脱去警服 建造一个中国同性恋者的网络王国
北京
MA BAOLI was accustomed to secrets.
以前的马保力习惯于与秘密为伴。
By day, he was a police officer in northern China with a wife and a knack for street chases.
白天，他是中国北方的一名已婚警察，深谙街头追捕的诀窍。
By night, he led a life as a gay man, furtively running a website for gay people across China at a time when many were viewed as criminals and deviants.
晚上，他以一名男同的身份生活，在很多同性恋者被当成罪犯和异端的年代，秘密运营着一家面向中国各地同性恋者的网站。
For 16 years, Mr Ma kept his secret, worried that coming out would mean expulsion from the police force and estrangement from his family.
马保力在16年间保守着自己的秘密，担心一旦出柜就会被清理出警察队伍，并遭到家人的疏远。
Then in 2012, his superiors at a police department in Qinhuangdao, a coastal city in Hebei Province, uncovered his website and he resigned.
到了2012年，他在河北省沿海城市秦皇岛一家警察局的上司发现了他的网站，于是他辞去了公职。
His job lost, his family struggling to accept his sexuality, Mr Ma set out to turn his passion for connecting gay people into an empire.
马保力一直满怀热情，想要把同性恋者连结起来。丢掉了工作、性取向难以得到家人认同的他，开始致力于把这份热情转化成一个王国。
He created Blued, now China’s most popular gay dating app with an estimated value of $600 million and more than three million active daily users, about as many as Grindr, a popular gay dating app in the United States.
他创办了Blued，眼下是中国最受欢迎的同性恋约会应用程序，估值为6亿美元，日活跃用户超过300万人——与美国广受欢迎的同性恋约会应用程序Grindr的用户数相当。
Mr Ma, 39, said he saw his mission as working to legitimize same-sex relationships at a time when gay people, especially in China, still face discrimination.
现年39岁的马保力说，他认为自己的使命是在当下这个同性恋者——尤其是中国的同性恋者依然受到歧视的时代，致力于让同性关系得到接受。
In the past people wouldn’t even talk about homosexuality because they thought it was dirty, it was filthy, he said.
过去大家避谈同性恋，因为他们觉得同性恋很丑陋很肮脏，他说。
The internet can help support gay lifestyles, to make people know they are not alone and that their feelings are genuine.
互联网对于同性恋的生活方式给予了不少支持，也使得很多人了解到他们并不是独孤的，他们的感情也是真挚的。
Mr Ma also sees a lucrative business opportunity in China’s so-called pink economy, as more people look to spend money on gay-themed social networking sites, entertainment and travel.
此外，当更多人有望把钱花在以同性恋为主题的社交网站、娱乐和旅游上的时候，马保力在中国的所谓粉色经济中看到了一个有利可图的商业机会。
The spending power of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in China is estimated at $460 billion per year, making them the largest market in Asia, according to LGBT Capital, an investment management firm.
投资管理公司LGBT资本(LGBT Capital)称，据估计，中国女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋和跨性别人群每年的消费能力为4600亿美元，在亚洲位居榜首。
But translating Mr Ma’s instincts into an enduring business model has proved challenging.
但事实证明，把马保力的直觉变成可持续的商业模式是一个充满挑战的过程。
Like many popular technology start-ups in China, Blued is only beginning to make a profit; most of its services, including chat, live-streaming and a news feed, are free.
像中国的很多颇受欢迎的科技初创公司一样，Blued才刚刚开始盈利；它的大多数服务，包括聊天、实时流媒体、信息流，都是免费的。
Attracting advertising remains difficult, with some companies reluctant to be associated with a business that caters to gay people.
广告客户依然难于招揽，因为一些公司不愿意和一个为同性恋者服务的企业扯上关系。
Mr Ma has set his sights on foreign markets, hoping to take on established players like Grindr and Hornet.
马保力已经把目光投向了海外市场，想要和Grindr、Hornet等老牌玩家相抗衡。
While Blued now dominates in China with more than 80 percent of the gay dating market, analysts said it would probably be difficult for the company to build a large following overseas.
