The late Gary Frisch and his partner Henry Badenhorst moved to the UK from South Africa in 1997. Initially, they operated a computer consultancy company that worked on revenue management systems. In 1999, a friend asked if they could help him with finding a boyfriend since he was too busy running his own business. They had a look at the internet and at the time there was nothing relevant. They decided to write an online programme which would make the communication process much easier. That was the original Gaydar - and the rest is history.

When Gaydar launched in November 1999, it was revolutionary because everything was instant. Gary and Henry had developed two new features; the "Who's-On-Line" page that told you who else was actually there, and "Instant Messaging", which meant you could reach people and chat with them immediately.

They had enough faith in the product to develop it further - one worked during the day, the other during the night. Within just a few months, enough people had joined up as paying members to allow them to employ other staff.

Membership grew rapidly by around 10% a month until the end of the first year. By November 2000, there were 78,000 members. By November 2001, there were 220,000 members. By November 2002, there were 640,000. At the end of 2004, they had more than 1.2 million members - 500,000 in the UK alone. By early 2007 it had over 3.8 million members.

QSoft is now a network of complementary new media brands that include the world’s leading gay and lesbian websites.

This network captures the important gay marketplace at different times of the day and also at different times in their lives. Advertisers and brands who want to target the gay and lesbian audience can now do so through a time and cost-effective one stop shop.

QSoft’s network of sites serves more than 300 million page impressions per month to over 5.2 million registered and audited users. This makes us the largest gay lifestyle and dating site in both Australia and the UK.

Gaydar in particular has grown to become one of the biggest and most recognised brands in the global gay marketplace.

Founder and Chairman Gary Frisch died suddenly, aged 38, in London on February 10 2007. Henry Badenhorst continues to run the Gaydar portfolio as Chairman.


Gary Frisch – Co Founder and Chairman
1969-2007

Gaydar co-founder Gary Frisch was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1969. He attended Boksburg High School and then studied computer sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, during which time he worked for De Beers Industrial Diamond Division.

On graduating, Gary set up his first computer software company, Frisoft Software, which he later sold to Q Data plc (now Business Connection, one of South Africa's biggest information technology companies) in 1994.

Gary became technical director of one of the plc’s divisions until 1997 when he moved to the UK to launch QSoft Consulting. In 2006, Gary appeared at Number 3 on the Pink List of the most influential gay people in Britain, compiled by the Independent on Sunday newspaper.

During his lifetime, Gary supported the work of several charities including the Terrence Higgins Trust and Crusaid. He died in London on February 10 2007, aged 38.