FINANCIAL POST – Oct 2 – Noel Biderman's emails indicate that the women who promoted themselves in national media as top executives at Cougar Life, The Big and the Beautiful, and Established Men were hired to attract publicity and new members. In reality they were spokesmodels with most reporters taking them at their word about their executive roles.
by Claire Brownell
See full article at Financial Post
HUFFINGTON POST – July 29 – Saddled with piles of student debt and a job-scarce, lackluster economy, current college students and recent graduates are selling themselves to pursue a diploma or pay down their loans. "Over the past few years, the number of college students using our site has exploded," says Brandon Wade, founder of SeekingArrangement.com. Of the site's ~800K members, Wade estimates that 35% are students. Wade rewards students who use a .edu email address to register on Seeking Arrangement by automatically upgrading their free, basic membership to a premium membership, allowing them to send unlimited free messages and granting them exclusive access to the site's cadre of VIP sugar daddies. Married men account for ~40% of the site's sugar daddies. Sugar babies outnumber sugar daddies by a ratio of nearly 10 to 1. Noel Biderman, founder and CEO of Avid Life Media, runs a number of arrangement-seeking sites. On one such site, EstablishedMen.com, Biderman estimates that 47% of its 1.3M members are women currently enrolled in college. And on ArrangementSeekers.com, he says 31% of its 387,000 members are female college students.
by Amanda M. Fairbanks
See full article at Huffington Post
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FOX NEWS – June 23 – Sugardaddy.com is a dating site that connects “sugar daddies” with “sugar babies” or “sugar mommas.” The site has a disclaimer that prohibits members from offering money in exchange for sex, saying any such violations will result in the cancellation of membership and banning from the site. “Prostitution is about sex for money … and women who rely on these interactions to support themselves – this is their profession,” says Noel Biderman, CEO of Avid Life Media who runs a similar Sugar Daddy dating site called EstablishedMen.com. “Sugar daddy relationships are real women who are interested in being with men who are willing to spend their disposable income on the lifestyle."
by Hollie McKay
See full article at Fox News
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IT BUSINESS – Feb 9 - Ashley Madison is the fastest growing site in North America. CEO Noel Biderman says he's just offering a niche service others are ignoring. Since launching eight years ago, Ashley Madison has 5.2M members in four different countries. The secret of the site's success has a lot to do with the smart use of social media. There have also been several spin-off sites. EstablishedMen promises to connect rich businessmen with young, beautiful women for “mentoring.” Other sites connect older women with young men, or cater to the swingers lifestyle. FULL ARTICLE @ IT BUSINESS
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This is the news for January 20th through February 1st, 2010. Here is the news we covered:
THE GLOBE AND MAIL – Jan 25 - Avid Life Media, the parent company of dating sites such as CougarLife.com, EstablishedMen.com and AshleyMadison.com, a site for people seeking extramarital relationships, is raising $60M and is pushing for a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Avid Life posted $30M of sales and $8M of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (or EBITDA) in 2009. Avid Life will use part of the money in a private placement to acquire privately held Moxy Media, an online advertising sales company that runs more than 300 websites.
The full article was originally published at The Globe and Mail, but is no longer available.
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WINNIPEG SUN — June 4 — The women whose dating profiles appear on establishedmen.com are all looking for the same kind of man: He has deep pockets and isn't afraid to generously dip into them for a special lady. The website launched in 2008 and operates in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. The site is free for women to join, whereas male customers pay $49 monthly, plus additional fees for extra frills such as sending virtual gifts. FULL ARTICLE @ WINNIPEG SUN
Basisnote scent matching, Speedate on Android, Craigslist to moderate Adult ads, Kaplan launches Flirt140 Twitter dating service, Spark revenue 20% down, Indian matrimonials to hit $63m in 2011, sugar daddy blackmailing, and Air News Zealands matchmaking flight.