FurryMate

FurryMate is an online furry social networking and online dating service.

History
Due to an unexpected level of interest during its initial launch, the site was forced to shut down in order to upgrade its servers. The site relaunched at the end of May 2011. A June 12 2011 news post stated "We have grown to almost 4000 members in under two weeks". A December 2011 news post stated "we already have 12,000 members".

FurryMate describes itself:

Services and fees
To effectively use FurryMate's features, users must subscribe to the service and pay a monthly membership fee. Non-paying users are severely limited in that they may send messages yet cannot read any received messages.

the main page initial image design was by MushyMutt.

Mainstream media coverage

 * 14 Weirdest (REAL) Dating Sites article on SMOSH (#14: FurryMate.com)
 * Crazy dating trends we hope go away on MSN
 * New Trekkie dating site already has plenty of competition article on The Daily Dot (Furrymate.com and Pounced.org)
 * WSJ branding datapoint of the day article on Reuters

Controversy
FurryMate has fallen under heavy scrutiny and backlash for its use of fake accounts bots to send messages to their members to entice them into upgrading to paid accounts.

These bots messages look legit, informing members that someone wants to speak to them, and that they should subscribe to the service to be able to read their messages.