Gay.com
Social networking website
title: "Gay.com" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["gay-men's-websites", "lgbtq-social-networking-services", "online-dating-services-of-the-united-states", "lgbtq-online-dating-services"] description: "Social networking website" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay.com" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Social networking website ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox website"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Gay.com |
| logo | Gay.com logo.jpg |
| caption | Gay.com as of August 2012. |
| screenshot | [[Image:Gay.com login page screenshot.png |
| url | http://www.gay.com/ |
| commercial | Yes |
| type | Personals, Chat, News, Social Networking for gay men. |
| language | English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. |
| registration | Required |
| owner | VS Media Inc. |
| author | PlanetOut Inc. |
| launch_date | May 1997 (re-launched October 2008) |
| revenue | Advertising; membership fee for premium accounts. |
| current_status | Inactive |
| :: |
| name = Gay.com | logo = Gay.com logo.jpg | caption = Gay.com as of August 2012. | screenshot = [[Image:Gay.com login page screenshot.png|350px|A login page of www.Gay.com]] | url = http://www.gay.com/ | commercial = Yes | type = Personals, Chat, News, Social Networking for gay men. | language = English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. | registration = Required | owner = VS Media Inc. | author = PlanetOut Inc. | launch_date = May 1997 (re-launched October 2008) | revenue = Advertising; membership fee for premium accounts. | current_status = Inactive
Gay.com was a chat, personals, and social networking website catering to the LGBT community. The site was a digital brand of Here Media Inc. In addition to community features, the site featured LGBT-related news and features. As of September 2005, San Jose Mercury News ranked gay.com as the most popular online gay personals site in the United States. As of March 2007, Hitwise ranked it number three in domestic American popularity after Adam4Adam and Manhunt. Gay.com also used to compete internationally with dudesnude, gayromeo, and gaydar.
History
Gay.com was founded by Mark Elderkin in 1994 and launched with a Java-based chat system in 1996. Gay.com's parent company acquired PlanetOut in 2001. In October 2008 the company relaunched gay.com.,{{cite web | title=Gay.com parent company loses $51m | publisher=PinkNews.co.uk | date=4 March 2008 | url = https://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-7021.html | access-date=2008-03-25}}{{cite web |title=PlanetOut Reports Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year 2007 Results |publisher=Trading Markets via PlanetOut Inc. |date=29 February 2008 |url=http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1155072/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130204172950/http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1155072/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 February 2013 |access-date=2008-03-25
In October 2009, Here Media Inc. bought gay.com from PlanetOut Inc.
In 2016, Here Media Inc. partnered with The Veloz Group to redesign gay.com and revitalize the business. Later that year, gay.com was sold to VS Media Inc. Upon purchasing the site was changed to a webcam model. In 2017, VS Media Inc. donated the domain to the Los Angeles LGBT Center, and it now acts as a redirect to the center's own website.
References
References
- ''[[San Jose Mercury News]]'' (September 11, 2005) "Busiest online matchmakers." Section: AE
- [http://www.medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_11038.asp Lifestyle - Gay and Lesbian Category: Weekly Market Share of Visits Rankings for the week ending March 17, 2007] {{webarchive. link. (September 27, 2007)
- Aceves, Raquel. (2008-09-29). "GAY.COM Homepages – A Look Back". Gay.com.
- "Behind the Website: The gay.com Blog: An Open Letter to gay.com Subscribers, Members and Guests".
- (2009-10-25). "Dallas executive amassing a gay media mini-empire". Dallas News.
- "Gay.com | Gay and LGBT News, Entertainment, and Community".
- Street, Sharan. (August 2, 2017). "Flirt4Free Donates Gay.com Domain to Los Angeles LGBT Center". GayVN.
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