Applications
KickApps launches online video generated user solution
MUMBAI: KickApps has released a hosted community solution that invites any website to quickly and easily deploy user-generated video and social networking functionality directly on their Web pages.
KickApps says that it provides a highly customised, enterprise-quality platform intended to serve all websites, including major media brands like reality television shows, cable channels, talk shows, magazines, newspapers, and sports teams.
KickApps addresses the needs of webmasters looking to provide their visitors with all the functionality typically found at leading Web 2.0 portals like MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and Facebook. It also provides webmasters with a set of sophisticated media management, reporting and administrative tools designed to protect websites from pornography, copyrighted material and user content that may hurt their brands or offend advertisers.
KickApps founder and CEO Eric Alterman says, “By powering brands with community-building functionality at many diverse websites we are helping those brands aggregate audiences within specific contexts. We believe context is the next major driver for Web 2.0 traffic and for advertisers looking for a safe, effective way to promote their brands to identifiable communities with known demographics.”
KickApps provides webmasters with a suite of technologies that deploy instantly with a cut-and-paste “widget” implementation. Visitors to websites powered by KickApps can upload videos, photos and audio files, create their own personal pages, invite friends, and create instant video blogs. Webmasters are empowered with a sophisticated Affiliate Center environment that allows them to quickly create a highly customized user experience complete with a robust set of media management tools.
Spark Capital co-founder Santo Politi says, “High-traffic media and content websites need competitive user-generated content and social networking functionality. But they also require the kind of administrative tools necessary to protect their brand. KickApps is well ahead of the market in providing webmasters with the features and controls required to deploy an effective community platform.”
KickApps says that it fully embraces the concept of widgets in the form of Flash-based objects that contain video and other media aggregated by affiliate websites. Visitors to websites powered by KickApps can ‘steal‘ these widgets and place them on their own social networking personal pages.
Widgets can contain both user-generated video and premium video uploaded by affiliate webmasters, and all widgets link back to affiliate websites in a highly viral fashion.
Alterman adds, “While KickApps enables the usual features found on most user-generated content websites our widget-based platform is designed to create a far more dynamic and viral media experience. Our affiliates will have thousands of content widgets positioned all over the Internet, all linking back to their websites. Widgets take content syndication to a whole new level.
The company will announce a number of customer deployments over the coming weeks.
Applications
With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
