Update: Penthouse Media Group may be the buyer.
The world’s basest online dating site may have had a major liquidity event. Palo Alto based Various, Inc., which owns AdultFriendFinder and scores of other sites, has been acquired, says a source with knowledge of the deal. This is a single source rumor, but the quality of the source suggests, as it has in the past, that the rumor is accurate.
The company, which was founded by Andrew Conru, is rumored to now have revenues in excess of $300 million annually. The acquisition price is said to be 3x revenue, or around $1 billion.
We’re digging now for confirmation of the deal, and to find out who the buyer is. There’s a recent article on the company with deep background information here.
massive affiliate network that leads the adult industry. I’m not surprised at the valuation, unlike a lot of 2.0 movers in this space they have a proven revenue model.
I read somewhere that affiliates are paid $1 per click. a lot of money flows through this site…
Michael
depending on the quality of the traffic that’s correct, they offer a variety of options to affiliates. They also offer for memory about 10 variations on the theme, including non-porn/ sex focused dating sites as well.
Duncan – and how do you know so much about it?
ya Duncan, how are you so well informed?
.
Looks like Duncan is a power user
looks like ur all power users.
Happily admit: I’ve got an Adult Friend Finder affiliate account. Their dating stuff pays pretty well compared to most programs, particularly against celeb/ gossip stuff on the general dating product (I use to run that gossipy sort of site). Great product and generous payments…it’s why they’ve gone so well and I think that they’re worth it. In a sea of affiliate programs they really do shine well.
that’s hott
Ouriel, I just checked out the Enso video on your website….. Those guys have a brilliant application.
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lol Duncan the smut peddler :p
Aaronontheweb
which part of they don’t just run sex swapping did you miss…mind you, not that’s there’s anything wrong with porn
Its a great dating site people. Ive met lots of great people. See my profile and let me know what ya thnk thedalmation.com
It’s a very good post. Adults only
wow can’t believe 1 billion.
The internet is for porn!
http://www.carversation.com
why? these guys do amazing traffic and have a huge affiliate base that has really become the Adsense of the adult space. It’s worth this and maybe a bit more.
Dang, at a $1 a click, I should be an affiliate.
But, the significant other might have something to say about that.
That affiliate base must be crucial to its success.
If this proves to be true, they sold out at the right time. All the free adult themed social networking sites are finally catching on a bit.
Probably selling it now that they’ve been busted for using Zango to promote their program and buying keywords on other sites.
jaysin is from gfy!! dont trust him, he is huge smut peddler!
I’ve never signed up for an account with AFF, but alot of people say that site is cluttered with fake profiles of women – to get guys to join.
and when you do signup, you get bombarded with adult spam offers to join their sites.
some even say AFF has a ratio of 100:1, women:men on that site. so unless you’re a gay male or something like that…the chance of a straight guy getting laid by a female is very, very slim
As far as the acquistion price goes…3x multiple, that’s kind of on the lower side of acquisitions – it’s basically a bargain
lol – i’d possibly buy it, if i had 1B sitting idle
I think it is acquisition price is lowest, they could have deserved for more better price.
They doesnt pay you $1 per click. There is a bit of fraud there.
When you sing up to start offering traffic to them you can choose from Cost per Click or a % of the money they get from paid members refered by you.
Almost everybody choose Cost per Click, but almost nobody notices that they say, in small text, that if your traffic its no “quality-traffic” (users who ended paying) they can convert your account in a pay per % anytime they want. The problem is that always they to that when you are going to get paid for all the trafffic you had sent.
And by the way, i cant get why are they selling for that low price.
Why a company that generates $300 million in revenue per year would need one billion dollars right now if they can get them in just a three year period?
RARE.
Couple points…
1. I work on the tech side in the adult industry. Points for a site who can get members “laid”. These guys do it according to anecdotal evidence i’ve heard.
2. Great affiliate program for sure. In the end the Revshare part of their program works best, not the CPC. If you’re sending traffic to promote a bunch of similar “adult” dating sites, they are among the top in payments.
3. Experience. They’ve been around forever. They know the territory, they have the members to back it up too.
4. Maybe the founders just want to sit back and retire after many years of hard work now. To that end Congratulations!!
congratulations I suppose?
Sitespaces revenue all comes from Medley Inc, the company behind the friendfinder sites.
What does this mean for us? We send millions of hits there.
I think I’m going to look for another partner right now sooner than later.
“I read somewhere that affiliates are paid $1 per click. a lot of money flows through this site…”
No, it’s based on revenue shared from subscriptions. There are 3 different programs you can use. SiteSpaces.net has been on it for months now and it made WAY the hell more than google adsense.
People on Social networking will not click unless they see some titteaaas. That’s just a fact. If you wanted to monetize social networking AFF was the shiznit. Now I dunno.
