The Challenge
Grindr's infrastructure was in crisis. The Ruby-based backend couldn't handle the platform's explosive growth, resulting in chronic outages that frustrated millions of users worldwide. With 5.8 million daily active users depending on the service, every outage damaged user trust and threatened the business.
The technical debt had accumulated to the point where the existing codebase was unsalvageable. A complete rewrite was the only path forward—but it had to happen without disrupting service to millions of users.
Our Approach
- Platform Rescue: Stabilized the existing system while planning the migration
- Complete Rewrite: Led Ruby-to-Java migration for the entire backend
- Microservices Architecture: Decomposed monolith into scalable, independent services
- Zero-Downtime Migration: Migrated millions of users without service disruption
- Scale Engineering: Built to handle 40K+ requests per second at peak
- Global Infrastructure: Optimized for users across 192 countries
Architecture
flowchart TB
subgraph Before["Before: Ruby Monolith"]
U1[5.8M Users] --> R[Ruby App]
R --> MG[(MongoDB)]
R --> C1[Redis]
end
Before -.->|"Zero-Downtime Migration"| After
subgraph After["After: Java Microservices"]
U2[5.8M Users] --> GW[API Gateway]
GW --> P[Profile Service]
GW --> L[Location Service]
GW --> M[Messaging Service]
P & L & M --> ES[(Elasticsearch)]
P & L & M --> C2[Redis]
end
Results
The platform turnaround delivered transformational results:
- Eliminated chronic outages that had plagued the platform
- Successfully migrated 5.8M daily active users to new architecture
- Scaled to handle 40K+ requests per second at peak
- Platform stability contributed to successful $608M acquisition by Kunlun Tech
- Established foundation for future growth and feature development
Industry Leaders
Grindr App
