GlobeNewswire Inc | Sep 9, 2020 08:50AM EDT

September 09, 2020

BEIJING, Sept. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Baoli Ma, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of BlueCity Holdings Limited (BlueCity or the Company) (NASDAQ: BLCT), a world-leading online LGBTQ platform, has been named among Business Insiders 100 People Transforming Business in Asia.

Ma Baoli made some history this year after his company, BlueCity, best known for its dating app Blued, became the worlds first LBGTQ+-focused social network to become a publicly listed company, Business Insider says, referring to the Companys listing on NASDAQ on Jul 8.

According to Business Insider, the individuals featured on its 100 People Transforming Business lists are driving change and innovation in their companies and across industries. It has selected 100 people in Asia, Europe and North America respectively.

Ma joins entrepreneurs including Eric Jing, CEO of Ant Financial and Wang Xing, Founder of Meituan-Dianping, for the Asia list.

Entrepreneurs are classified into ten industry categories with ten winners for each in each region. Ma was awarded under the Consumer Tech category. Other winners in this division include Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, and Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify.

The 43-year-old is an experienced entrepreneur with a personal mission to promote social equality for and the wellbeing of the LGBTQ community.

In 2000, Ma, then a closeted policeman known online only by the alias Geng Le, founded one of Chinas first and most influential LGBTQ online forums, Danlan, the predecessor of BlueCity.

After resigning as a policeman in 2011, he was determined to fully devote himself to social awareness activities for the LGBTQ community. BlueCity was officially founded in the same year with the launch of its mobile app Blued the year after, in 2012, which now connects about 54 million people worldwide with nearly half of them outside China.

Mas achievements have been widely recognized by numerous awards. He was awarded the Boldness in Business Awards from Financial Times in 2016 and selected as one of the Global Thinkers by the U.S. magazine Foreign Policy in 2017.

About BlueCity

BlueCity is a world-leading online LGBTQ platform, providing a full suite of services aimed at empowering the LGBTQ community in every aspect of their daily lives. As a central hub of BlueCitys services and platforms, the Blued mobile app allows our users to connect with each other, express themselves, and access professional health related services and family planning consulting services at their fingertips. Blued has connected more than 54 million registered users worldwide as of Jun 30, 2020 and has a leading foothold in many markets.

For more information, please contact BlueCity Holdings Limited at:

Vincent Tang: Tangyue@blued.com

Lingyi Hou: Lhou2@webershandwick.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1cf8eff8-a771-4e48-84d6-202d86049271