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Key points - LGBT Capital and Fridae to develop strategic alliance to support LGBT and community development in Asia - Fridae to establish Asia’s first LGBT Foundation - Paul Thompson, LGBT Capital’s co-founder to serve as Executive Chairman of Fridae |
LGBT Capital and Fridae today announced a strategic alliance to develop a world class LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) operation in Asia to support this rapidly developing market and empower the LGBT community.
LGBT Capital is the world's first and only corporate advisory and investment management firm focused on the LGBT consumer sector, with particular interest in LGBT social networking companies benefiting from LGBT growth.
Fridae is Asia’s leading LGBT social networking operation with half a million registered users, more than 1.5 million visitors and 30 million page views hits per month. Available in English, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Fridae is the leading LGBT news and information site in Asia.
Through its investment in Fridae, LGBT Capital will work with Fridae to develop its impact investment philosophy by combining a commercial business with support for the LGBT community, particularly in the developing markets in Asia. As part of this, the Fridae Foundation will be established. WebWorks, LGBT Capital’s investment vehicle will also be investing in other LGBT social networking businesses to look to achieve scale within this area, provide an impact investment opportunity and to implement its philosophy of actively supporting LGBT social development.
It is estimated that the LGBT population in the Asia region is more than 300 million with spending power of more than US$800 billion per annum. Compared to the United States where the LGBT population is estimated at around 18 million and the estimated spending power is around the same as Asia, both LGBT Capital and Fridae believe the potential in the Asia region is significant.
In order to support the development of Fridae and the establishment of the Fridae Foundation, effective immediately, Paul Thompson has been appointed as Executive Chairman of Fridae. Paul is an experienced business manager and was the first foreign CEO of a fund management company in Mainland China as well as former head of offshore funds for Goldman Sachs. Paul said: “We are delighted to have concluded this agreement with Fridae which supports our core philosophy of impact investment. We are particularly excited by the opportunity in Greater China and the potential this offers. We will look to combine running a commercial business with support and empowerment for the developing LGBT market in Asia”.
Joan Foo Mahony, Fridae’s former Chairman and current Director, said: “We are indeed very pleased to welcome LGBT capital to Fridae. We share a common vision for developing the LGBT market in Asia and believe the alliance between Fridae and LGBT Capital will allow the business to develop and further support the community”.
Fridae intends to further enhance and expand its potential as an LGBT social networking website and media platform which is truly Asian and which empowers and interacts with the Asian LGBT community. This will include the news and information services for the Lesbian and Transgender sectors, and the launch of the Fridae mobile application. Most importantly, through the Foundation, Fridae will look to further develop its education program on HIV/AIDS and support for the LGBT community.
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Estimates of the LGBT in Asia of 300 million seems quite low. With almost 3.9 billion people living in Asia, there must be a much higher Gay population. Regardless of the number, it's important work for Gay groups and businesses to encourage the community to become more visible and accepted as a whole.
Welcome LGBT Capital. I hope to see big things in Asia with your backing behind it.
People from different backgrounds have different preferences and may be more comfortable with one or the other of the approaches, but surely there is no reason why they cannot be complimentary to each other?
1st, to push for any cause, we need $. Look at why HK's gay pride got canceled. Hence, it's necessary for the organiser of any cause, including gay-empowering causes, to make economic sense. Only if a project is economically sustainable can it be expanded and furthered. So, we must make the deal a win-win for both the investors and the beneficiary, LGBT community. Otherwise, how much donation can we expect projects like this to attract for it to be sustainable? Well, from experience, we know that this doesn't work. Look at Fridae, for example. If it doesn't make money from selling its advertising space and perks, do you think it would still exist today? Who's going to pay the salaries of its dedicated staff? Do you expect these talented professional people to work for free?
2nd, in some cases, it's exactly because it is impossible or difficult to pursue LGBT causes through political means that we need to do it through the commercial route. For example, in Singapore, PLU isn't even allowed to register as a society. We don't even have a society or, like the LGBT community in the Philippines have, a political party to represent our interests. As such, we need commercial enterprises including Fridae, Trevvy, Play, Taboo, One Seven, etc. commercial organizations to sponsor various noble LGBT-empowering causes here.
Lastly, it must be noted that it's clearly stated in this project's mission that it will "empowers and interacts with the Asian LGBT community. This will include the news and information services for the Lesbian and Transgender sectors, and the launch of the Fridae mobile application. Most importantly, through the Foundation, Fridae will look to further develop its education program on HIV/AIDS and support for the LGBT community." In other words, it's not concerned just about profits, but these non-monetary objectives.
Fridae is way out of touch politically with mainstream gay men in China and Asia and too focused on petty Singaporean politics. We actually live in other regions and we don't care about about such whiny crap. I predict Fridae will fall the way of Blockbuster Video, the US Postal Service and other soon to be out of date business model failures cause they didn't change with the times. Fridae forgets we are here for sex and only sex makes money. So I hope it gets back to its cutting edge origins and sex, sex, sex. Fridae doesnt represent the GBLT community anymore but only a fringe group who made most of their money in gay saunas which are and were more profitable. Why buy perks when Facebook/ Grindr is better and its free and they don't preach to us. Its like a gay bar that no one goes to anymore cause the crowd has moved on to a better place and because they are charging too much for bad drinks.
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