Blued目前在中国同性恋约会市场上居于主导地位，占据着超过80%的市场份额，但分析人士称，该公司可能很难吸引大批海外追随者。
Culturally, people work differently, said Paul Thompson, a co-founder of LGBT Capital based in Hong Kong.
从文化角度看，大家的行事方式各不相同，总部位于香港的LGBT资本联合创始人保罗•汤普森(Paul Thompson)表示。
It’s much easier to build up this real concentrated drive in one marketplace than it is to do it in lots of places.
集中力量深耕单个市场要比同时进军很多个地方容易得多。
Growing up in northern China as the son of a factory worker and a housewife,
马保力在中国北方长大成人，父亲是工厂里的一名工人，母亲是家庭主妇。
Mr Ma hoped to go to college and become a teacher.
他曾经希望进大学读书，然后成为一名老师。
But his parents thought his dreams were too costly, and he was sent to the local police academy instead.
但父母认为他的梦想花费太高，将他送进了当地的一所警校。
It was there, he said, in a macho culture that revolved around talking about women, that he realized he was gay.
他说，正是在那里，在一种聊天围绕女性展开的硬汉文化中，他意识到自己是同性恋者。
At the time, in the mid-1990s, gay sex was considered a crime in China and homosexuality was classified as a psychological disorder.
当时是上世纪90年代中期，同性性行为被视为犯罪，同性恋被列为一种心理障碍。
At the police academy, Mr Ma took courses on criminal psychology where cadets were told that gay people should be viewed suspiciously because they were more likely to commit crimes.
马保力在警校学过犯罪心理学，学员在课堂上被告知，应该以怀疑的眼光看待同性恋者，因为他们更有可能从事犯罪行为。
When I realized I was different from other people, he recalled, I thought I was ill.
当我意识到我和其他人不一样的时候，他回忆道，我以为自己病了。
Mr Ma turned to the internet for advice.
马保力曾到网上寻求建议。
But instead of finding a supportive community, he found rants describing gay people as lunatics and perverts.
但他没能找到一个可以带来帮助支持的社区，而是发现了一些把同性恋者描述成疯子和变态的发泄言论。
On health websites, he was bombarded with recommendations to seek medication and electroshock treatment.
在健康网站上，他看到了太多关于求医以及接受电击治疗的建议。
After becoming a police officer, Mr Ma was inspired in 2000 to start his own website, , Chinese for light blue, evoking the clear coastal skies of his childhood.
受此触动，马保力当上警察以后，于2000年创办了自己的网站淡蓝()，这个名字来自他小时候沿海地区澄澈的天空。
The site offered chat forums and advice on reducing the risk of H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases.
网站上有聊天论坛，还提供降低感染HIV及罹患其他性传播疾病风险的建议。
Danlan soon became a popular way for gay men in China to connect in an age when many had been resorting to scrawling meeting dates and places on bathroom stalls, worried about the stigma of coming out.
在此前的中国，由于担心出柜所带来的耻辱，很多同性恋者都是在公厕座位间内草草写下会面的时间和地点，而淡蓝很快就成了深受男同欢迎的联络平台。
At work, Mr Ma chased burglars, filed incident reports and recorded public service announcements.
在本职工作中，马保力要追捕窃贼、给事件报告归档、录制公共服务宣传片。
In his spare time, he raced to the keyboard, writing essays for Danlan and chatting with friends under the pseudonym Geng Le.
在业余时间里，他会迫不及待地敲击键盘，以耿乐这个化名为淡蓝写文章、跟朋友聊天。
Mr Ma kept up the routine for more than a decade.
马保力就这样日复一日地生活了十多年。
He married, under pressure from friends and family.
在来自亲友的压力下，他结了婚。
But when his supervisors confronted him about his website in 2012, he offered his resignation.
但在2012年，当上司就其网站质问他的时候，他递交了辞呈。
His family was devastated.
