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Pornhub wants to buy Tumblr
- cl0ckt0wer 8y agoIt'd be interesting to see if Verizon will take their money. I could see a lot of their executives being squeamish about it.
- the_newest_acct 8y agoWhy's that? Verizon already sells porn.
- NullPrefix 8y agoCare to elaborate on this point?
- the_newest_acct 8y agoVerizon (cable specifically) already sells "adult content" in the form of premium channels, like most cable providers in the U.S. In fact they have defended carrying of such channels by saying consumers want the choice. While they don't produce it, they are certainly making money off of it and defending the choice to do so. See https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/verizon-defends-decision-to-offer-incest-and-child-themed-porn-on-video-on-demand https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/verizon-defends-decisi...
- jasonjayr 8y agoAdult pay-per-view content & channels on their FiOS platform.
- ramy_d 8y agoReally? that kind of puts them on a tough spot, between not willing to sell tumblr and letting it get overrun by porn bots...
- Simulacra 8y agoHas Verizon ever been squeamish about taking money before? As far as I can tell, they exist to make money for their investors. If selling to PornHub removes the debt off their books I can't see what possible blow back the company would suffer.
- Simulacra 8y agoGenius.
- cies 8y agoThey simply saw their stats drop; did some math, and drew conclusions. :)
- wan23 8y agoVerizon and Tumblr are so poorly matched. Pornhub would be a much better home for it.
- irrational 8y agoWhy don't they just have their engineers create their own Tumblr clone? Tumblhub or Tumhub or Pornblr. It would probably be cheaper than buying Tumblr.
- skykooler 8y agoTumblr already has an existing user base and all the content (nsfw stuff was make inaccessible but not deleted)
- overcast 8y agoFor obvious reasons, Tumblr and its critical mass already exists. How often do clones succeed?
- irrational 8y agoI assume Pornhub's user base is higher than Tumblr's ever was. I would think they could use Pornhub to drive users to the new platform.
- jonlucc 8y agoThat's true, but I wonder how much of the porn-seeking user base remains? Surely they left in the 40%(?) traffic exodus.
- paxtonab 8y agouser base.
- partiallypro 8y agoI might get downvoted for this, but...I can't believe you didn't think of the name "Cumblr"
- Simulacra 8y ago-spits out energy drink all over my keyboard- ....Thanks for that.. LOL
- peterwwillis 8y agoIt's bizarre that it's legal for me to look at pictures of a naked person, but effectively illegal to use technology to do so, just because advertising is subject to the whims of a moralistic and prejudicial minority.
- nojvek 8y agoI think it’s the minors that are illegal and that’s what Verizon is afraid of. Adult sites are perfectly legal. Also US is a very religious country (some parts) compared to other western nations. So that’s where some of this comes from.
- peterwwillis 8y agoIt's really just the moralistic people pressuring advertisers. Minors can find a way to get their hands on a Playboy, but we don't stop selling Playboy in shops just because that can happen. People interact online through a select few pieces of tech: smart phone apps, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter. Just saying "adult sites exist" is like telling people to drive over to the wrong side of town and shuffle into a seedy porn theater. The malware-laced pop-up ads, and the lack of creative, multifaceted sexual expression, is what happens when you effectively banish a form a culture from the commons.
- sincerely 8y agoThe issue wasn't that minors were looking at the porn but that there was a lot of porn of minors on Tumblr.
- belltaco 8y agoThe phrase 'effectively illegal' does not make sense for two reasons here. First, looking at naked pictures is different from hosting them to allow others/public to view them. Second, just because something cannot be monetized easily via ads does not mean it is effectively illegal. You could also just direct charge for it, like a lot of businesses do. Also, there are a lot of adult service advertisers, including Viagra and the like that monetize porn sites.
- partiallypro 8y agoI think the only problem with this, is that there is still a solid 35% of the user base that doesn't want porn. So, there is a very fine line.
- dillonmckay 8y agoBut what percentage of traffic do they generate?
- duxup 8y agoYeah I wonder if there is a big difference from "yeah there's a lot of porn here" to "yeah it's a porn site now" as far as the users who aren't doing that thing goes. There's a lot of porn on reddit, but I don't think twice about saying I post there. But if it was owned by a porn site I might think twice about how I define the site / mention it.
- HeyLaughingBoy 8y agoYou're making a tremendous jump in thinking that the average user (or even most users!) of a site knows who owns it.
- duxup 8y agoI think a high profile purchase would make it more likely than not, particularly as it pertains to porn.
