A Foreign Affair (company)

A Foreign Affair
Industry International Marriage Broker, Romance Tour Company
Founded 1995
Headquarters Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Area served
 Russia, Ukraine, Latin America, Thailand, Philippines, China
Key people
 John Adams (Owner), Ron Redburn (Owner), Ken Agee (CTO), Bud Patterson (Sales Manager)
Website loveme.com

A Foreign Affair (AFA) is an international dating and marriage agency that promotes romance tours to Latin America, Southeast Asia, China, Russia, and other CIS countries.[1] The company was founded in 1995 and according to its website has since arranged 523 romance tours and 1,245 'romance socials' (as of February 11, 2016). The purpose of these socials is to connect women from the host country with men visiting (usually from the USA) as part of a romance tour. AFA has been featured in numerous media, including Our America with Lisa Ling. The company was also the inspiration for a film released in 2003 entitled 2 Brothers and a Bride starring David Arquette and Tim Blake Nelson.[2]

AFA is notable as one of the first online dating services and as the first full-service international online dating service in the world.

Company History

The company was founded in 1995 by three Phoenix-based entrepreneurs: Kenneth Agee, John Adams, and Ron Redburn. According to the company's website, the original idea was to start an online matchmaking service for bars in the Phoenix, Arizona area. While working on the website, Ken and Ron had the idea of broadening the focus to international matchmaking. They began working on what would become A Foreign Affair's official website, loveme.com. The website was officially registered in 1996.[3] Each of the company's founders have used the website's matchmaking features and are married to Russian women who they met through the website.

AFA founders testified at court hearings in Washington when Senator Cantwell first pushed for the implementation of the 2005 International Marriage Broker Regulation Act (IMBRA), which, along with the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, is designed to protect women from potential abuse.[4] AFA complies with these regulations by requiring that all male members complete an IMBRA form before exchanging any personal information with women registered on the website.

Business Model

The company is often characterized as a mail-order bride service provider. Officially, the company is an international marriage agency/broker, defined under IMBRA as "an entity (whether or not U.S.-based) that charges fees for providing matchmaking services or social referrals between U.S. citizens/permanent residents and foreign nationals".[5] AFA is also a romance tour company: it hosts members-only socials in Russia, Ukraine, Latin America, China, the Philippines, and Thailand where men (usually from the United States) and local women who are registered on the AFA website have a chance to meet and socialize.

The socials are free for women but men must pay the company to attend. The company also generates revenue by charging US-based users a one-time activation fee and a monthly subscription fee to correspond online with female users; additionally, AFA charges service fees for the correspondence of letters back and forth. The service is free to use for women.

AFA is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, and has local offices in all of its tour cities. The company operates a tour information telephone line and hosts a weekly live telephone forum to discuss immigration issues, cultural differences, and upcoming tours.

Critical Reception

A feature on ABC's Nightline covered an AFA meetup in Odessa, Ukraine and found that while many of the women who attended the meetup were genuinely interested in finding an ideal match with an American man, others seemed to be taking advantage of the men by attempting to convince them to buy expensive gifts.[6] In the segment, owner John Adams does not dispute the fact that some men may fall victim to scamming, though he notes that such instances are rare. AFA attempts to limit these instances by excluding non-members from these events.

A BBC reporter also attended a meetup in Ukraine and interviewed several attendees, finding that many of the men attended because they were frustrated about the prospects of finding an ideal match in the US, while many women attended in search of a partner who is responsible and could provide them with a better life.[7]

A 2011 The Today Show segment featured AFA and one of its founders in light of the mail-order bride industry's success after the 2008 recession. The segment explored some common negative perceptions about the mail-order bride industry, along with concerns that relationships precipitated by websites like AFA might not be completely equal; for instance, the host was concerned that women might be pushed into such relationships due to socioeconomic factors out of their control.[8]

A National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded study included in-depth interviews with AFA members in the Philippines, Russia, and Ukraine.[9] The study noted that bride-sending countries tend to be mid-level in terms of development, and women that choose to marry American men tend not to be living in abject poverty; the study found that many women chose to marry to "resolve the contradiction between life goals and the reality that limits their realization".[9] Moreover, data generated by the study suggests that international marriages are at least as likely as intra-cultural marriages to succeed.

AFA was also featured in a National Geographic documentary called Bachelors Abroad,[10] a feature documentary called Love Me,[11] Our America with Lisa Ling,[12] an episode of MTV's Sex 2K,[13] and was the inspiration for the 2003 film 2 Brothers & a Bride.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Varoli, John (2000-12-17). "American Lion Seeks Russian Lioness". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-02-10.
  2. 1 2 "2 Brothers & a Bride". www.rottentomatoes.com. 2003-01-21. Retrieved 2016-02-10.
  3. ↑ "Whois loveme.com". www.whois.com. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  4. ↑ "In Floor Speech, Cantwell Urges Reauthorization of Violence Against Women Act - Press Releases - Senator Maria Cantwell". www.cantwell.senate.gov. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
  5. ↑ "International Marriage Broker Regulation Act". Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
  6. ↑ News, ABC. "Video: Confronting the Matchmaking Site CEO". ABC News. Retrieved 2016-02-10.
  7. ↑ "'Romance tourists' head east". BBC. 2002-07-09. Retrieved 2016-02-10.
  8. ↑ "Mail-order bride trade is flourishing". TODAY.com. Retrieved 2016-02-16.
  9. 1 2 Simons, Lisa Anne (2001). "Marriage, Migration, and Markets: International Matchmaking and International Feminism" (PDF). The Faculty of the Graduate School of International Studies University of Denver. Retrieved February 9, 2016.
  10. ↑ "Bachelors Abroad". www.natgeotv.com.au. Retrieved 2016-02-10.
  11. ↑ "Love Me - The Documentary". www.lovemethedocumentary.com. Retrieved 2016-02-10.
  12. ↑ "Web Exclusive: Marriage Tour Wedding Story". Oprah.com. Retrieved 2016-02-10.
  13. ↑ Diego Ramos (2013-12-21), MTV: Sex 2K - From Russia With Lust, retrieved 2016-02-16
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