Adult FriendFinder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adult FriendFinder (AFF) is an online sex and swinger personals community website. It allows members to meet friends or sex partners.
The site was founded by Andrew Conru (aka Andrew Conreux). It is consistently ranked between the 40th and 60th most visited website on the Internet[1] and claims to have over 20 million members.[2] Originally started as FriendFinder, a more traditional online dating site, Adult FriendFinder was spun off when members began uploading more risque photos than were appropriate. FriendFinder has since spun off several other communities focusing on more specific segments.
The parent company had difficulty finding venture capital due to the adult nature of its signature property.[3] In December 2007, the company was sold to the Penthouse Media Group for $500 million.[4] The acquisition is the subject of a 2008 lawsuit by Broadstream Capital Partners, a merchant bank that assists with mergers, alleging Penthouse breached a 2006 contract in order to purchase the company, a claim Penthouse denies.[5]
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[edit] Overview
Joining and creating a profile is open to the public, however users cannot respond to messages from members until they pay their membership fee. Paying users can view others' profiles and access communication services such as anonymous email, chat, webcam, a webzine, and blogging. Members can purchase higher membership levels for benefits such as higher search rankings. Members can broadcast their webcam publicly to each other. Chat room viewers can page the broadcasting member in an attempt to initiate a chat session.
The website has an affiliate program whereby webmasters refer users to the site and are compensated up to $1.01 per unique click.
[edit] Criticism
There is some controversy over the true ratios of male to female members.[6] Additional reports state the user database is rarely purged, a larger than average number of members are professionals 'looking for clients'.[7] Others are scam advertising fake profiles using photographs taken from the Internet who are simply 'fishing' for email addresses or advertising for other websites. As with most websites they offer a free trial period and free memberships. There are thousands of reports of problems with the free and paid memberships. A free membership allows members to only edit their own profile but not communicate with other members, which requires a Silver or Gold membership. A Silver membership costs $19.95 a month and a Gold membership is $29.95 a month. A person is allowed to add extras onto their account. Silver and Gold members can pay an extra $9.95 a month and allow standard members to contact them.
In 2004 and 2005 the Ripoff Report published a report[8] written by a former employee which included allegations of deceptive and/or criminal activity. These allegations included the inflation of the member database using false profiles, using computer code and archived chat room logs to provide the appearance of greater activity on the site, and the use of bots to send emails from profiles that are not of actual people.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Alexa rankings for Adult FriendFinder
- ^ http://www.startupjournal.com/ideas/hitechonline/20060306-kesmodel.html
- ^ Matt Richtel (July 27, 2007). "A Thaw in Investment Prospects for Sex-Related Businesses? Maybe". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/business/27venture.html?n=Top/News/Business/Small%20Business/Innovation. Retrieved on 2008-02-02.
- ^ Duncan Riley (2007-12-11). "Confirmed: Penthouse Buys AdultFriendFinder For $500 Million". Techcrunch. http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/12/11/confirmed-penthouse-buys-adultfriendfinder-for-500-million/. Retrieved on 2009-06-08.
- ^ Hymes, Tom (2008-08-31). "Penthouse Denies Every Claim in Broadstream Adult FriendFinder Suit". Xbiz.com. http://www.xbiz.com/news/98496. Retrieved on 2008-09-02.
- ^ Adult Friend Finder: Is It Really Involved In A Scam?
- ^ Adult Friend Finder Dating Site Review - Adult Friendfinder
- ^ "Report: Andrew Conru, Friend Finder Network, Alt.com, AdultFriendFinder.com, Passion.com, Xmatch.com" Ripoff Report November 19, 2004
[edit] References
- Robert McMillan: AdultFriendFinder settles pop-up adware charges in PC World of 2007-6-12 (online version)
- Jim Hopkins: 'Penthouse' makes $500M hookup with social site Various in USA Today of 2007-31-12 (online version)
