Grindr Gay Sex App Owner's Divorce Settlement To Pay Ex-Wife $1.1B

Grindr owner Zhou Yahui became a billionaire when his company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. purchased gay social network and dating app Grindr earlier in the year and doubled its profits just two weeks later. However, his soon-to-be ex-wife Li Qiong is going to get a huge chunk of his $2.2 billion dollar fortune now that a Beijing court on Tuesday ordered him to shell out half of it in a divorce settlement.

Part of Yahui’s settlement requires him to fork over 705.4 million shares of a company he started back in 2008, according to Chinese court documents published by Quartz. The shares add up to about $1.1 billion based on the stock’s 25.76 yuan ($3.90) closing price of shares Tuesday. Although the exes’ divorce is considered one of China’s biggest, according to the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs, it still doesn’t top the massive fortune Longfor Properties Co. chairwoman Wu Yajun had to pay to her ex-husband during their 2012 billion dollar divorce.

Zhou and his ex-wife, both 39, met back in elementary school. It was not clear when exactly the duo got married.

Zhou purchased in January a 60 percent controlling share in Grindr, the largest all-male social app in almost 200 countries around the world, making him a chairman of the company that same month. The tech magnate, whose company Beijing Kunlun Wanwei Tech served as a web-gaming developer before purchasing Grindr and becoming Beijing Kunlun Tech Co., will retain 34.5 percent of his company shares. According to the settlement, Qiong has vowed not to trim her Kulun’s shares within the next 12 months.

Kunlun went public on the Shezhen Stock Exchange just a year before Yahui bought Grindr. The company is invested in UK lending service LendInvest and is also a Chinese partner of Rivio Entertainment of Finland, which created the popular mobile and web game Angry Birds, Forbes reported.