Wear Masks while Having Sex, says NGO

Sex workers and clients urged to wear masks during sex

Even during the pandemic, some people have sexual needs that have to be fulfilled.

Men in Hong Kong have been taking risks and visiting prostitutes, but a local NGO is advising clients and sex workers to both wear masks during their encounters -- even when having sex.

The Hong Kong Aids Foundation conducted a survey of 600 men who regularly visit prostitutes and found 70 percent of them engaged the services of sex workers, though two-thirds of them admitted cutting back on their visits.

Clients are urged to get vaccinated too

Only six percent of those surveyed said they kept their masks on while having sex.

The foundation's chief executive, Eris Lau, recommended that people should get vaccinated, wear face masks, check their body temperature, and use the Leave Home Safe app when visiting sex workers.

Really? Would people actually scan the QR code of the brothel? And wear face masks when doing the dirty deed? Seems like those are the last things people would do when satisfying their urges... And would a client like the prostitute to wear a mask? Probably not.

It seems so naive to think that people would follow these suggestions even though we're two years into a pandemic.

But perhaps they would be more amenable to getting the booster shot, which Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor announced would be available from January...

Maybe there should be an urgent queue not only for the elderly but those in the catering sector, including the sex industry, and its clients...

Shocking Claims Condoned

Almost half of all the people in anti-government protests are women

At this morning's weekly press conference, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said she and her administration had noticed there was a lot of "fake news" on social media and cautioned people to be careful about what they read.

"Everyone of us, including government officials... have to be extremely cautious in ascertaining whether it is accurate," Lam said.

Carrie Lam says Fanny Law's views are her own

If people suspect people have broken the law, they should tell the police, she added.

What about her own advisor on the Executive Council, Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, who yesterday went on a radio talk show on RTHK and made the shocking claim that teenage girls were offering sex to frontline protesters, and gave the example of a 14-year-old student who later became pregnant.

"People are free to decide whether or not to believe it," said Law. "Of course, I can trace the origin of the information through a trusted friend's friend who knows the girl, but to reveal more details would be traumatic."

A friend of a friend? Isn't that second-hand information? Why didn't she check with the source to make sure the information was correct or not?

Fanny Law (left) with lawmaker Avery Ng (right) on RTHK

But Law claimed: "We have confirmed this is a true case. I am so sad for these young girls who have been misled into offering free sex."

When Lam was asked about Law's assertions, the chief executive replied: "Those comments are representing her own personal views."

These are highly speculative comments. How can the Hong Kong government allow a senior advisor to the administration to say such disparaging things publicly that may not even be true?

If this is Law's idea of trying to divide protesters, if anything it strengthened their resolution to stick together to unite against a government that seems completely out of touch with its own citizens.

An administration with integrity would have already fired Law from its inner circle, but Lam seems to think it's fine for Law to give her own comments.

Law's comments have only inflamed protesters' resolve

How is this crisis ever going to end when disparaging remarks are made and supported?

 

Tiger's Taste for Maotai Takes him Down

Wang Xiaoguang is the latest official to be jailed for 20 years for corruption

While you may think Chinese President Xi Jinping has been busy with Belt and Road, and the Greater Bay Area, don't think he hasn't had time to bag more tigers. One more was recently taken down, the former vice-governor of Guizhou province.

Wang Xiaoguang, who was in power from 2009-2016 was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined a record 174 million yuan (US$26 million) for taking bribes, embezzlement and insider trading.

Wang was known as the "Maotai collector"

The prosecution claimed that Wang had taken advantage of his position to receive 49 million yuan in bribes, made 163 million yuan from insider trading of stocks and embezzled 4.8 million in land sales proceeds in 2000.

What did he do with all that money? Apparently he liked to collect rare orchids and Maotai, a kind of baijiu that is distilled from sorghum.

The court said Wang's sentence was light because the 57-year-old pleaded guilty to all charges.

In a confession, Wang said he was "addicted to orchids" and the National Supervisory Commission or anti-corruption watchdog said he had amassed so much Maotai that he became known as the "Maotai collector" and even obtained liquor licenses for his relatives to help him sell it. His wife reportedly dunked a lot of the prized Maotai down the sink before the authorities came to arrest him.

