Adultery website Ashley Madison has come to Israel with a Hebrew website, after already listing 25 million members worldwide, under the slogan, "Life is short, have an affair". Noel Biderman's website has attracted quite a few Israelis - 35,000 people have already registered to step out on their spouses.
The figure is quite respectable given the fact that the site has not yet launched an ad campaign. Moreover, more than one million unique Israeli users have entered the site in curiosity. "Adultery happens in every culture, everywhere. There is no place you can point to in the world and say that, there, everyone is faithful. There are places where adultery is illegal and you can face the death penalty, yet people there will have affairs," Biderman told "Globes". "It's something innate to be with other people, even to the point of risking our lives."
Ashley Madison already operates in 17 languages in 37 countries, but Biderman doubts that it will contribute to adultery in Israel. "Before the launch of Ashley Madison in Israel, people had affairs, and when I leave, they'll have affairs. So why not give them a social network where they can be together."
"Globes": Is there a difference between Israel and the rest of the world?
Biderman: "Adultery happens everywhere in the world and in every culture, but Israel shows slightly different patterns of behavior. For example, there are younger users here. 80% of users are under 40, compared with the global average of 40%. We also found that many men who register on the site call themselves entrepreneurs. In other places, users describe themselves as IT workers, lawyers, government employees, or physicists. We've never had entrepreneurs at the top of this table."
Biderman says that, in the beginning, he usually described Ashley Madison, named for two popular girls names in the US, as a dating site for married people. "People asked what the connection was, because you don’t date when you're married, and that this was basically a site for people already in a relationship but want something on the side, most of all, a sexual relationship," says Biderman, adding, "We thought about the idea, after we read on technical blogs that online dating sites were the future, and that is how people would meet in the future. A third of the users on these sites were not single, so I said to myself, why not set up a site that was only intended for them."
Biderman says that in addition to people seeking excitement on the site, there are people checking to see if their spouse was on it. "There are people who join the service to check if their spouse is having an affair or seeking one, but if someone has taken this step, they already had serious suspicions that their spouse was having an affair," he says.
Biderman says that his site is better than the alternatives. "Facebook is a place where you can share your information with your close friends. It's the worst place to have an affair because it's the place where you can get caught. Ask top divorce lawyers in the US and they'll tell you this.
"The workplace is the second worst place to have an affair. You think you can keep a secret from your colleagues? They'll find out and people will talk."
Biderman is one of the last people who use the services offered by Ashley Madison. He is Jewish, married, with two small children. "The fact that I've decided to be monogamous does not prevent me from managing such a site. You don’t have to be a criminal to be a lawyer who defends criminals. I understand why women join the site and why men join the site, but personally, I'm monogamous and I assume that my wife is," he says, "My wife is one of greatest supporters, and she judges me as the husband that I am, the father that I am, and the entrepreneur that I am, and not by what people do on my site."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 20, 2014
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