Founder Blames Gay Rights Progress
BY ALEX VAUGHN
Fab.com, the gay social network that launched originally as Fabulis.com, has closed after its founder said that advances in gay rights mean there is less need for a gay version of Facebook.
Facebook made changes to their relationship status options two weeks ago to include civil and domestic partnerships.
The website began as a sort of gay Foursquare-style game based around users’ Facebook connections. It then evolved to a gay version of Groupon.
Jason Goldberg, its founder, wrote in an honest and pointed blog post explaining the decision: “Gay rights progress over the past year had a positive impact on the gay community but a negative impact on the demand for our services.”
He went on to list the significant developments for gay rights in the US: “With developments like the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the court victories over California’s Proposition 8 gay marriage ban, the Obama administration’s tacit rejection of the Defense of Marriage Act, and the anti-bullying ‘It Gets Better Project’ continuing to integrate gays into the mainstream, we saw a diminished need for a gay Facebook or a gay Yelp or a gay Foursquare or a gay Groupon.”
He added that there is a larger market for well-designed products, the focus of the next incarnation of Fab.com, than there is for a gay-orientated online venture.
While Fab.com managed to gain more than 140,000 registered users, other social networking platforms are growing much faster.
One of the most significant growth areas is Gay mobile networking applications such as Grindr and BoyAhoy, both have grown extremely, particularly in the UK.
This week Grindr launched on the Android platform and is testing for a Blackberry App.
Writing on PinkNews.co.uk’s comment section, Mr Goldberg explained:
“I do not believe at this point that there is legitimate demand for a non-sexual social network for gay men that would garner more than 1M members. And if you can’t get to 10M members, it’s hard to build a significant business in this space.”
very harsh and unecessary use of social networing grabbing all the names and then selling out to a commercial venture…. Jason has his head up his butt …so he is saying that there is a need for a sexual network…? like comfy chairs in a stylish array of smart sense colors…
What is written in the article that It is Gay Rights that caused the site to close is a crock. Mr. Goldberg did not have the decency to talk to his members and get their perspective in site. All he did was put out that there would be some major new changes to the site. Sometime after 5AM on Wed Mar 9 the site went down, Everyone Locked out with new page to join invite 3 people. Then, THEN a memo went out that Fab.com would not longer be a gay social site. Only to become another IKEA. All he is concerned about was $$$ and building numbers of members in a data base. And then only to find out Early this morning Thursday Mar 10, he let one of his staff members go. Only to find out he told his staff of the change 2 weeks prior to locking his membership out of the site. Now he started a Facebook Page.