The popularity of sex-oriented social networking sites will soon be gauged from the perspective of their prospective buying! FriendFinder Networks Inc - which owns more than 25 sites, including adultfriendfinder.com and asiafriendfinder.com - has filed for a $460 million initial public offering in stock to investors, in one of the most challenging markets ever.

The Boca Raton, Florida-based FriendFinder, earlier called Penthouse Media Group Inc, said in a statement that the cash generated by the sale of its adult-themed sites will be used primarily to pay off debt, and additionally meet other corporate expenses.

Last year, Penthouse Media bought the sites for $500 million in cash and stock, to offset falling revenue from its magazine unit. With 270 million users in 170-plus countries, the FriendFinder sites are quite popular with senior citizens, Asians and Christian singles.

Though the company believes that the content of its sites is a major source of future growth, the sexually explicit nature of the content could be a hindrance in the way of attracting advertisers.

The company is aware of the competitiveness in the field, and its own history of losing money. In 2007, on its $48 million revenue, the company posted a net loss of $29.9 million. In the first nine months this year, FriendFinder had $244 million in revenue, with its net loss being $32.3 million.

In addition, in the current financial crisis, with even veteran companies finding it difficult to raise money from investors; and the market for initial public offerings practically dried up, FriendFinder is in a tight spot!