In case you’ve never heard of it, Ashley Madison is an online matchmaking service for people who are in committed relationships but want to step out on their significant other.

Its slogan is simple: “Life is short. Have an affair.”

The website claims to have over 20 million active users and is in used in 26 different countries. The site’s founder Noel Biderman claims 640,000 people in China attempted to visit the site before it was even up, demonstrating a great deal of “pent-up demand,” as Biderman put it during an interview with AFP.

Government statistics from Hong Kong show 30 out of 100 marriages have ended in divorce in 2011 which is double than the 15 out of 100 back in 1991. Hong Kong is “in transition when it comes to relationships and marriage and that can lead to an interesting environment,” said Biderman. “When we put ourselves into that mix, we can do extremely well.”

Of course the website is under fire from religious groups, family planning associations, and even a professor of social work was quoted saying the concept of marriage has become increasingly “fragile” in the city of Hong Kong.

However…

The first Hong Kong native to sign up is a woman who goes by the name “mamama222” and she is “looking for various men to fulfill what my husband can’t.” Yup. Various men. Can’t really argue with that.

“It is a reality of life, we are an unfaithful society,” said Noel Biderman who ironically has been happily married for close to 10 years.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Biderman claims affairs can actually serve as a marriage preservation device. He explains:

If I woke up today in some kind of sexless marriage like so many Americans do, I would be genuinely upset by that. I would try to change it with my partner, but if I couldn’t change it, I don’t know if I would just walk out the door. I believe the social science, I’ve seen it firsthand, how children raised in single-parent households have more trouble with drugs and alcohol, have fewer educational opportunities, and get in trouble with the law. I don’t want to do that to my family and I certainly don’t want to do that because everything else I have going for me is great.”

Biderman claims that the vast majority of people who use his website to have an affair never get discovered.