You may know Grindr as the go-to destination for LGBTQ+ people looking to hook up—but apparently, it’s now being used as an alternative to the likes of LinkedIn.
Users checking into the dating app to see how many feet they are from a potential love interest can now expect to be poached for work, rather than asked out.
That’s because around 25% of its users are on the app to network, according to the company. “We know people use our app to meet new people in their area and in new towns, and we also have plenty of anecdotal evidence of people making connections that lead to professional opportunities like jobs,” a company spokesperson told Insider.
Even its CEO, George Arison told the Wall Street Journal that he has “personally hired or had a professional relationship with several people” he has met over the years via the app. “We encourage people to network on Grindr,” he added.
Once dubbed “the world’s biggest, scariest gay bar,” the app today serves the wider LGBTQ+ community.
Although it’s dwarfed in size by the likes of LinkedIn, which has 930 million members and counting, Grindr is the biggest social network for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer people with 13 million monthly active users in virtually every country in the world.
Still, as per Insider, the company is not looking to build features that might specifically foster networking opportunities, like LinkedIn’s jobs board or Bumble Bizz, where people can show off their résumé.
Plus, although Grindr’s CEO is pitching the platform as a place for poaching staff, its interface is still primarily centered around hooking up, with users able to indicate whether their photos are NSFW (not safe for work) and if they’re a “top” or a “bottom” in the bedroom – for now.
Arison tells Fortune it will add to the app’s functionality to support the uses that its users care about from hookups and dating to friendships and networking.
“Grindr is committed to building community among its users, and professional connections come about in many different ways,” he adds. “We often hear from users about the significant ways in which Grindr has shaped their lives, including building professional relationships that have led to jobs.”
LinkedIn users are turning the networking app into a dating site
As the lines between business and pleasure blur on Grindr, LinkedIn has been struggling with a similar dilemma.
Recent research has shown an uptick in users heading to the thought-leadership-heavy professional networking platform to find love—but it’s not going down well with women who are mostly on the receiving end of such unwanted advances.
In fact, over 90% of women say they have received at least one inappropriate message or romantic advance on the app, according to Passport Photo Online’s survey of over 1,000 women in the U.S. who regularly log into LinkedIn.
But since hooking up is not the site’s intended use, about 43% of those women have pushed back to let the senders know they’ve crossed a line and 74% have dialed back their activity on LinkedIn at least once as a result of the inappropriate behavior.
Ultimately, if female professionals reduce their presence on the platform, they may find it harder to connect with people in their field, build their personal online brand, and get hired. Meanwhile, LinkedIn risks having a platform that isn’t inclusive of women.
It’s perhaps why, unlike Grindr—which is clearly embracing the diverse ways users can forge connections beyond the app’s original scope—LinkedIn’s community guidelines explicitly prohibit using the platform as a dating site.
“This kind of behavior is inappropriate and not allowed on LinkedIn. Unwanted romantic advances and harassment violate our rules and our policies clearly communicate the type of content that isn’t allowed on LinkedIn,” a spokesperson for the company told Fortune, while adding that it’s invested in tools that help stop harassment in its tracks before a LinkedIn member can even see the offending content.
“We also encourage people on LinkedIn to report inappropriate content so our teams can help protect them and others. We regularly share updates about the content we remove from LinkedIn in our transparency report.”
