Embedded symbiosis: an institutional approach to government-business relationships in the Chinese internet industry

ABSTRACT Studies on the Chinese internet mostly focus on how the government censors content and regulate digital platforms. We rarely know how internet companies understand, respond to and negotiate the relationship with the government. This study examines Danlan, the company that runs the world’s largest gay dating app Blued. We approach the interaction between Danlan and the government with an institutional perspective, treating them both as organizations seeking resources and legitimacy. Drawing on fieldwork, we develop the concept of embedded symbiosis, which characterizes the collaborative government-business relationship, and explore how Danlan, the seemingly weak side in this relationship, plays an active role in initiating, negotiating, and maintaining such relations at different stages of embeddedness. Danlan endeavors to form a symbiosis with the government to pursue its survival and development, yet eventually risks alienating from the gay community and colluding with the state in governing homosexuality. The case of Danlan shows the possibility for internet companies to seek legitimacy in an ever-changing political environment through working closely with the authorities and even becoming part of the governmental system itself.