The infamous Ashley Madison hack has brought the adulterous website under close scrutiny. As intriguing as it is to find out who is using the site, what’s more interesting is who is not using the site. Nearly thirty-two million men have accounts with Ashley Madison, most of which are active. Fewer than six million women have accounts. Few to none of the female accounts are active.
So who created the female accounts? According to an employee who sued the company in 2012, Ashley Madison creates the vast majority of the female profiles out of thin air. Only about 12,000 female accounts can be established as authentic.
From a marketing perspective, the fake accounts are necessary. Ashley Madison’s brand lies in their tagline: “Life is short. Have an affair.” Without female profiles, men would not pay to join. Since less than one-tenth of one percent of the authentic profiles were created by women, the company needed to pad the numbers.
The site boasts over 40 million members, and claims that “thousands of cheating wives and cheating husbands sign up every day.” The language of this line is just confusing enough to be effective. It insinuates that thousands of women are signing up, and men are too. In actuality, thousands of men are signing up, and maybe some women as well; but probably not. It is more likely that the company adds female accounts at a regular pace to keep the pool of female profiles fresh. By providing females, the site subtly transfers responsibility for failing to hook up onto the men. The claim is that the women are there, and if a man can’t get one to respond to him, that’s his problem.
Inventing sexy, fascinating women to draw male clients is not a new marketing tactic in the adult industry. Phone sex providers use false images and personas for their operators. Pop-up ads for webcam sites insist that hot girls in your area are dying to talk to you. The difference is, on other sites the customer does get to talk to a woman eventually. Ashley Madison profited $55 million after taxes in 2014, and all they sold was false hope.
Even the 12,000 real female accounts are problematic. Ashley Madison does not delete accounts unless the customer pays a disconnect fee. The women who owned these accounts did pay the fee, but their information remained on the site.
Ashley Madison created a fantasy world full of horny, cheating wives who didn’t exist. They exploited their employees and customers by not honoring their paid-delete system. Poor business ethics and exorbitant exploitation was a death sentence for Ashley Madison; the hack merely expedited the inevitable.