Another no-no was that Wang had "enthusiasm for reading politically incorrect overseas publications", a veiled reference to books and journals about Chinese political gossip that people would buy on their trips to Hong Kong.

He also had a penchant for collecting rare orchids like these

But sadly those days are over for Wang.

While a number officials were caught for having mistresses or too much sex, Wang was nabbed for too much Maotai and orchids. Guess each to their own...

Shock and Outrage... Over Sex

Conservatives were outraged the adult-only show was held in Central

This weekend there was the first ever adult-only carnival held in Hong Kong, featuring male strippers, pole dancers, Japanese porn actresses, and even an artist who paints with his penis.

Hong Kong has trade shows for the sex industry, but this was the debut of an event that targeted consumers and local lawmakers freaked out.

Pole dancing performances were on

City officials received about 70 complaints about 18+ Central, which was held this weekend in two big white tents in Central's harbourfront. The objections were mainly because this sex-themed event was held in a public space that is meant for families.

The organizer, Vertical Expo Services, estimated some 35,000 visitors passed through the gates from Friday to Sunday. Kenny Lo, chief executive of VES said they had received an entertainment license and complied with the Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance.

"The lack of such an event in the past simply showed Hong Kong was very backward, compared to major cities in mainland China and overseas," Lo said.

One of the more vocal opponents was Executive Council member Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee.

"We don't really want any sleazy... activity to take place in the most prestigious and beautiful parts of our city, which is the harbourfront," she said.

Ip, who questioned whether the show was compatible with public morals and Hong Kong's image as a "sophisticated and clean city", was not entirely against the concept, but felt Mongkok might have been a more appropriate setting.

There was even an artist who used his body part to paint...

Now that's stereotyping! And what's wrong with an event that's being held in big tents? They are not disturbing anyone, let alone anyone's view. Last week Art Central was held in similar tents with art showing naked bodies. Is that considered obscene compared to a sex show?

Her other line of argument was that having such an event near the government and legislative headquarters was not in good taste. But that's where the harbourfront happens to be!

Obviously the staff who approved the license will be raked over the coals for this event, but as long as children cannot get into the venue, what's the big deal?

And besides, with Hong Kong's birth rate so low, this adult-only show may inspire some couples to inject a bit more excitement in their lives and have more sex, or at least learn a few tips. Not only may it lead to some babies, but also stress relief for many...

Good Laughs

Saturday night was filled with laughs thanks to comedy night in Wan Chai

I just came back from Tamarind restaurant in Wan Chai which held a comedy night put on by Punchline Comedy Club.

A colleague, his girlfriend and I arrived earlier for a bite to eat at the buffet... a pan-Asian selection of food, mostly samosas, chicken tikka, vegetarian curry, naan bread and salad, where we ate under really bad lighting.

Then about 8.20pm, we got up to the main area, where seats were set up theatre style, and we managed to get three seats in a window alcove as if we were in our own little box.

Maff Brown warmed up the audience...

This proved to be the best move, as the rest of the seats were crammed together, and there was hardly any room for people to get in and out.

The first comedian was Maff Brown from the UK and he spoke very fast so sometimes the audience had a delayed reaction to his jokes, or the jokes themselves were so bizarre, it took a second to process what he'd said.

Many of the jokes were related to sex, like shagging a friend's mother, or how his girlfriend is keen to get pregnant, but he's not interested in kids. He'd make fun of audience members, like right in the beginning, one woman near the front, who seemed to get his jokes much later than everyone else, so he'd periodically check to see if she was on the same page.

After a break, Stephen K Amos came on, with a very warm welcome from the audience. He too made fun of people, like a 22-year-old who had no idea what Amos was talking about when he said he used to be a DJ and would carry around a turntable to his friend's place but instead brought the sewing machine. And it was a Singer. Bada-boom.

He talked about his family, how there were eight children, and he has a twin sister. He'd joke that his mother complained about making her life hell, and how his father made them run faster by taking off his belt...

... followed by Stephen K Amo's routine, touching on racism

Jokes aside, Amos also wanted to add a measure of seriousness, with a message, saying that on social media we have to think about what we say online and not just react to what people post or say.

He gave examples of how some comments can be what he calls "casual racism". Amos said he didn't want to be called black, but that he was Stephen. Sometimes this is hard for people to understand or realize, but people are people, no matter who they are or where they came from.

