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Adulterers' Web site Ashley Madison targets Ireland for business

A Web site that helps people have affairs is to launch in Ireland with a major marketing campaign later this year, IrishCentral can reveal.

The site, Ashley Madison, has been in operation in North America since 2001, and its Canadian founder, Noel Biderman, told IrishCentral in an exclusive interview that membership has gone up from one million to 3.6 million in the past 12 months – in part thanks to the recession.

The site works by matching people up who both want to have affairs and who live in the same locality. Users can search for other likeminded people in their area.

 And users who sign up to the “Affair Guarantee” membership program and who don’t find an affair after three months can get their money back.

Biderman said that the site has already had a “soft launch” in Ireland – meaning that it can be used in Ireland. He says that it currently has around 5400 Irish members, with no advertising or marketing there.

He said that his company is currently carrying out market research in Ireland, and will launch a major advertising campaign later this year, spending “millions of euro.”

 “We have a manager for our international operations coming on board so you’ll be seeing us marketing in Ireland aggressively by late 2009,” Biderman said.

“We‘ll be letting people in Ireland know about Ashley Madison’s existence. Right now, what you get when you choose our service in Ireland is the same as what you get in Canada. Once we start marketing seriously in Ireland, we will start tailoring the site specifically for that market.”

He believes that Ireland “has all the makings for being a very positive market place for Ashley Madison.”

“Ireland has lower divorce rates compared to the U.S., meaning people stay in their marriages more often than they do in the US, which benefits our business,” Biderman said.

“There’s an ocean out there, because men are men, and it’s in their DNA to not want to be monogamous. So they might be staying in their marriages and they might be looking for cathartic outlets.”

Biderman said that the fact that Ireland has traditionally been a conservative Catholic country will also benefit his business.

“The more you suppress human nature, the more likely it is to manifest itself. My business may not be all that successful in France – they don’t need me. It’s more socially accepted there that men have mistresses. It’s part of their culture. But in Ireland it’s not accepted,” he said.

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Nster.com