MBA Idea No.13: Commercial Infidelity

August 4, 2010 · Posted in Launched 

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AshleyMadison is an online dating service—6 million users strong—serving people in existing relationships looking to have an affair.

Controversy surrounds the site, and Superbowl XLIII, the Toronto Transit Commission and the City of Phoenix, Arizona banned its advertisements.

Trish McDermott, co-founder of Match.com, accuses AshleyMadison of being a “business built on the back of broken hearts, ruined marriages and damaged families”.

Despite the setbacks, founder Noel Biderman (pictured above) continues to rationalize and promote the site with events like Mistress Day.

“Mistress Day is the day before Valentine’s Day. It’s the day when men with mistresses should make sure that they don’t forget about them,” explains Biderman.

image Other promotional campaigns include sponsoring the “Tiger Woods Mistress Beauty Pageant” on the Howard Stern morning radio show.

Tiger woods mistress Jamie Jungers (pictured left) was this year’s winner, who reportedly slept with Tiger the night his father died. She received $75,000 in prize money from AshleyMadison.

Noel Biderman compares negative views of maritl affairs to past views of interracial or gay marriages, noting that social norms change over time and 30% of people on existing dating sites are in pre-existing relationships.

Other notable Canada-based dating sites include MillionaireMatch.com for pursuing relationships with wealthy partners.

About founder and CEO Noel Biderman: Biderman was previously Vice President at JumpTV, General Manager at Move, and Director of Canadian Operations at Interperformances Inc. He was educated at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School in Canada. He’s been featured on Larry King Live and CNN.

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  • http://twitter.com/StacyXng Stacy Xiong

    so… apparently 70% of people on the site are guys and 30% are women. what does that tell you about cheating!!!!

  • http://twitter.com/felicitymcg felicity mcgregor

    So in one interview the CEO is comparing adultery to interracial dating and gay marriage, like it's a trend that's supposed to catch on. On the other hand, he claims to be in a faithful marriage to his wife and would be “devastated” if he found out she were on AshleyMadison.

    I'm not sure how to think about this. Is that the equivalent of straight people advocating gay rights? Or is this guy just out to make money? Probably the latter.

    Though he cites that 30% of people on normal dating sites are in a relationship, so maybe he's filling a need. I guess the site is technically more “honest” than Match.com in that regard.

    It's so hard to tell what's politically correct these days…

  • Don S.

    That's because women can cheat whenever they want. They don't need a website. Can you say “pizza guy?”

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