The whole evening was full of good laughs which gave the abs a good workout. Laughing is a wonderful stress reliever and we definitely chilled out afterwards.

That's Chicago

Lining up to get into the theatre to watch Chicago for a matinee show

You can't go to New York without seeing a show. The hottest ticket these past few years has been Tony award-winning Hamilton, which goes up to the thousands of dollars. There is a lottery draw every day for cheap tickets, but apparently 7 million people take part in it everyday so the chances of winning are really slim.

The show that used to be the most popular in town before Hamilton was Book of Mormon and those tickets have now dropped to US$145 each, but we opted for even cheaper tickets to see Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre.

The orchestra took up most of the stage

I'd seen a live performance many years ago in Hong Kong and then saw the Oscar-winning film starring Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

So while the story line was a bit fuzzy, we still remembered many of the songs.

The stage in this theatre was very small -- so small that the orchestra took up a big chunk of the stage sitting stadium style. As a result the performers didn't have much of a set to work with, and even interacted with the conductor to connect the music with the characters.

However, the performers were very strong, which made up for the very small stage. The two women who played Roxie Hart (Charlotte d'Amboise) was vibrant and amusing, while Velma Kelly (Amra-Faye Wright) was fun and bitchy.

Jaime Camil after the show signing autographs

They were both in jail for killing men, and their lawyer, the slick Billy Flynn was performed by Jaime Camil, who is considered a very well-known actor in the Spanish-speaking world.

This was apparent after the show, when many fans waited outside for him to come out and sign autographs and have his picture taken.

Because the stage was so small, the performers couldn't do much choreographed dancing which was a pity, and so it was important to know the story line well. Perhaps the best scene was Billy Flynn acting like a ventriloquist using Roxie Hart as a puppet mouthing his words during a press conference to give her side of the story.

The actors added a few witty words here and there or fun body language to keep the script fresh, and the conductor was also a character in the show.

He got lots of applause for his performance

The ending was anti-climactic, with the two women singing and dancing together, but nothing too complicated. Nevertheless we still enjoyed the show, about revenge, greed, ego and sex.

Chicago

Ambassador Theatre

219 West 49th Street

New York

(212) 239 6200

Quote of the Day: Don't get Involved in "Sextortion"

The number of cases of Hong Kong men threatened with blackmail after having online sex chats with women has increased significantly this year compared to last year.

Police figures show 506 local reports of "sextortion" in the first six months of this year, more than eight times the reported 60 cases in 2012; there were 477 cases in 2013, and last year 638.

Could it also be that more men are willing to come forward about their extracurricular activities because they don't have the money to pay up?

The amount victims also paid went up as well, according to police statistics. In the first six months of this year HK$1.6 million was paid out, compared to HK$100,000 in 2012. Meanwhile HK$1.7 million was swindled in 2013, and HK$2.3 million last year.

Yesterday three cases were reported by men ranging in ages 20 to 61, and none of them paid the amounts demanded of them, though they were threatened with lurid photos or videos of them would be released online. Interestingly they all reported the incidents in the morning until around lunchtime.

The police are treating these cases as blackmail, and one veteran police officer said such online scams were carried out by Asian women who demanded the money be paid into Western Union accounts registered in the women's home countries, like the Philippines.

Word of advice from the police? "Do not take your clothes off and perform indecent acts in front of a webcam."

It makes sense, but the sage words maybe harder to remember for those who get caught up in the heat of the moment...

Corruption Begets Salacious Tale

The party's over for Ding Qingping who was extradited back to China

A trickle of Chinese fugitives are being repatriated back to the motherland as part of Operation Skynet, part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's crackdown on corruption.

This tale you're about to read reeks of gobs of money, sex and blackmail.

Ding Qingping started out as a small contractor, but became a big player in the property sector after starting Zhonggang Group in 2003. The company developed real estate projects in several cities in Zhejiang, including Hangzhou, Ningbo, Yiwu and Jinhua.

In order to raise money for a project in Jinhua, Ding secured bank loans worth as much as 200 million yuan and took another 90 million yuan from individual borrowers, according to the Qianjiang Evening News.

However, Ding was not able to pay the high interest.

