Adult FriendFinder
Encyclopedia
Adult FriendFinder is an online sex and swinger
personals community website
. It allows members to meet new friends or sex partners.
The site was founded by Andrew Conru. It claims to have over 30 million members. In 1996, the site was launched as FriendFinder
, a more traditional online dating service
, but Conru created Adult FriendFinder as a spinoff when members began uploading home-made Internet pornography
. FriendFinder has since spawned numerous niche dating sites, including Senior FriendFinder, Amigos.com, and BigChurch.com
The parent company had difficulty finding venture capital
due to the adult nature of its signature property. In December 2007, the company was sold to the Penthouse Media Group
for $500 million. 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.
AFF ranks among the 100 most popular sites in the United States and is a major competitor to leading personals sites such as Match.com.
In 2009, hip-hop artist Flo Rida
debuted the video for "Touch Me" on the site, which his representatives called "a very sexy brand".
, private chat room
s, webcam
s, blog
ging, and a webzine
. Members can purchase subscription upgrades for benefits such as higher search rankings. Members can broadcast their webcams publicly to each other. Chat room viewers can page the broadcasting member to ask to initiate a personal chat session.
Adult FriendFinder has one of the web's most popular affiliate programs, whereby webmasters refer users to the site and are compensated up to $1.01 per unique click.
The site won the 2010 XBIZ Award
for "Dating Program of the Year".
"looking for clients". Others are scams advertising fake profiles using photographs taken from the Internet to phish
for e-mail addresses, or to advertise for other websites. As with most dating services, they offer a free membership option, although there are thousands of reports of problems with the free and paid memberships.
In 2004 and 2005, the Ripoff Report published a report 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 chatroom 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.
Swinging
Swinging or partner swapping is a non-monogamous behavior, in which both partners in a committed relationship agree, as a couple, for both partners to engage in sexual activities with other couples as a recreational or social activity...
personals community website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
. It allows members to meet new friends or sex partners.
The site was founded by Andrew Conru. It claims to have over 30 million members. In 1996, the site was launched as FriendFinder
FriendFinder
FriendFinder Networks is an internet holding company for numerous internet companies including the flagship site FriendFinder.com with 30 million active members worldwide. FriendFinder owns a number of other sites, such as Adult FriendFinder and Cams.com....
, a more traditional online dating service
Online dating service
Online dating or Internet dating is a dating system which allows individuals, couples and groups to make contact and communicate with each other over the Internet, usually with the objective of developing a personal, romantic, or sexual relationship...
, but Conru created Adult FriendFinder as a spinoff when members began uploading home-made Internet pornography
Internet pornography
Internet pornography is pornography that is distributed by means of various sectors of the Internet, primarily via websites, peer-to-peer file sharing, or Usenet newsgroups...
. FriendFinder has since spawned numerous niche dating sites, including Senior FriendFinder, Amigos.com, and BigChurch.com
The parent company had difficulty finding venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
due to the adult nature of its signature property. In December 2007, the company was sold to the Penthouse Media Group
Penthouse (magazine)
Penthouse, a men's magazine founded by Bob Guccione, combines urban lifestyle articles and softcore pornographic pictorials that, in the 1990s, evolved into hardcore. Penthouse is owned by FriendFinder Network. formerly known as General Media, Inc. whose parent company was Penthouse International...
for $500 million. 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.
AFF ranks among the 100 most popular sites in the United States and is a major competitor to leading personals sites such as Match.com.
In 2009, hip-hop artist Flo Rida
Flo Rida
Tramar Dillard , better known by his stage name Flo Rida , is an American rapper and singer-songwriter. He released his debut album, Mail on Sunday, in March 2008. His debut single "Low", featuring T-Pain, was a #1 hit for ten weeks in United States in early 2008. Two other singles resulted from...
debuted the video for "Touch Me" on the site, which his representatives called "a very sexy brand".
Overview
Joining and creating a profile is free. However, users cannot access certain features without a paid membership, which comes in three levels, Silver, Gold and VIP (the third an upgrade only available to existing Gold members). Members can use the blog system to write their own blogs and respond to others in the community. Free members also have access to regular chat lobbies. Paying users can view others' profiles and access communication services such as e-mailE-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
, private chat room
Chat room
The term chat room, or chatroom, is primarily used by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing...
s, webcam
Webcam
A webcam is a video camera that feeds its images in real time to a computer or computer network, often via USB, ethernet, or Wi-Fi.Their most popular use is the establishment of video links, permitting computers to act as videophones or videoconference stations. This common use as a video camera...
s, blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ging, and a webzine
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
. Members can purchase subscription upgrades for benefits such as higher search rankings. Members can broadcast their webcams publicly to each other. Chat room viewers can page the broadcasting member to ask to initiate a personal chat session.
Adult FriendFinder has one of the web's most popular affiliate programs, whereby webmasters refer users to the site and are compensated up to $1.01 per unique click.
The site won the 2010 XBIZ Award
XBIZ Award
XBIZ Awards are given annually to honor "individuals, companies, performers and products that play an essential part in the growth and success of adult entertainment". Organized by the adult industry trade magazine XBIZ, the awards were first given in 2003...
for "Dating Program of the Year".
Criticism
There is some controversy over the true ratio of male to female members. Additional reports state the user database is rarely purged, and a larger-than-average number of members are prostitutesProstitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
"looking for clients". Others are scams advertising fake profiles using photographs taken from the Internet to phish
Phishing
Phishing is a way of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT...
for e-mail addresses, or to advertise for other websites. As with most dating services, they offer a free membership option, although there are thousands of reports of problems with the free and paid memberships.
In 2004 and 2005, the Ripoff Report published a report 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 chatroom logs to provide the appearance of greater activity on the site, and the use of bots
Internet bot
Internet bots, also known as web robots, WWW robots or simply bots, are software applications that run automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone...
to send emails from profiles that are not of actual people.