AsianAve

Infobox Company
url = [http://www.asianave.com AsianAve.com]
name = AsianAve

owner = Community Connect Inc
type = Social networking company
foundation = 1997
location_city = 205 Hudson Street, 6th Floor
New York, New York
location_country = USA
location =
locations =

AsianAve or Asian Avenue is a social networking website focused on the Asian American community.

History

Originally named AsianAvenue (or Asian Avenue), the site was launched on July 21, 1997 [cite web |url=http://www.communityconnect.com/timeline.html |title=Company Timeline |accessdate=2008-07-10 |publisher=Community Connect] by co-founders Benjamin Sun, Peter Chen, Grace Chang, Michael Montero, and Calvin Wong.Fact|date=October 2007 By 1998, "The New York Times" described it as "unusually successful" despite being "run out of an apartment", having hit five million page views from 50,000 users.cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B05E5DD143DF931A25757C0A96E958260
title=NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: NEW YORK ON LINE; One Site, 14 Ethnic Groups
author=Anthony Ramirez
date=April 12 1998
publisher=The New York Times
accessdate=2007-10-06]

Members were politically active, protesting an MSNBC headline for the 1998 Winter Olympics reading "American beats out Kwan", referring to U.S. Olympic teammates Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan. In 1999, members protested an ad for SKYY vodka showing a partly-dressed white woman being served by a woman in a Mandarin dress and chopsticks in her hair,cite news
url=http://www.news.com/Vodka-maker-clips-ad-after-community-criticism/2100-1017_3-230488.html
title=Vodka maker clips ad after community criticism
author=Kim Girard
date=August 31 1999
publisher=CNet
accessdate=2007-10-05] which the protesters said perpetuated racial stereotypes. [cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950CEFD6173AF931A3575AC0A96F958260&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FSubjects%2FA%2FAsian-Americans
title=Vodka Ad Is Stopped After Racism Protest
author=Courtney Kane
date=September 2 1999
publisher=The New York Times
accessdate=2007-09-26] After some 300 postings on Asian Avenue were forwarded to SKYY, the company agreed to stop using the ad.

The site received over 70,000 unique visitor hits in August 2000. [cite news
url=http://www.communityconnect.com/PressRoom/wallstreet_102300.html
title=Group Think: Community Connect has created ethnic associations on the net. Can it also make money?
date=October 23 2000
publisher=The Wall Street Journal
accessdate=2007-10-05 Mirrored on Community Connect website.] At its peak, there were over 2 million users with more than 5000 online at any time.Fact|date=September 2007 Robert X. Cringely claimed in 2000 that Asian Avenue had more members than BlackPlanet, a Community Connect sister site. [cite news
url=http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2000/pulpit_20000817_000661.html
title=If You Build It, They Will Come: What BlackPlanet Teaches Us About the True Nature of the Internet
author=Robert X. Cringely
date=August 17 2000
publisher=PBS
accessdate=2007-10-05]

Fine Line Features chose the site for an exclusive interview with Chinese NBA star Yao Ming to promote its documentary "The Year of the Yao". One writer characterized it "mainly an Internet dating site" [cite news
url=http://news.asianweek.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=dc2d8bfad3d34ac3c9286b004e9209c8&this_category_id=169
title=Lessons from Yanking ‘The Year of the Yao’
author=Grace Niwa
date=May 6 2005
publisher=Asian Week
accessdate=2007-10-05] In 2003, Darrell Hamamoto used an interview on the site to attract male talent for his adult film "Skin to Skin", using the "unheard of" pairing of an Asian-American male performer with Asian-American woman. [cite news
url=http://dir.salon.com/story/sex/feature/2003/10/10/asian/index.html
title=Yellow porn
date=October 10 2003
author=Harry Mok
publisher=Salon.com
accessdate=2007-10-05]

At one point the site made various previously-free features available only to premium users, which hurt the site's popularity. On October 31, 2005 the website relaunched the social network features.Fact|date=October 2007 As of April 2007, there were 1.4 million registered users with fewer than 100 online at any given time.Fact|date=September 2007

Partners include party promoters (Synergy), film festivals (Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, Asian American International Film Festival), media (AngryAsianMan.com, AZN TV) and many more. Music artists, such as Notorious MSG, Far*East Movement, and Magnetic North have gained popularity from their exposure on AsianAve.com.Or|date=September 2007

In October 2007, U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama created profiles on AsianAve as well as sister sites BlackPlanet, MiGente.com and Glee.com. [cite news
url=http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/10/06/barack_obama_social_networking.html
title=Barack Obama, Social Networking King
author=Jose Antonio Vargas
date=October 6 2007
publisher=The Washington Post
accessdate=2007-10-06]

References

External links

* [http://www.asianave.com AsianAve.com]