On September 28, 2008, he sent all his employees on a holiday in Hainan province, took the company's money and boarded a flight from Shanghai to Canada with his wife, leaving behind his huge debts and an unfinished high-rise in Zhejiang province.

In Canada he obtained residency through an immigration investment scheme. But then he ran out of money and then got vindictive.

He began contacting his mistresses -- note more than one -- back in China, asking to meet him in hotels in Hong Kong and elsewhere, where he secretly taped their sexual encounters and the blackmailed them for money, the report said.

In 2011, mainland police issued a red notice to Interpol requesting member countries to locate and arrest Ding.

He was finally caught in Spain in December, and then earlier this month, a Spanish court agreed to the Chinese authorities' extradition request and was just sent back to China recently.

Jackie Collins (left) would have loved this tale, right?

While it's game over for Ding, we have to admit extorting money from his several mistresses is surely creative. One wonders what his wife thought of his scheme.

In light of this incident, we mourn the passing of Jackie Collins, who made a name for herself writing titillating tales of sex, money and power.

Surely she would have found stories like this perfect for novel fodder... and they're apparently real!

Who's Blaming Who?

Mainland Chinese flock to Macau for rest, relaxation and gambling! What else?

China has disciplined Macau, saying it needs to lessen its reliance on gambling revenue "in the interests of the whole nation".

Li Fei, in charge of Hong Kong and Macau affairs gave the warning yesterday to Macau Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai-on before Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives to mark the 15th anniversary of the former Portuguese enclave's return to the mainland.

This past year has been a tough one for Macau, as Xi's anti-corruption campaign put a chill on many big rollers who usually go there to bet big... winning is another thing.

Li, who is also deputy secretary general of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, stressed that the "overwhelming dominance" of the gaming industry not only worked against the interests of Macau, but also the whole nation. Previous warnings were only focused on Macau.

The House of Dancing Water is a popular show...

"The overwhelming dominance of gambling in Macau is not in line with the overall interest of Macau and the fact that Macau's economy, especially gaming, is closely connected with the mainland determines that when one judges the overall interest of Macau, one cannot focus only on Macau's economic growth and tax revenue.

"One must take into account the socioeconomic safety, stability and developmental interest of the mainland and the whole nation," he said.

He added the mainland had give the city opportunities for development outside of gaming and it needed to explore these areas.

"The nation and the mainland provide Macau with many opportunities," Li said. "If the SAR can grab and fully utilize these conditions with good planning, scientific policy making and effective implementation, it is possible to explore a fresh development path of cooperation with the mainland in the nation's overall development framework."

So from that vague wording, what does Li mean? What opportunities has China given Macau in developing non-gaming areas? Could he please spell them out for us? Or do we have to play charades to get some clues?

The fact is, many of the casinos are building their new phases for the next two to three years and they are supposed to be more focused on more shopping and dining, and of course hotel rooms.

Melco Crown Entertainment has had one big hit, The House of Dancing Water, which is impressive and bizarre at the same time, but has struggled to capture the adult market with Taboo, that seems to undergo constant revamps without success.

... while Taboo leaves audiences squirming in their seats!

The show, which starts around 10pm, features scantily-clad dancers performing sexy routines, a singer and some acrobatic acts. For the most part the sexually-shy audience squirms when the dancers try to flirt with or tease them, and so most attendees only go once.

There are play areas for kids, but what other entertainment can these casinos come up with?

Actually the problem isn't entirely the fault of casinos not coming up with non-gaming options -- it's the mainland visitors who want to gamble.

They are the ones, up until recently, flooding the casinos and putting down bets, throwing coins into slot machines and trying their luck.

These visitors are shopping too, but it's really the gambling that they are in Macau for. They aren't really interested in the historical spots of the area, nor the food. They just want their dumplings and noodles and then continue playing baccarat or big/small.

Is it the fault of casinos for wanting to cater to their guests' needs and wants?

So perhaps Li is misplacing his blame somewhat and really it's Chinese residents he needs to berate for wanting to blow all their money against the odds?

Shameless Self Promoter

Getting some boob action during a group dinner and getting paid for it too

We cannot help but be simultaneously amused and disgusted in reading that a Jianxi businessman paid 100,000 yuan ($16,443) to be breastfed by actress and model Mo Lulu.

