The Players Ball: A Genius, a Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet's Rise - Paperback

by David Kushner (Author)

"An engrossing microcosm of the internet's Wild West years" (Kirkus Reviews), award-winning journalist David Kushner tells the incredible battle between the founder of Match.com and the con man who swindled him out of the website Sex.com, resulting in an all-out war for control for what still powers the internet today: love and sex.In 1994, visionary entrepreneur Gary Kremen used a $2,500 loan to create the first online dating service, Match.com. Only five percent of Americans were using the internet at the time, and even fewer were looking online for love. He quickly bought the Sex.com domain too, betting the combination of love and sex would help propel the internet into the mainstream. Imagine Kremen's surprise when he learned that someone named Stephen Michael Cohen had stolen the rights to Sex.com and was already making millions that Kremen would never see. Thus follows the wild true story of Kremen's and Cohen's decade-long battle for control. In The Players Ball, author and journalist David Kushner provides a front seat to these must-read Wild West years online, when innovators and outlaws battled for power and money. This cat-and-mouse game between a genius and a con man changed the way people connect forever, and is key to understanding the rise and future of the online world. "Kushner delivers a fast-paced, raunchy tale of sex, drugs, and dial-up." --Publishers Weekly

Author Biography

David Kushner is an award-winning journalist and author. His books include Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture; Levittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America's Legendary Suburb; and Alligator Candy: A Memoir. He has written for Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Outside, and other publications. His work has been adapted into award-winning films (Zola and Silk Road), podcasts (Alligator Candy and Cold Truth), and docuseries (The Battle for Justina Pelletier). He is the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University and lives in New Jersey.