他的家庭遭受了毁灭性的打击。
Both of his parents were very traditional,
他的父母都是很传统的人，觉得自己的小孩有一份很不错的工作。
and they thought their kid had a really good job, said Wu Guoxin, 38, a friend from the police academy.
马保力念警校时交到的朋友吴国新说。
There was nothing he could do.
他自己也挺无能为力的。
Mr Ma’s relationship with his wife soon dissolved.
马保力和妻子的婚姻很快便土崩瓦解。
His mother was stricken with cancer and Mr Ma worried that his decision to come out had contributed to her illness.
他母亲患上了癌症，他担心自己的出柜决定是导致母亲生病的因素之一。
The family agreed to never speak about his sexuality again.
全家人一致决定，再也不谈论他的性取向了。
IN his new life as a high-powered technology executive, Mr Ma still goes by the alias from his Danlan days, Geng Le.
作为一名位高权重的科技企业高管，马保力在新生活中仍以淡蓝网时代的化名耿乐示人。
In meetings with business partners, he retains the deliberative demeanor of a police officer, nodding his head intently in silence, as if interviewing a witness at a crime scene.
会见商业伙伴时，他的言行举止依然带有当警察时的审慎做派，会安安静静、心无旁骛地点头，仿佛正在犯罪现场询问目击证人。
In a sprawling office in central Beijing,
在位于北京市中心的庞大办公室里，马保力领导着约由200名员工构成的团队。
where portraits of scantily clad men hang on the wall, Mr Ma leads a team of about 200 employees.
办公室的墙上挂着一些衣着暴露的男人的图像。
In one corner, workers scan Blued posts for illegal pornography.
一个角落里，工作人员正在扫描Blued上的帖子，搜寻非法色情内容。
In another, a team adds Chinese subtitles to a movie that Blued produced in Thailand.
另一个角落里，一个团队正给Blued在泰国制作的一部电影加上中文字幕。
The company is trying to increase its revenue by expanding into gay travel and entertainment.
该公司正试图把业务拓展到同性恋旅游和娱乐领域，以增加收入。
Mr Ma also hopes to bring more advertising to the app, and he sees potential for growth in live-streaming features,
马保力还希望给这个应用程序拉到更多广告，他从实时流媒体功能中看到了增长的潜力。
a wildly popular form of communication in China.
在中国，实时流媒体是一种颇受欢迎的通讯方式。
Blued has more than 200,000 hosts who broadcast around the clock on a variety of topics — music, dating, fitness and cooking.
Blued上逾20万名主播，会全天上传与音乐、约会、健身、烹饪等多种话题有关的内容。
Some earn up to $15,000 a month in tips paid by users, the company says, with Blued taking a share of each payment.
该公司称，有些主播每个月收到的用户打赏多达1.5万美元，Blued能从每笔打赏中获得分成。
As he works to build his business, Mr Ma said he was also looking for ways to improve the lives of gay people in China.
马保力说，他一边致力于创办企业，一边想方设法地改善中国同性恋群体的生活。
Blued offers free H.I.V. testing at clinics in Beijing, and the company has helped pay to fly same-sex couples to the United States to be married.
在北京的一些诊所里，Blued提供免费的HIV检测，该公司还帮助一些飞往美国结婚的同性情侣筹集了相关费用。
Mr Ma said he was optimistic that long-entrenched stereotypes were fading in China and that within two decades, the country would embrace ideas like same-sex marriage.
马保力说他乐观地认为，在中国，长期存在的刻板印象正在淡化，不出20年，这个国家将会接受同性婚姻一类的观念。
He quoted his idol, the founder Jack Ma, in describing both the challenge of building a successful start-up in China and the struggles of the gay-rights movement.
提及在中国打造一家成功的初创企业所面临的挑战，以及开展同性恋权利运动所遇到的困难，他引用了他的偶像、阿里巴巴创始人马云的话。
When I’m at my most painful moments, he said, I remember what Jack Ma said: ‘Today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine.’
我最痛苦的时候，他说，总会想起马云的一句话：‘今天很残酷，明天更残酷，后天会很美好。
