Tim Tebow and Singapore fight the good fight, while 25 million other people drink Ashley Madison's kool-aid.
In a sex crazed world, there is no doubt marriage will be under attack. So when you see a Canadian business like Ashley Madison shipping it's product worldwide and finding success, it makes perfect sense.
According to the associated press today, Ashley Madison is the world's biggest online dating site for married people, and it works when monogamy is the rule on the surface but, deep inside, couples want to cheat. Outside of the United states, the biggest customer, where the site has 13 million users, the website is weaving its way into many other people's bedrooms as well.
In Japan for instance, the nation's pride in proper appearances and conformity helped the new age adultery industry pioneer reach a million users in eight and a half months, the fastest pace among any of the 37 countries where the adultery site operates. The previous record was Brazil at 10 months. Spain took nearly two years to reach a million users.
In smaller countries like South Africa, where there are only 175,000 active users, Ashley Madison finds that most of the users are in their 30s and more often than not, they come from a rural area.
The website looked at how many members it had per town and then worked out which towns had the highest percentages of their married population using it to find new partners.
"Small towns have more unfaithfulness. It might be because there is less to do, less entertainment," said Ashley Madison spokesman Chantal Hanzen, according to Times Live.
With its slogan, "Life is short. Have an affair," Ashley Madison has drawn nearly 25 million users worldwide since being started in 2002. It now has 1.07 million users in Japan after opening there in June last year.
One strong draw of the site, besides sexual desires, of course, is that it allows the cheater to hide behind pseudonyms or anonymity. It reduces the chances of leaving behind an incriminating email, so it easier to not get caught. It's far less messy than trying to find an erotic outlet on Facebook or in the office, said Founder Biderman during a visit to Tokyo this week.
Singles can join but only if they are willing to get together with married people, and women get in free.
The site makes money by charging men. Males make up about 70 percent of the user database worldwide. You buy credits and use them to connect with other users. Credits are also used for gifts to attract potential lovers. The privately owned company had profit of about $40 million last year with an overall revenue of around $125 million.
Some countries, like Singapore, have blocked the site, according to USA Today.
Singapore's Media Development Authority, which regulates the Internet, blocked access amid a public outcry ahead of the company's planned launch earlier this year.
They said in a statement that because of "flagrant disregard of family values and public morality," they made the decision
"We will therefore not allow Ashley Madison to operate in Singapore and have worked with Internet service providers to block access to the site," the statement said.
Maybe Singapore feels this way, not only because Ashley Madison promotes a breakdown in morality, but it also does strange things like put what amounts to a bounty on Tim Tebow's virginity. But, the good news is the site placed the price years ago when Tim was just getting out of college, and has yet to find a taker.
