IRISH MIRROR – June 23 – Despite having ~125K users in Ireland, AshleyMadison has been forced to close as Irish are too prudish about infidelity. The site can’t find enough staff to operate its office. CEO Mr Biderman said he came here because the country was technically advanced but he didn’t anticipate it would be impossible to hire staff.
by David Coleman
See full article at Irish Mirror
THE ATLANTIC – June 1 – Last year, Ashley Madison, which launched in 2002 and now has 26M members, began its East Asia expansion, entering Japan in June, Hong Kong in Aug, and Taiwan in Nov. With Singapore and South Korea blocking the site, mainland China remains the last market to be conquered in the region. Ashley Madison is blocked in China. According to a 2012 study by Chinese and Western researchers, Chinese women are far more likely to cheat than women elsewhere. Another phenomenon associated with infidelity in China involves women married to partners whose income is modest. Women who are not happy with their marriages are looking for a better deal rather than trying to enjoy themselves. According to Biderman, ~55% of the “travelers” who visit Ashley Madison Hong Kong are from mainland China, having set up their accounts through VPNs.
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – Apr 12 – Adultery is good for your marriage if you don’t get caught, says Noel Biderman, founder of Ashley Madison. Since launching in Canada on Valentine’s Day in 2002, it has attracted ~24M members in 37 countries, with South Korea launched last week. “Infidelity exists in every culture in the world,” said Mr Biderman. “In the lifetime of a relationship, ~70- 80% of men are going to be unfaithful at some point in their marriages. And the female side is incredibly on the rise – it’s well past 40%.”
AP – Apr 10 – French prosecutors are examining whether sugardaddy.fr, which seeks to connect older men with younger women, is actually pimping. An advocacy group, Action Team against Pimping, recently filed a legal complaint on the issue.
AFP – Apr 7 - AshleyMadison has launched in South Korea where marital infidelity is a crime punishable by up to two years in prison. Within a week, 46K people had signed up. South Korea’s adultery law is not much of a deterrent, and conviction usually results in a suspended sentence rather than actual jail time. Whereas 216 people were given prison terms under the law in 2004, that figure had dropped to 42 by 2008.
by Giles Hewitt
See full article at Business Insider
THE LOCAL – Apr 4 – The group Équipe d’Action (Action Team) is suing SeekingArrangement, which they accuse of operating a disguised prostitution racket. A landmark bill that aims to punish clients of prostitutes with hefty fines is currently snaking its way through the French parliament.
THE DAILY BEAST – Apr 2 – Japan is a country where ~$19.3B are spent each year on the legal sex industry. AshleyMadison launched in Japan in June 2013 and signed up ~120K members in just ten days. As of March 27 of this year, that membership had grown to 1M people. Japan was the fastest counry to reach one million members. The ratio of women to men is about two to one. According to AM survey, Japanese women lead the world in their rush to have affairs, and 55% of them have an affair because they’re not having enough sex with their husband.
by Angela Erika Kubo & Jake Adelstein
See full article at The Daily Beast
OPW – Apr 2 – Avid Life Media, the company that operates AshleyMadison.com, recently settled a 16-month lawsuit against Digisec, the Swedish company that runs competitor VictoriaMilan.com, over the alleged violation of Avid’s intellectual property rights. The primary complaint of the suit, filed in October 2012, involved Digisec’s alleged trade dress violations for use of Ashley Madison’s “shush image,” which depicts a woman with her finger pressed against her lips. Digisec later filed a counter suit during deliberations.
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WINDSOR STAR – Mar 23 - AshleyMadison.com has slapped Doriana Silva with a countersuit after she accused the company of making her type up hundreds of fake profiles of sexy women. AshleyMadison says the profiles were created to test the new Brazilian version of the site for "consistency and reliability." Doriana Silva sued Ashley Madison, saying she had damaged her wrists typing up 1K "fake female profiles". She is seeking $20M for what she calls the company's "unjust enrichment'' at her expense.
The full article was originally published at Windsor Star, but is no longer available.
DIG MAGAZINE – Mar 3 – Launched in October 2013, CarrotDating.com is a site and an app for people who use bribery to score first dates. Brandon Wade, the site's founder, was inspired by his mother’s suggestion to finding true romance by gift-giving. Wade’s mother is of Chinese descent. In the Asian culture, gift-giving is a widely accepted practice. Wade is also the founder of SeekingArrangement.com, a sugar daddy dating site; SeekingMillionaire.com, a millionaire matchmaking website; and WhatsYourPrice.com, where singles bid for first dates.
by Megan Hofileña
The full article was originally published at Dig Magazine, but is no longer available.
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