Asia Blog: China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam

Someone paid me to take a look at Japanese Friend Finder and write a review. I was initially going to reject the request, but after looking at the site, I feel writing a review is justified. For, as you will soon see, Japanese Friend Finder is not affiliated with the famous Various Inc. Adult Friend Finder brand, but rather is simply a copycat site with a similar name.

There are a few things which immediately spark warning bells:

• The title tag reads “Japanese Women for Chat Dating …”
• It’s powered by “WorldFriends Networks” not “FriendFinder Network, Inc.”
• It boasts a dithered 8-bit image in its header
• The “featured members” don’t change on refresh (just once a day)

However, I can’t find anything bad about it online. And, it features convincing personal endorsements that suggest that it’s legit, even if it’s a second-rate dating site. Looking at the CEO Dominic Penaloza’s LinkedIn profile adds either legitimacy or caution, depending on how you look at it. After graduating from the University of Ontario in 1992, he worked a brief 8-month smith for Smith Barney IBD in 1994, spent a year at Greenwich Street Capital Partners, then 4 years at Prudential Asset Management Asia. To me, this sounds like the quest of a relatively young man to find his passion–although my cynical side wonders about his two short stints on wall street. Now he’s been managing Meta4 Group for 8 years now, lending strength to the legitimacy of Japanese Friend Finder.

Technically, they boast “1 million members” and their profile asks you to register your racial preferences. Do you like Thai girls, or Vietnamese? Chinese or Korean? The question is appalling, but central to Japanese Friend Finder’s mission–hooking you up with the girl from the country of your fancy. I like the language preferences section better, as learning Urdu or Tagalog appeals to me.

But somehow, I think sites like this are more for casual hookups or the desperate. I’d rather meet women serendipitously. And introduction from a friend, a drink bought at a bar, or picking up something she dropped in the street are all more romantic, satisfying ways to get to know someone. Or a dating site that tried to align your interests with other members’ interests holistically, comparing preferences in body type, nationality, language, and interests.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 28th, 2007 at 9:41 pm and is tagged with japanese friend finder, adult friend finder, prudential asset management, asset management asia, greenwich street, warning bells, smith barney, cynical side, university of ontario, linkedin, penaloza, racial preferences, thai girls, language preferences, japanese women, capital partners, ibd, hookups, title tag, stints. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback.

4 Responses to 'Japanese Friend Finder'

1. 
   Dan said:

   on December 31st, 2007 at 11:00 am

   I am a member of Japanesefriendfinder.com and I have met several women not just Japanese. I was very surprized at your negative post saying that they are a copycat site, second rate and hooking up guys who have a fetish of some sort. Their site really ROCKS and I`d be the first to recommend it to someone who is tired of joining sites and geting fake members who don`t respond to their letters. From what I can remember japanese friend finder has been around for quite sometime and they have a long track record.

   Dan..

2. 
   Roberto said:

   on March 8th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

   Want to know beautiful japanese girl.

3. 
   TAHIR said:

   on July 26th, 2008 at 9:26 am

   want to know about beautyfull japanese girl.

4. 
   Franklin said:

   on September 21st, 2008 at 6:11 am

   These guys work with Yahoo Japan and if you know YJ, they are very thorough in their due diligence working with any third party company so they are very legit.

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