“Looks like Duncan is a power user”
Don’t mock it. I used it for like 2 months and it got me a date with a lactating milf. I chickened out and didn’t go though, because I found out that she was in fact way more freaky than she initially told me. I do have the whole text message back&forth still on my cell phone if you want to see it.
http://siteanal....com/?metric=uv
Fling.com has been catching up fast to AFF and is set to pass them.
Rumors have been going around for months that penthouse or playboy aquired Adultfriendfinder.
Anybody who doesn’t believe that sex sells should read this blog entry again. True or not, they have the closest thing to a money printing machine second to Google and Microsoft.
Jon
“Anybody who doesn’t believe that sex sells should read this blog entry again.”
If AFF ads went up on MySpace, it would be an instant financial killing. Literally.
The revenue from AFF on our social networking site went up 10000% when I started using AFF instead of adsense.
Never underestimate the plight and body chemistry of males. Even the most professional will yield to nature and click the boobies.
This might be, indeed, the biggest online scam of all time.
After digging in (professionally, if you know what I mean) few years ago it seemed like a simple dating scam – one that even Yahoo! has been accused of in the past. Fake profiles, fake messages, just to get you hooked up.
In Finland, where I now live, you can still see the same faces in the affiliate ads. The locations, cities and local suburbs, are drawn from databases – everything looks and feels the same as in the States, but the profiles (look and feel) are totally same. This is totally a scam.
The service is obviously highly profitable, and the low revenue multiplier tells that the buyer knows what’s going on.
Adult entertainment business is nicely protected from class-action lawsuits, just as drug dealer. Nobody really wants to come forward if they feel being scammed, but rather pay for their mistakes and then just shut up.
Doesn’t AFF own the backend behind Nerve/Onion/etc. personals?
It’s funny that most of you guys are surprised, but this is something with actual value
damn, that’s hot. let’s hit it tonight@
Medley lists their own sites as their clients
http://medley.c...amp;site=medley
It’s so much like Intermix, even Claria to an extent. I don’t think they own the backend behind the Onion modules though.
“Nobody really wants to come forward if they feel being scammed, but rather pay for their mistakes and then just shut up.”
I disagree. As a user I actually found a bug on AFF and called them up to report it. It was a severe bug that allowed anybody to hijack an account. I found it by accident. At that time I found out that they too use bugzilla to track their bugs.
The only people that would really be ashamed of using AFF are those that are married and cheating.
How can you be ashamed, you have to put your picture up on your profile for the world to see? What you’re saying is counter-intuitive.
Really Duncan!
Have to agree #35 . In the uk you pictures and the location/details of the user change constantly.
So you get a picture of one hot girl and on one site she will be 22 from manchester and on another site she will be 21 from Davenport and so on.
Its a fake. It suprises me that people pay to use the site.
“Its a fake. It suprises me that people pay to use the site.”
The ads on AFF picturing women all have this text below them:
“Illustrative Purposes only. Not actual members”
The members on the website are 100% real.
Hey guys Medley, remember who stood up for you against the FUD wave when you weren’t paying attention.
adultfriendfinder makes its money by advertisding on content theft sites like torrents and child porn sites..
this is a stupid move as the new owners wont be able to make a profit unless they continue to advertise with the same model.
The rest of the adult industry despises aff as they are the largest company that pays thieves to advertise.
there are numerous sites like megarotic , that offer only 2 things. #1 stolen content/child porn and adultfriendfinder ads.
p.s. they were also involved in a relationship with one of the most prolific spyware sites on the internet ( zango )
using this business model and the use of spyware they were able to steal signups from other adult sites.
people who thought they were signing up for sites like “playboy” were actually tricked into signing up with adultfriendfinder thus making it impossible to cancel.
The low valuation is really surprising. Hell if youtube got 1.5 billion before it really took off and had absolutely no revenue model, how can a site that makes 300 mil a year only have a 1 billion dollar valuation?
“there are numerous sites like megarotic , that offer only 2 things. #1 stolen content/child porn and adultfriendfinder ads.”
How is that their fault?
You could take an adbright js code and put it on any page as well.
They have so many affiliates they can hardly check all the HTTP referrers with the small staff they have.
This is a tiny company to have a 1B buy out.
I for one love adultfriendfinder. They’ve made me a lot of money in the past. I currently run them at http://www.abum.com
“How is that their fault?” chris r.
i dont know , how would you feel making your money from the exploitation of children ? how would you feel knowing your company advertises next to films of children being molested.
the main reason i suppose is that they know it takes place and do nothing to stop it.
go check the alexa rank for megarotic.. it would be hard to miss them
Michael Arrington,
Change the AFF image that illustrates the post and put a AFF affiliate banner. Easy cash
, eh?
The ads they show on various sites are just that – ADS. Not the real people from that locality.
C’mon – that’s pretty standard for advertising. You think every celebrity that endorses a product actually uses it? There is some dissociation between the message and reality.