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Lex, the LGBTQ+ social and dating app, was acquired by 9count on or before the acquisition report published September 30, 2024. 9count is led by Alex Hofmann, Musical.ly’s former CEO. The purchase price and detailed deal structure were not disclosed.
Lex said the transaction would support faster product development and stronger content moderation. However, the available public information does not establish that Lex was legally absorbed into 9count, that its privacy practices changed, or that user data was transferred as part of the deal.
What happened to Lex?
TechCrunch reported on September 30, 2024, that 9count acquired Lex. The transaction was presented as an acquisition of the operating app—not simply a partnership or minority investment—but neither company disclosed the purchase price or the legal structure of the deal.
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Lex CEO Jennifer Lewis said the acquisition enabled the company to develop features at roughly three times its previous pace and expand its content-moderation capacity. Those statements describe the company’s reported early effects and expectations; they are not a guarantee of a particular future roadmap or long-term outcome.
Read the principal acquisition report at TechCrunch.
Who is Alex Hofmann?
Alex Hofmann is the former CEO of Musical.ly. Musical.ly was later acquired by ByteDance and became part of the product lineage associated with TikTok.
That background matters because Hofmann brings experience from a large consumer-social product to a company building a portfolio of smaller, community-specific apps. But Hofmann should not be confused with Alex Zhu, Musical.ly’s co-founder. The principal acquisition report identifies Alex Hofmann as the executive associated with 9count’s purchase of Lex.
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It is also more precise to describe Hofmann as Musical.ly’s former CEO—not automatically as its founder.
What is 9count?
In the acquisition coverage, 9count is described as a mobile-app company or conglomerate focused on social-network products. Its portfolio includes Wink, described as its most popular app in the report, and Summer, a dating app.
“Conglomerate” is useful shorthand for the reporting, but the available sources do not provide a detailed corporate chart, ownership table, revenue breakdown, or complete acquisition portfolio. It is therefore not possible to say from the public record exactly how 9count is structured or how Lex fits into its ownership chain.
What is Lex?
Lex began as an Instagram page in 2017, inspired by vintage lesbian personal ads. Founder Kel Rakowski developed the idea into a mobile app in 2019. TechCrunch reported that the company raised $1.5 million in seed funding in less than a year, and Jennifer Lewis later joined as co-founder and CEO.
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Unlike image-first, swipe-oriented dating apps, Lex was built around text posts. Users could seek dating, friendship, events, community, and other forms of queer connection through written personal ads and discussions. Lex describes itself as a lo-fi, text-centered social app for LGBTQ+ people in its official product explanation.
Lex’s positioning had already broadened before the acquisition. In a January 2023 rebrand announcement, the company said it was evolving from a dating app into a wider social platform for LGBTQ+ users. TechCrunch also reported that some users worried the change could weaken or sanitize the app’s original connection to queer personal ads and sexual or romantic connection. That concern should be attributed to those users and reports, not treated as a universal community view.
Why did 9count acquire Lex?
The strategic appeal is the combination of a distinctive community and a proven product format. Lex had reported more than 1 million downloads and millions of messages sent per month, according to figures provided to TechCrunch. Downloads are not the same as active users, registered users, or monthly active users, and the figures were not presented as an independent audit.
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Potential benefits
- More engineering capacity: additional resources could support faster development and reliability work.
- Greater moderation capacity: more staff or shared systems could help address reports and safety issues.
- Operational expertise: experience from other mobile apps may help with infrastructure, growth, and app-store operations.
- Support for a niche community: a larger owner may be able to sustain a product that mainstream platforms do not serve well.
The trade-offs
- Scale versus specificity: growth pressure can dilute the culture that made a queer-specific platform valuable.
- Speed versus consultation: faster releases may benefit users but leave less time for community feedback.
- Moderation capacity versus moderation philosophy: more moderators do not necessarily mean users will agree with every policy decision.
- Portfolio synergies versus sameness: shared systems may reduce costs, while assumptions from general dating or friendship apps may not fit Lex.