- HeyLaughingBoy 8y agoAgain, I think that unlikely. Even I have to think hard to remember who owns e.g., Reddit. And I'm the site multiple times a day.
- duxup 8y agoProbably because it isn't pornhub, you'd remember that.
- stcredzero 8y agoI remember one of my teachers in grade school speaking out against the Moral Majority and other pro-censorship types in the 80's. The quote she was up in arms about was something along the lines of how, "We must constrain the imaginations of our children." Today's problems have nothing to do with people reading, imagining, creating, and thinking. Problems in 2019 have to do with people engaging specifically in groupthink and "othering." Censorship, exclusion, and suppression do not reduce groupthink. Rather, those actions increase groupthink. Those actions create hothouses of concentrated groupthink insulated from criticism, skepticism, and the moderation of reality. (Also, if some honest introspection is done, one often finds that those actions are themselves motivated by groupthink.) A live and let-live society where people are free to self-express lets people learn in the context of a reality more complicated and richer than just themselves. A live and let-live society lets people transcend their own small circle. It is the best antidote to the small minded groupthink that creates oversimplified, dehumanizing caricatures of people and reality. It's suppression and censorship that causes people to retreat into such small circles, allowing groupthink to fester.
- freewilly1040 8y agoThe story of tumblr is really not about free speech suppression. They had a mix of explicit and non-explicit content, and had to choose one to decide what kind of advertisers to pursue. They chose non-explicit and it didn't work.
- stcredzero 8y agoThe story of tumblr is really not about free speech suppression. They had a mix of explicit and non-explicit content, and had to choose one to decide what kind of advertisers to pursue. Given the events of the past several years, I highly doubt the people with the ad dollars are innocent of free speech suppression. EDIT: Specifically, the people asking for YouTube suppression through "advertising" concerns were tied in with the people coordinating hit pieces against YouTube content. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0IYzF-zLMw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0IYzF-zLMw
- 8y ago
- no1youknowz 8y agoIf I were Pornhub, I'd really low-ball them. After all Verizon wrote down the purchase by 30%? [0] and I'm sure they just want rid by now. So between 10% - 50% is a good offer. On Pornhubs side, it's essentially a steal. They could very well foster a good atmosphere when it comes to porn and then offer through their mindgeek advertising platform access to Tumblr for their marketing affiliates. These marketing affiliates spend ALOT of money on ads and it's very profitable if you know what you are doing. If they started to get their own studios or their affiliates in creating films (actresses) in the recording space to use Tumblr to blog and not use twitter. Again, this would drive engagement by quite a margin. There is so many things Pornhub could do here to make hundreds of millions off the back of Tumblr and they have the management to do it. [0]: https://www.businessinsider.com/verizon-looking-sell-tumblr-2019-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/verizon-looking-sell-tumblr-...
- michaelchisari 8y agoAlso, the whole issue that sparked Tumblr's decision was illegal content, and Pornhub most likely has the resources and technical capability to detect and remove it quickly, whereas Tumblr was a ghost town of moderation that attracted the worst types of content. Of course, Tumblr needed a sheriff but they chose a nuclear weapon and the rest is history.
- Hamuko 8y agoIsn't Pornhub filled to the brim with illegal content as it is?
- nickthegreek 8y agoby illegal, I believe the poster was mostly referring to child or violent content as opposed to copyright.
- arcticbull 8y agoMy understanding is that they and their subsidiaries actually own a lot of the content that you're probably thinking is "illegal" or "copyright infringing" [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MindGeek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MindGeek
- wesammikhail 8y agoOff topic: I am genuinely curious, why doesn´t Pornhub create a Youtube competitor? it is probably the best positioned company on earth to do so. Any info as to why they haven´t done it or why it would be bad idea for them to do so?
- jsnider3 8y agoPornHub is a Youtube competitor, as long as you want porn. Trying to expand beyond that seems like it would be off brand.
- xkcd-sucks 8y agoIt could maybe expand into other "not safe for work" media like explicit music, gun videos, and stuff that generally isn't allowed on Youtube? PH already has paying premium users, so maybe would be just something to keep them on PH-related websites through the end of their refractory period, hopefully directing them back to PH when they start getting horny again
- freewilly1040 8y agoAssuming you are wondering why they don't create a non-porn video site, the reason is that these sites live off ad revenue, and mainstream advertisers don't want their brand associated with porn.
- 8y ago
- Dynomite54 8y agoFinally I can get all my gay kinky porn back now.
