Ashley Madison Is Alive and Kicking Amid Scandal and a Scathing Netflix Documentary

As attention is once again paid to Ashley Madison, the website notorious for promoting extramarital affairs, people are wondering how much it’s actually worth. A May 2024 Netflix documentary, Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal, dove into the 2015 data breach scandal the company faced along with the ensuing fallout.

However, documentary viewers might be shocked to learn that not only does Ashley Madison still exist but it’s actually thriving. In fact, while the Netflix documentary’s aim may have been to dive into the dark side of a website that may have been doomed from the start, it is also adding fuel to the fire of cheating. All press is good press to some degree, and Ashley Madison might now be worth more than ever.

While it’s unclear exactly what Ashley Madison is worth, we know from the LinkedIn business analysis that has an annual revenue of at least $28.3 million. However, because this is an annual revenue, we estimate that it’s worth at least $30 million overall, although that number is likely much higher.

Ashley Madison is a private company, which means that its value does not need to be shared publicly since it’s not publicly traded. However, it was close to becoming an IPO just before the major data leak scandal occurred in 2015, so there was a chance we’d be living in a different reality in which we could invest in Ashley Madison had the scandal never happened.

But of course, if the scandal never happened, Josh Duggar’s crimes may have never been uncovered, and the former Ashley Madison CEO, Noel Biderman, might still be the CEO. So the data leak, which is the central focus of the Netflix documentary, really did change the course of history for Ashley Madison.

At the time of the data breach, Ashley Madison had about 37 million active users across over 40 countries, but now, they have reportedly more than 70 million members over at least 52 countries. A 2021 report on their website shared that there were almost 400,000 new signups per month on average that year, long after they hit the 60-million-member mark in 2019.

Ashley Madison is now owned by the Toronto-based company Ruby Life, which claims to be “an industry leader in innovative, open-minded dating services.” The company owns a site targeting older women called Cougar Life, which “helps vibrant, mature women connect with younger, interested men,” although it’s far less popular.

In fact, Ashley Madison brings in most of its revenue from men, since its services for women are almost completely free. While men have to pay for any message sent on the platform using expensive credits that range in price from $59 to $289 for a pack of credits, women are able to match and message for free. This is what allows the website to have a decent gender ratio of men to women at 1 to 0.6.

But it’s also what allows Ashley Madison to drive in revenue and continue to grow. After the 2015 data breach, an emphasis was placed on website security under the new CEO, Rob Segal, who took over from Noah when Noah’s reputation as a “family man” was damaged. Now, Ashley Madison might even be worth more than it once was, even after they were forced to pay out $11.2 million to settle the scandal.