The monetary proposal was made during a group dinner and she actually accepted, hence the pictures of a man's head under her black top.

Mo is no stranger to controversy. In September, there were pictures online showing men eating mooncakes off her nude body, and then last Friday she posed next to luxury cars at the Jiujiang Auto Show scantily clad in lingerie. Then she lay on the stage and allowed people to place fruits on her body.

The woman really knows how to get attention. And by the way the boobs look enhanced, while her body needs some workouts. She isn't that attractive so why are men going all gaga over her?

Needless to say comments online were scathing, ranging from "Your mother is young, just like your daughter" to "Doesn't this count as prostitution in public? What is the police department doing?"

Back to my old saying - T-I-C: This is China. Anything goes. ANYTHING.

Flesh Dance

Showing off lots of leg in this chair dance complete with corset and tutu

We just came back from an interesting event at Prive, a nightclub in Lan Kwai Fong. A local school wanted to showcase that although it teaches typical fitness classes like yoga and pilates, it also has classes in aerial arts like trapeze and hoop, pole dancing and lap dancing.

Walking in late, we saw several women learning to chair dance in a lesson on the dance floor. It was fascinating to see these Chinese women, some locals, others from overseas wearing corsets, tank tops, hot pants and high heels as they shimmied, spanked their butts, kicked their legs in the air and threw their heads back.

Many tried to imitate the instructor the best they could, others seemed proud to be able to show off their bodies in lingerie complete with garter belts. The bartenders in the club couldn't believe their luck this evening, seeing so much skin.

It turns out pole dancing is one of the more popular classes at the school and one of the pole dancing instructors explained it was because the women were doing it in a safe environment and enjoyed busting loose.

Following the instructor as they go through the moves

She said many had office jobs where they had to be conservative, but the class was an outlet to express themselves, not only in their dance moves, but their costumes as well. The instructor also said the students would even discuss outfits and how they were going to make them, and so there was the added component of craft-making.

We wondered if it was about women losing their inhibitions and becoming more comfortable with being sexy, which the instructor said could be another possibility. We asked if many of the students did this for their boyfriends, and she agreed, saying some ask to learn special moves for their boyfriend's birthday, but she also added some "wouldn't give a s*** what their boyfriend thought!"

It just very interesting to see how pole dancing, and chair and lap dancing have become so popular in what one would think on the surface was quite a conservative, straight-laced city for the most part.

But it is also a positive indication that people are interested in finding outlets for their creative energies, from making leather crafts to singing karaoke to pole dancing. This is a good thing because the last thing Hong Kong needs is more stressed out people!

Spoiled Convicted Offender

All in on the act -- Meng Ge, Li Shuangjiang and son Li Tianyi performing

It seems some spoiled children of China's super rich don't seem to learn from their mistakes.

Today the son of two celebrity singers for the Chinese military was convicted of rape and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Li Guanfeng, (previously known as Li Tianyi), 17, and four defendants met an 18-year-old woman surnamed Yang in a Beijing bar on February 17 and coerced her into a hotel room where they beat and sexually assaulted her.

Although Li pleaded not guilty in the trial last month saying he was drunk at the time, the court said he was the ringleader. Because he was a minor at the time, Li was sentenced to 10 years, while one of the other defendants is an adult and pleaded not guilty, was handed a 12-year sentence.

Sentences for rape in China usually range from three to 10 years, but in severe cases, such as gang rapes and causing serious injury or death can result in life in prison or even death.

Everyone in China was watching this case because Li is the son of Li Shuangjiang and Meng Ge, who usually perform for the People's Liberation Army and in television galas. The public wanted to see what kind of treatment Li would get because privileged people seem to get special treatment in the courts.

People close to Li's family spread information about the victim and the owner of the bar to the media before the trial to discredit Yang's testimony, while Meng said before the verdict that the court should consider Yang was a bar girl -- which the court said later her profession had "no direct relationship" to the charges.

In the end Li received a severe sentence, as the court said he was the main culprit, as Li grabbed the woman's arm, dragged her into the hotel and was caught on the hotel surveillance camera hitting her head and face in the elevator.

