GLAMOUR MAGAZINE -- Aug 26 -- A startling number of young women are living out a fantasy with guys they meet online – and don’t know at all. Liberating or just plain dangerous? Hookup or “casual dating” websites like Fling.com, SexSearch, OnlineBootyCall, and others often outperform mainstream dating sites. Match.com had 5M unique visitors in May. AdultFriendFinder had nearly 24M and Fling 18M. Statistics show that ~50% of these users are women. “Most women say they get a rush from sleeping with a stranger. The rush may be largely fear. If you mix the chemicals involved with fear (adrenaline and norepinephrine) and those involved with sexual arousal (serotonin and dopamine), you create the most potent cocktail the brain can handle”, said Kelly McDaniel, author of Ready to Heal: Women Facing Love, Sex and Relationship Addiction. SUMMARY FROM SEPTEMBER 2009 GLAMOUR MAGAZINE
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There is a major error in this article. I'm trying to find it on Glamour.com.
It is true that Adult Friend Finder is a huge website. It does NOT have equal numbers of women and men, as you say. Men outnumber women about 7:1, and that's an international total.
The statistic that Glamour and/or you is referring to is the SEARCH statistic regarding women looking for adult dating. It is true that 50% of the searches are from women.
The women do not convert to users at least at AFF, which is far and away the biggest of the adult dating sites.
I cannot speak for Fling but I am an authority on Adult Friend Finder, as a business consultant on all things sexy.
I have discussed this "challenge" with the owners of AFF, who readily admit the discrepancy between men and women member, which is published on AFF.
Women are turned off by the very down market, increasingly hard-core atmosphere of Adult Friend Finder, although the website has some first rate men as members. If you can get beyond the atmosphere, you can meet great guys on AFF, and I don't mean only for a fling.
Had the writers of this article actually registered or spent time on AFF, they would know their statistics are totally wrong. And it's a big mistake. Anne
Posted by: Sexy Futures | Aug 27, 2009 at 07:08 PM
I'd rather read an article about adult casual sex websites in the Economist.
"A business consultant on all things sexy", that is a great tag line.
The problem, if you want to call it that, is not the gender balance, its the preponderance of prostitutes and spammers that make up the majority of profiles on these sites.
I've looked at the gender balance and lots of other stats and metrics on adult dating sites, fascinating revelations about how men and women approach the business of online hookups.
Cleaning up the sites would improves the sites considerably, but nobody would do that because then everyone would leave.
I don't buy it that AFF is increasingly hard-core, it's been like that forever. I've talked to Penthouse, they are in an untenable position, it's all about revenue and the IPO and that generally means they are taking their focus away from product improvement and exploring new markets. It's all about flogging AFF for all it's worth, which is completely understandable. Same goes for Spark Networks and JDate.
These sites are all about affiliate marketing. AFF makes around $50 million a year through affiliates. I wonder how many of those clicks are men?
Fling is simply the new AFF, but there are others making as much, if not more money in the adult space. They stay on the down low, and rightfully so.
Posted by: David Evans | Aug 28, 2009 at 09:29 AM
AFF does waaaay more in affiliate revenues.
Posted by: Mark Brooks | Aug 28, 2009 at 09:35 AM
Sex with a stranger is often better than a lame relationship or having a boyfriend who stalks. Women are more independent and don't always need to eschange sex for money like in old fashioned dating.
Posted by: Danni | Jul 07, 2010 at 01:57 AM
Im a married women that is in a relationship where my husband is married to his job and spends two weeks away out of the month.
I joined a married dating website over a year ago to tell you the truth its been the most exciting adventures with strange men that i could have ever imagined.
Men have no idea when it comes to women we are way more exciting then men could ever imagine.
kris
Posted by: dating sites for married people | Sep 26, 2010 at 01:31 AM