Affinity Labs

Affinity Labs is a company that builds social networking sites for niche groups such as firefighters, police officers, nurses and the Armed Forces.[1] In January 2008, Affinity Labs was acquired by Monster Worldwide for US$61 million.[2]

Affinity Labs sites have over a million registered members, as of January 2008.[1] PoliceLink, aimed at law enforcement personnel, is one of Affinity Labs' most active sites with over 717,000 unique visitors per month.[3] Other sites include: SalesHQ, ArtBistro, TheApple, FireLink, NursingLink, InsideTech, GovCentral, IndiaOn, Excelle, AllHealthCare, and the European communities, HMForces.co.uk, ProNurse, and WerPflegtWen.

In 2008 after Monster acquired Affinity Labs, it then bought a French military website, Armees.com for an undisclosed fee, then transferred the site to its Affinity Labs social networking vertical.[4]

Affinity Labs still successfully operate across North America but in March 2012 it shut down its European operations. Despite HMForces.co.uk[5] being its most successful vertical, and having shared resources with Military.com, the global recession did not assist its longevity. HMForces.co.uk still has a strong presence on social networking sites[6] to this day, evidence of its popularity. Further references to this military vertical can be found on UK e-commerce sites,[7] and there is also a HMForces blog[8] still surviving despite it not being updated regularly.