Originally named AsianAvenue (or Asian Avenue), the site was launched on July 21, 1997[1] by co-founders Benjamin Sun, Peter Chen, Grace Chang, Michael Montero, and Calvin Wong.
By 1998, The New York Times described it as "unusually successful" despite being "run out of an apartment", having hit five million page views from 50,000 users.
[citation needed] Robert X. Cringely claimed in 2000 that Asian Avenue had more members than BlackPlanet, a Community Connect sister site.
Music artists, such as Notorious MSG, Far*East Movement, and Magnetic North have gained popularity from their exposure on AsianAve.com.
In October 2007, U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama created profiles on AsianAve as well as sister sites BlackPlanet, MiGente.com and Glee.com.