Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 17, 2026

Affinity Labs

Affinity Labs was a company that built social networking sites for niche groups such as firefighters, police officers, nurses and the Armed Forces. In January 2008, Affinity Labs was merged into Monster.com in a $61 million transaction.

Last revised
Jun 17, 2026
Read time
≈ 2 min
Length
499 w
Citations
16
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Affinity Labs Inc.
Type of businessPublic
Available inmultilingual
Founded2006
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
U.S.
URLaffinitylabs.com
Current statusDefunct

Affinity Labs was a company that built social networking sites for niche groups such as firefighters, police officers, nurses and the Armed Forces.1 In January 2008, Affinity Labs was merged into Monster.com in a $61 million transaction.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

In March 2012, it shut down its European operations. Despite HMForces.co.uk5 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 sites6 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 blog8 still surviving despite it not being updated regularly. However most Affinity Labs social networking domains and content have been amalgamated into the Monster Worldwide global brand as of 2021.9

History

Affinity Labs was founded by Christopher Michel10 in 2006 after he sold Military.com to Monster in 2004 for $40 million.

The Mayfield Fund11 and Trinity Ventures invested in Affinity Labs prior to its Monster Worldwide buyout.12

Between 2010 and 2014, the President of Military Advantage and Vice President of Monster Worldwide,13 was former Navy Admiral Terry McCreary. He oversaw the military Affinity operations in Europe which had a product manager in London reporting to the former Admiral in the US.14 However, this operation was closed down in 2012 after Monster unsuccessfully bid for a Recruiting Partnering Project (RPP) with the UK's Ministry of Defence. Capita won and signed the contract worth £44 million over 10 years.15

References

References

  1. "Monster buys community site, Affinity Labs, for significant $61M - VentureBeat - News - by Matt Marshall". VentureBeat. 4 January 2008.
  2. "Monster buys S.F. Web operator Affinity for $61 million". mercurynews.com. 5 January 2008.
  3. "Policelink.com Traffic and Demographic Statistics by Quantcast". quantcast.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-18. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
  4. "Armees.Com - Actualité". armees.com.
  5. "HMForces.co.uk : Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Army, Royal Air Force". hmforces.co.uk.
  6. "HMForces.co.uk". Facebook.
  7. "Media Centre - Product Reviews - Military Reviews at UK Gear". ukgear.com.
  8. "Home". hmforcescouk.blogspot.co.uk.
  9. "Affinity Labs: Valuing Customer Growth - Case - Faculty & Research - Harvard Business School".
  10. "Affinity Labs, Inc.: Private Company Information - Businessweek". Businessweek.com. Archived from the original on August 19, 2009.
  11. "Mayfield Announcement". Archived from the original on 2007-04-21. Retrieved 2007-04-13.
  12. "Monster Worldwide - Bringing People Together to Advance Their Lives". corporate-ir.net.
  13. "Team". Military.com.
  14. "Linkedin - Corporate Social Network".
  15. "Capita signs armed forces RPP contract".
External links