VentureBeat: When you had the hack, what was the consequence of that? Did users disappear for a while or did you shut down for a while? ![]() We’ve seen that we’re the number one married dating website in the world by leaps and bounds. We’re going to be looking at a lot of different things about how the core business operates in the next short period of time, but I think the core story is that as people look to the value of monogamy, a certain segment of the population is always going to see value in a place like Ashley Madison. It showed steady growth over the course of the year, and we continue to see that number grow in 2020. We signed up about 5.6 million new members last year. That’s a total joined since launch in 2002. Keable: We reached 65 million members in 2019. VentureBeat: Do you disclose any larger numbers? We’ll continue to monitor it and see how the current situation we’re facing impacts the business one way or another. It’s a little bit up over our daily average last year at this point in time, so that’s interesting. In our 2019 report, we averaged 15,500 new members every day. We’re averaging more than 17,000 new members a day. I wanted to see what our daily signups were like. ![]() Keable: I pulled up the last three days, because so much has changed. VentureBeat: What is the monthly active number now? We’re creating a third path for people, and clearly, with everything we’ve been through nearly 20 years later, 17,000 people joining every day, we’re making a mark and establishing a space for ourselves. We’re traditionally told to either suck it up and live without the thing that you want or get a divorce and give up everything you want in search of just one thing. By seeking an affair discreetly, they’re able to maintain all the aspects of life that they value and enjoy. Often it’s a physical component, from an intimacy standpoint. We often hear from our members that they love their spouses, they love their families and the situation they’re in, but there’s something missing. We were told it was a lot of different things, but it doesn’t work for a segment of the population. It’s our belief that monogamy is not everything we were told it was. We created Ashley Madison, launched on Valentine’s Day in 2002, and now we’re in 50 countries and 19 languages. The traditional dating sites certainly don’t want married people on their sites pretending to be single. They created a place where people could be a little bit more honest in terms of what they were looking for, and meet similar people. That indicated to them that clearly there was a market for this. Up to 30% of the profiles on these matchmaking sites were actually married people pretending to be single. Keable: In the early 2000s, our founders saw something that really lit the proverbial lightbulb. VentureBeat: What is the way you explain the existence of Ashley Madison for folks? Why is there demand for it, and why does it make sense to do it in the way you do? But having someone to talk to who’s having similar feelings is going to be a relief, and it’s potentially going to be of value to a lot of people who are experiencing that. ![]() So, if you’re under quarantine or in working from home situations with your spouse and not having respite going into the office and being away, people are going to look at this as an outlet, even if it won’t be a physical interaction, at least in the short term. The reason to join us is there are fractures, often, at home, and those are going to be amplified, dramatically. If you step away from the initial shock of what’s come upon us, we see that places like us are likely to have value. Paul Keable: We’re continuing to see strong interest. VentureBeat: What’s happening with the popularity of Ashley Madison during the coronavirus?
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