary, an important milestone in which it should reflect, analyze, and begin to find ways to improve the social media platform. Although Grindr is geared toward a niche demographic, it is considered to be a pioneer in app development exclusive to the homosexual community and a leader in the dating app industry overall. History and Background Joel Simkhai, creator of Grindr, had contrived an idea for a technology that connected men seeking men. However, there was no technology developed that could support his simple idea. It was not until the Apple iPod Touch and subsequent generation of smartphones equipped to harvest GPS data debuted that Joel was able to begin to develop his early idea of Grindr. In August of 2008, Joel contacted Morten Bek Ditlevsen, a software developer from Denmark who he met online, and his friend Scott Lewallen, an expert in branding, marketing and design, to begin product development. It took the internal 10-person development team about 6Show MoreRelatedEthical And Sociocultural Factors Of Dating Apps Essay1956 Words   |  8 Pagesregard to self esteem and shaping of social norms, the rise of dating apps has had negative repercussions. Critical analysis of ethical and sociocultural factors relating to dating apps found that apps represent sexuality and reproduction in certain defined and limit ed ways that work to perpetuate normative stereotypes and assumptions (Lupton et al 2014). Another similar study surveyed Grindr users in hopes of seeing how the app affected LGBT communities and individuals — the findings illustrated that