China's biggest gay dating app's owner BlueCity raised 84.8 million U.S. dollars on its Nasdaq debut on Wednesday. The Beijing-based company that provides a variety of services to the LGBTQ community is valued at 614 million U.S. dollars.

The company is the first business in the world built on the LGBTQ community that has gone public. BlueCity was founded back in 2000 by now CEO Ma Baoli, a former policeman, to provide LGBTQ people in China with an online destination for the community. The company now provides a full circle of services ranging from online dating, professional health-related services and family planning consulting services for the LGBTQ community across the world.

In 2012, the company rolled out gay dating app Blued, which now has over 49 million registered users worldwide, and monthly active users (MAUs) amounting to 6 million.

The IPO is supported by the booming "pink economy" as the backdrop. According to research by consulting company Frost & Sullivan, globally the LGBTQ community's disposable income is higher than heterosexuals' and the LGBTQ market is expected to reach 5.4 trillion U.S. dollars in 2023.

Ma remarked that "as we celebrate an LGBTQ company's IPO, we need to remember some people from the global LGBTQ community are still suffering from discrimination and bullying because of who they are, and live among disease and fear."

"We hope that as BlueCity goes public, more people will recognize the existence of the LGBTQ community, accept them and embrace them. They make the world a diversified and wonderful place," he said.

Undeterred by challenging international environment

Besides its unchallenged position in China's market, the app is a huge success in some overseas markets. Forty-nine percent of its users are outside of China, covering 210 countries and regions. In countries such as India, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, Blued has the largest market share.

However, its internationalization journey is complicated by an increasingly divisive global political environment. India just banned 59 Chinese apps after border clashes with China, and U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to delist Chinese firms from U.S. securities markets last month.

Ma said that executives did gave it a second thought as to whether it is a good time to go public in light of the geopolitical risks.

"But our company has great growth prospectus and leading edges in the industry, and we believe that the capital market will give us a fair and just evaluation," he said.

Blued is not among the 59 Chinese apps banned in India. "We have faith in making the local government and regulator trust us," Ma said, adding that the app's data privacy protection met India's standards.

"We are capable of conforming to local governments' regulatory requirements," Ma said. "We store overseas customers' data overseas out of security concerns and retrieval speed."

He also said BlueCity is in the process of buying a Chinese lesbian app to diversify its business and revenue.