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AUSTIN, Tex. — It is easy to write off Grindr — a location-based dating application for gay men — as a hookup application because, well, that is what it is.

But the company, which is approaching its fourth anniversary, has amassed more than five million users who spend on average 90 minutes each day using the application. Billions of messages fly across the service every year, and 76 percent of the company’s revenue comes from money generated by Grindr users who fork over cash for the service’s premium features.

Jaime Woo, author of the book, Meet Grindr, How One App Changed the Way We Connect, says the cultural and technological impact of Grindr is much broader than most people realize. Mr. Woo, in a presentation on the design principles of the application, delivered Saturday afternoon at the South by Southwest conference, said the application had completely — and very likely permanently — altered the way app developers and users think about location-based services.

Grindr’s main purpose is to facilitate hookups that are “spontaneous and intimate,” he said. Both of those results are immensely appealing — a kind of serendipity — and contribute to the reasons that people are loyal and dedicated to an application, regardless of its intention. Scores of mobile apps and social networks have failed to inspire such enthusiasm, he said.

Mr. Woo said there were a lot of lessons to be learned from Grindr’s financial success, which has inspired a wave of competitors — Mister, Scruff, Jack’d, Tinder, OkCupid Locals — to follow in its wake.

He said the primary appeal of Grindr was its simplicity. Users browse thumbnails, mark the ones they like as favorites or send them messages. That is different from Facebook and Twitter, where likes, pokes, retweets and favorites are often murky signals at best. Grindr’s message is immediately clear from the moment that users sign up. The inherent value in that kind of intuitive design cannot be underestimated, he said.

The application focuses on proximity rather than location — showing people’s distance. This preserves privacy while sustaining a sense of mystery. The application also removes barriers for men who want to meet other men who are looking to connect.

But as much as Grindr is about casual interactions, it is also, at its core, a social networking application based on one’s whereabouts. Mr. Woo said a Grindr survey of its users found that two-thirds of them were using the application to find new friends, to network or to kill time, as well as to hook up.

He said apps that have tried to do the same thing, including nondating applications like Highlight, have struggled to recreate that dynamic.

“You’re putting two people with not a lot in common on a crash course to meet, and that’s special,” he said.

The one question that Mr. Woo could not answer is how to develop a version of Grindr that works for straight people and women. The company tried to release an app called Blendr, but it has been far less successful that its predecessor.

It could simply be that “gay men are early adopters,” he said. “I joke that the wheel was invented by a gay man so he could get to his hookup faster.”