GDOnline Ltd. is a leading technology company and operates three of the world’s largest gay and lesbian dating brands Gaydar, GaydarGirls and Means Happy. With over six million registered members across more than 140 countries, Gaydar has been one of the most popular gay dating brands for over 19 years.
Gaydar launched in November 1999 following a conversation among friends about the difficulties finding a date with a busy work schedule. It revolutionised the gay dating scene with features including “Who’s-On-Line” and Instant messaging. Gaydar allowed men to easily contact each other and chat with them immediately. This form of instant communication within a network for gay men had never been developed before.
Membership grew rapidly by around 10% a month and by November 2000, there were 78,000 members. Over the next few years was membership growth was exponential and by the end of 2004, Gaydar had more than 1.2 million members – 500,000 in the UK alone.
By early 2007 it had over 3.8 million members and the company was now growing into network of complementary new media brands that included the world’s leading gay and lesbian websites (Gaydar and Gaydargirls). Serving more than 300 million page impressions per month to over 5.2 million registered and audited users Gaydar rapidly became the largest gay lifestyle and dating site in both Australia and the UK.
In both 2007/08 and 2010/11, Gaydar was included in Britain’s Cool Brands list alongside other premium brands such as Aston Martin, Bang & Olufsen, Apple, Mini, Google, etc. and has also featured in numerous television programs over the last decade.
By 2012, the network was one of the most popular gay dating website networks for men and women around the world, accounting for a 42 per cent share of gay and lesbian website traffic (HitWise, March 2012).
In 2017 a new update on the site was launched with a more modern design accompanied by a new iPhone app.
In 2018 Means Happy (meanshappy.com) was launched as medium to promote positive stories from the LGBT Community.
In 2013 Charlie Parsons Creative, the boutique investment company, backed a management buyout of the company with both the Gaydar and GaydarGirls dating brands which are now part of GDOnline Ltd.
Charlie Parsons is one of the UK’s best known innovators within international media and entertainment and previously co-founded Planet 24 where he created and produced award winning programming including The Big Breakfast and The Word. He is also a double Emmy award winner for the reality show Survivor which he created, and brings a track record of international business success to the Gaydar and GaydarGirls brands.
As we are about to enter Gaydar’s 20th Anniversary year, we are looking at what Gaydar means to our membership and how best to server them over the next 20 years.
We are working behind the scenes to develop new features for Gaydar on all three platforms, and also bring back some more familiar aspects for our long term members.
Gaydar Girls will be having a complete makeover as well as having their own mobile apps.
Means Happy, as a new brand for Gaydar, is growing quickly and is already attracting a good following. Keep checking the site for new features and editorial over the coming months.
We are all really excited about the future, and that we are making changes that will have a really positive impact on our members’ enjoyment and usage of Gaydar over the coming months and years.
The Gaydar brand supports numerous initiatives and charities including The Everywhere Project (co-funded by the European Commission – Executive Agency for Health and Consumers), which aims to develop and validate an innovative and culturally-adapted European model of HIV prevention targeting Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) for use in cities across Europe.
Gaydar is the first and only gay dating site in the world to be awarded the Premium seal from the Everywhere Project thanks to a number of actions such as condoms and lubricant provision; HIV awareness and prevention information availability and their commitment to anti-discrimination. It is also heavily involved with the Terrence Higgins Trust via its online counselling service in the Gaydar website chat rooms, and the National AIDS Trust.
Gaydar is also keen to promote positive environment within its platform, encouraging its members to be respectful to others, especially in regards to body image, race and sexuality.