- Growth versus trust: monetization or download targets could conflict with Lex’s text-first, community-oriented identity.
These are implications to watch, not reported consequences of the acquisition.
What changed for Lex users?
What was reported
- Lex joined 9count’s app portfolio.
- Jennifer Lewis said feature development was occurring at approximately three times the previous rate.
- Lewis said the acquisition increased content-moderation capacity.
- The acquisition price was not disclosed.
What remains unknown
- Whether users needed to create new accounts.
- Whether pricing, subscriptions, or app-store listings changed specifically because of the transaction.
- Whether moderation rules or identity policies changed.
- Whether 9count received Lex user data beyond the permissions already described in Lex’s policies.
- Whether Lex’s founders or senior team remained in exactly the same roles.
- Whether 9count and Lex have a formal public integration plan.
- Whether the acquisition was financially successful.
The acquisition should not automatically be blamed for every later product change. Lex had already begun repositioning itself from a primarily dating-oriented app toward broader queer social use.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What do Lex’s current legal pages say?
The latest official Lex legal materials identified here were updated July 26, 2025. They name the operator as Personal Best, Inc. d/b/a Lex. That wording does not independently establish whether Personal Best is a wholly owned 9count subsidiary, whether the deal was an asset purchase, or whether the corporate relationship later changed.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchLex’s Terms of Use say the company does not sell user data or use it for advertising. The Privacy Policy describes the collection of account, device, diagnostic, location, and usage information for stated operational purposes.
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The privacy policy also says personal data may be transferred in a merger, consolidation, reorganization, or sale of substantially all stock or assets. That clause means Lex’s policy contemplates data transfers during certain corporate transactions. It does not prove that specific Lex user data was transferred to 9count or reveal the legal structure of this acquisition.
The policy says users can request correction or deletion of personal data through their account or by contacting Lex.
Is Lex still available?
Lex’s official help materials describe the service as a mobile app available on iOS and Android, with availability varying by country. Lex also maintains an official support and download page.
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An official help page said Lex was mobile-only as of April 3, 2024. The sources available here do not verify whether that desktop status changed afterward.
What should Lex users monitor?
- Privacy-policy revisions: look for new language on data sharing, advertising, analytics, or corporate affiliates.
- Location handling: check whether the purpose, retention, or precision of location collection changes.
- New monetization: review subscription, paid-feature, or advertising changes before assuming they are connected to the acquisition.
- Moderation and reporting: watch for changes to prohibited content, appeals, enforcement, and identity verification.
- App-store ownership information: compare the developer or seller name and linked legal notices with earlier listings.
- Product direction: assess whether new features preserve Lex’s queer-specific, text-centered character or move it toward a conventional swipe or algorithmic dating model.
Common mistakes about the deal
- Using the wrong executive: the reported executive is Alex Hofmann, not Alex Zhu.
- Treating “acquired” as a complete legal explanation: the public reporting does not establish that 9count acquired every Lex asset or that Lex was legally merged into 9count.
- Converting downloads into users: more than 1 million downloads does not establish more than 1 million active or registered users.
- Presenting company goals as guaranteed results: faster development and stronger moderation were management claims and reported effects, not independently demonstrated long-term outcomes.
- Assuming an unchanged policy means no data moved: a policy can remain branded as Lex while still allowing data transfers under a corporate transaction clause.
- Calling the acquisition recent: it was reported on September 30, 2024, not in 2026.
Bottom line
Lex was acquired by 9count, the mobile-app company led by former Musical.ly CEO Alex Hofmann, in a deal whose price and detailed structure remain undisclosed. The transaction may give Lex more engineering, moderation, and operational resources, and Lex’s CEO reported faster development after the deal.
The central question is whether 9count can scale Lex without flattening the qualities that distinguish it from mainstream social and dating apps. Public materials confirm the acquisition and describe Lex’s stated benefits, but they do not yet establish a complete ownership chain, a specific data transfer, or a definitive long-term change in Lex’s product or policies.
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