The court then said Li demanded that she take off her clothes and when she refused, he slapped and kicked her, and then stripped off her clothes with another defendant. It said Li was the first to force sex on the woman.

Li's defense was that he was so drunk at the time that he passed out and so he could not remember details of the incident.

Despite his weak defense his family will appeal.

Where does Li get the idea that he thinks he can get away with anything even though he was caught once before?

In 2011 the then 15-year-old without a driver's license got behind the wheel of a BMW with no license plates when a couple's car blocked his way coming out of a driveway in a residential area in Beijing. Li and another young man who drove an Audi both got out of their cars and assaulted the couple, while they told shocked bystanders, "Don't you dare call 110 [tell the police]."

Li was sentenced to a year detention for his road rage.

Maybe this time he will get the message? And perhaps his doting parents should stop meddling and realize they contributed to his out-of-control behaviour?

The Monogamous Man Behind Ashley Madison

The lipstick-covered Noel Biderman

As the man behind Ashley Madison, Noel Biderman bills himself as the "most hated man on the internet", with pictures of him wearing open collar shirts, with lipstick kisses all over his face and surrounded by leggy models not wearing much. That's because Ashley Madison is a dating website primarily for married or attached men or women looking for some action on the side.
 
Even before the founder and CEO arrived in Hong Kong for the city's launch of Ashley Madison, church groups and family value organisations upset about Biderman's website harming the family as a social institution.


"Without trying to moralise, [the website founder] is treating something as serious as marriage very casually," said Reverend Lawrence Lee, the Chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong. "Family life and fidelity in marriage are essential for the well-being of our society. If you weaken that foundation it is harmful to society."


Meanwhile Mayte Yeung Kit-wah of religious group The Society for Truth and Light said extra-marital affairs should not be encouraged.


"Not only will it lead to the unforgettable damage in marriage by which trust and commitment will be destroyed, it will also jeopardise the relationship between spouses and also with their children," she said. "Broken families have become a major problem in western societies and gradually in Hong Kong and the cost is always borne by society as a whole."


According to the Census and Statistics Department, the divorce rate in 1991 was only 1.1 people divorced per 1,000 people, but in 2011, it jumped to 2.8 people per 1,000.

However, Biderman is an old hand at brushing off the criticisms.

The Simpsons' take on Ashley Madison called Sassy Madison

"People had affairs in every country before Ashley Madison arrived," he says. "But they had them in the workplace or within their circle of friends – which is much more destructive. We don't want to convince anyone to cheat, but we can tell them how to have the perfect affair. And that means not only finding the right partner, but also not getting caught."


Hong Kong is Ashley Madison's 30th country, with over 20 million members. In the first week 82,669 people signed up, of which 31,415 are women. The profiles include not only the age, status and which district they lived in, but also what they were interested in, ranging from sex talk to fetishes and "lots of stamina". Curiously, the users' photographs had the option of adding a mask over their eyes that seems unattractive than beguiling.


By way of starting the interview in a suite in the Peninsula Hong Kong, Biderman's handlers invited journalists to watch a 30-second commercial. Viewers are meant to feel like voyeurs spying on a couple in the throes of passion under the covers through a green-coloured lens, in an attempt to entice people to sign up at Ashley Madison.


"By the time we explain what we want to do, we find it easier to just do it ourselves," explains the Canadian entrepreneur, of the company's advertising.


While the images may look amateurish, Biderman is serious about his business.


"Infidelity is universal. It plays out the same way everywhere. That's why I'm building a global dating company," he says, sitting back comfortably in a dusty pink shirt, white jeans, and blue suede shoes. The 42-year-old has a few grey hairs, but looks slimmer than his appearance in the ads.


"People have affairs and they go to singles dating sites when they shouldn't. There are lots of like-minded adults looking to cheat and that's what Ashley Madison is for," he says plainly. Having had so much media coverage, Biderman feels comfortable despite the barrage of criticisms over the morality of his website – in fact he welcomes the attention.


His idea for Ashley Madison came about when he worked as a sports attorney for Interperformances Inc, one of Europe and North America's largest sports management firms. He managed 45 athletes around the world and saw first hand the infidelities they dabbled in.


