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East Magazine, September 2001
Liberation Day
by Jane Lee
Fridae isn't just a prelude to the weekend. It's a
cyber gateway to lavender living in the Asia-pacific.
Yes, heterosexuals are welcome, too.
THE NAUGHTY advertisement for its member registration
section reads: "Show us yours and we'll show you ours."
Its chat service cheekily goads users to "let it all
'hang out'" while 'Bag Hags,' a recent feature article
in the Sex & Living section of its online magazine,
shortlists 10 items found in most gay men's totes.
These are but a small fraction of the astounding amount
of information and services found on Fridae.com, a portal
website that links up the gay and lesbian communities
in Asia-Pacific as one gargantuan network where there
was none before. And not surprisingly, the best people
to fill this niche are the insiders.
"We recognized that the large gay community in Asia
was poorly served, either by the corporate world or
themselves," says 28-year-old COO Stuart Koe, a certified
pharmacist who founded Fridae with fellow Singaporean
Robert Yeoh, 46. Previously, Koe worked for the Economic
Development Board, where he joined forces with pharmaceutical
companies to promote Singapore as an investment base,
while Yeoh paid his dues as an investment banker.
Slyly skirting a legal showdown with the Singapore
Broadcasting Authority on web content issues, Koe and
Yeoh set up base in Hong Kong, with development teams
there, and in Singapore and Australia. As its anonymity
has made the Internet the pet media channels of gays
and lesbians the world over - an argument that holds
ever truer in Asia where gay visibility is discouraged
- the resourceful duo knew they were on to something
promising. Then, they decided on the moniker, essentially
a spin on Friday, as in Robinson Crusoe's, erm, helpmate.
The business plan was formed and fund-raising kicked
off barely three months after the idea surfaced in March
last year. (At press time, US$1.5 million had poured
in from individual investors, of which an astonishing
90 per cent are not gay.). The workforce was gathered
in July, and by March 2001, Fridae was a full-pledged
operation. To coincide with the milestone, the site
served as a principal sponsor and the official web portal
of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.
The region's answer to America's gay.com and PlanetOut,
and the United Kingdom's Rainbownetwork, Fridae began
as a content-driven site when it soft-launched late
last year. Koe and Yeoh then held a series of focus
groups in the SAR and Singapore, and discovered that
the masses preferred a balance of content and community-based
services (such as free email accounts).
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