Gay.com was a chat, personals, and social networking website catering to the

LGBT community The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a common culture and soci ...

. 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 ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

'' 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 Romeo (until 2021 PlanetRomeo) is a social network for gay, bisexual, queer and transgender people. The site was started as a hobby and was called GayRomeo in October 2002 by Planetromeo GmbH in Berlin, Germany. Initially only available in Germ ...

, 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., updating the visual style of the site and replacing the former

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

-based chat system. Technical problems caused by the upgrade led to service interruptions and lags. In a
open letter
from PlanetOut management, "hardware configurations and software code" were cited as culprits. Many users asked the service to revert to its former system, and the formerly solid user base eroded after the relaunch. 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 A webcam model ( colloquially, camgirl, camboy, or cammodel) is a video performer who streams on the Internet with a live webcam broadcast. A webcam model often performs erotic acts online, such as stripping, masturbation, or sex acts in excha ...

. In 2017, VS Media Inc. donated the domain to the

Los Angeles LGBT Center The Los Angeles LGBT Center (previously known as the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center) is a provider of programs and services for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The organization's work spans four categories, including health, soc ...

, and it now acts as a

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to the center's own website.

References

External links

gay.com
— official website
Behind the website

PlanetOut, Inc
— corporate website {{LGBT social networking services Gay men's websites LGBT social networking services Online dating services of the United States Same sex online dating

History

See also

References

External links