"Professional athletes play in different countries and they're 10,000 kilometres from home. They're in a high stress profession, and they have lots of fans, fan-dom. So there's lots of temptation. It's like putting a plate of cookies in front of you and you think you can resist them but it's an overestimation. This happens to politicians, athletes and celebrities. They are surrounded by fans. Infidelity is part of the professional sports landscape."


Tiger Woods comes to mind, and Biderman added Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain to the list. "Athletes, CEOs and politicians are type A personalities, people who are risk takers and have power and influence which makes them tend to cheat. At some level we are unsure about our relationship or are curious about cheating."


He recalls getting a phone call in the middle of the night from one of his basketball players in Milan saying his wife back home missed him and wanted to fly over to meet him. "But my Italian wife won't like that", Biderman recalls him saying.


The athlete had just tied the knot with an Italian woman and as the manager, Biderman had to scramble to annul the marriage, pay the woman off, make sure she had a pregnancy test – a massive headache that made him think there must be a better, more discreet way to cheat.


Biderman began researching statistics on affairs and found over one-third of users of internet dating sites are not single and so he concluded they are a community of their own. In order to make it a level playing field, he made Ashley Madison geared towards women. 


"Men are predisposed to cheating, whereas women are penalised, in that it is beyond the scarlet letter and stoning them," he says. "When a woman joins a dating site, she meets a man, and he seems perfect but then he disappears and she finds out he's married. It's close to a sexual assault."

He's also done his research on Hong Kong – considering it a separate market from the mainland. 

"It has a unique culture and different regulatory body," he says, though he freely admits the Hong Kong site is a springboard to China. "I see hundreds of thousands of hits from China," he says. "They're doing it either virally or they somehow hear about the most talked about dot-com. It's in the mainstream media, like Bloomberg, CNN, CNBC so it's made its way into the vernacular."

And when The Simpsons spoofs your own commercial, you know you've become mainstream. In one of the episodes, Marge Simpson thinks she is ordering a cake from Dolly Madison but mistakenly logs onto Sassy Madison, enticing her to cheat on Homer. "We are the Kleenex of cheating," he says proudly.


"Cheating is in our DNA," Biderman has been quoted as saying, and in the case of women, he says they enter affairs not just for sexual reasons. "They were once objects of desire, taken on dates, given flowers, but then 10 years later there's no conversation, only grunting," he says. 


He says cheating nowadays is on another level, where one's history of which websites they have visited are the equivalent to digital lipstick. Biderman says with Ashley Madison, users log onto the site and use the messaging system there and so no personal email addresses are exchanged.


Ashley Madison works on a credit model, where men pay HK$360 for 100 credits to contact 20 women. "Infidelity is transient," explains Biderman. "Some say they'll give it three months, or the site must be broken. Or on Monday they will think it's time to do something. They can pay as they play."

Biderman explains when people must pay to make contact with others, it forces quality. "A guy can blast 1,000 women, but he isn't going to get any responses. When it's targeted, the women get the invitation they want."


In setting the price in Hong Kong, Biderman says users can be price sensitive. "In Switzerland and Japan it's higher than average, but in Columbia it's lower, and we need to do something about the number of users there," he said. "We look at the CPI index, the price of things when we set the prices."

He also looks closely at the statistics – that men at the age of 39 are more predisposed to having an affair, much like buying fancy cars or women having plastic surgery. Men also tend to cheat three to four years into the marriage when their wives are pregnant.


Universities of Duke, Michigan and California at Irvine are partnering with Ashley Madison to mine the data to examine trends in infidelity, with over 25,000 users self-publishing why they are having an affair and sending hundreds of thousands of messages a day.

Biderman and his wife Amanda

"We've found that when Asian women want to join our site, 95 per cent send messages to non-Asian men because they are looking for something different in their marriages," Biderman says. "Sex is the human condition and monogamy is set up to fail."


This coming from the man who has been married for 11 years to his wife Amanda with two children, a boy and girl.


"My wife is my biggest cheerleader. When I said, 'Honey I want to start a cheating website' she said, 'Yeah, OK', and I explained why and how, she said, 'How can I help?'"


In fact, Biderman says, working on Ashley Madison has helped him be more faithful since he deals with infidelity everyday on the job. While he says his children are too young to know exactly what he does, but claims he will be honest with them. "I think they will judge me for the dad I am."