- Angostura 8y agoIf there’s one thing PornHub is good at, it’s generating positive PR for itself. I’m always very impressed how much of Reddit - often very skeptic all about corporate manipulation- will roll over to have its tummy tickled by Pornhub.
- MrMember 8y agoReddit has quite a few blind spots when it comes to obvious advertising. Disney properties get a free pass, for example.
- stcredzero 8y agoBoth Pornhub and Disney have entertained and benefited many reddit users over the years. By that measure, haven't they earned that goodwill?
- JakeTheAndroid 8y agoI'd argue, between the two companies, a significant portion of my free time over my life has been spent consuming their content.
- hombre_fatal 8y agoAdvertising is so ubiquitous on Reddit that you almost do it a disservice by enumerating one example. But something that makes me roll my eyes the hardest is when an indie dev makes a single post to /r/gaming and the gamers complain about advertising. As if that subreddit isn't one constant advertisement for the top three games out at one moment. But just launder your ads and gamers eat it up. A dev posting their own content for once should be some of the most welcomed content. It's usually accompanied by Q&A and insights into the design process, the rare opportunity to actually talk to the creator of a game on that subreddit. Sad to see so many people attack it because it's just obvious advertisement. Something seems very miscalibrated.
- EnFinlay 8y ago
- olivermarks 8y agopornhub is one of Mindgeek's properties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MindGeek https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MindGeek I've never understood their business model - they seem to host endless illegally uploaded porn yet more and more porn seems to be being created. Not clear where the money is made ultimately. Mindgeek dominate the online porn world which gets huge traffic. https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2018-year-in-review https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2018-year-in-review Tumblr was historically another repository of illegal uploads of other people's adult materials.
- stevenwoo 8y agoI thought Slate or someone did a story on this - by making porn so easily available they make the market for performers low, they can lowball the creatives who appear on camera/make the videos, and also make money on the advertising on the illegally uploaded porn. https://slate.com/technology/2014/10/mindgeek-porn-monopoly-its-dominance-is-a-cautionary-tale-for-other-industries.html https://slate.com/technology/2014/10/mindgeek-porn-monopoly-...
- rajacombinator 8y agoYes the economics of this industry are really puzzling to an outsider. As someone who has tried running ads on these properties it’s hard for me to imagine how anyone is making money in this business. And yet...
- duderific 8y agoMy guess is the sheer volume of traffic they get makes it appealing for certain advertisers. Throw in the upselling to premium features and that they don't have to pay much if anything for the actual content, and there's probably some pretty good money to be made.
- mcshay79 8y agoDo you think it is possible that making money is not their primary motivation?
- cm2012 8y ago
- Lowkeyloki 8y agoI was discussing companies who use Tumblr for official communication, like System76 and NPM, on another story earlier this week, and how it's cringy and not a good look IMHO. (My comment was flagged for some reason despite having 5 points and 8 replies. How does this site work?) I hope PornHub does buy Tumblr! Can you imagine how quickly all the corporate blogs would scramble off of the platform to avoid association with a porn site!?
- imgabe 8y agoWhy is it cringy? It's an easy way to host a blog. I'd rather any company focus on their main business rather than futz around with blog hosting.
- leesalminen 8y agoMedium would be a better place to host a corporate blog. When I think Tumblr, I think porn not corporate blogging. Although to be honest, that image is fairly recent for me. I only heard about the depths of Tumblr porn after it died.
- the8472 8y agotumblr is (was) dual-use. so are twitter and reddit by the way. It's like saying corporations don't want to associate with the internet because there's porn on it.
- zius 8y agoYou still really think that? I am not so sure. A self-hosted blog, e.g. Ghost, is much more user-friendly. The amount of popups before you can read an article on Medium is embarrassing. That "You have a moment?" is really getting old. Besides, I can't remember last time I read a quality article on there.
- j_4 8y agoI would argue the exact opposite. Tumblr is pretty agnostic when it comes to the way your content is presented, you can even hide all social features without a problem. I roll my eyes when I see a serious company using Medium as its blog platform, with its absolutely obnoxious "haha lets make it official ;)" popups.
- gist 8y agoThis is in a way a variation of what Playboy did for porn back in the day. You claimed to read it for the articles (and the writing was good) but got to glimpse at porn as well. With tumbler quite possibly pornhub is wanting to do the same thing. In other words give people a legit reason to use tumbler (content that is non porn) so they can sneak a peek at porn. Now they can't do that now with pornhub (at least under that brand and domain) and even if they started a new brand from scratch how would they build up non porn ('the articles') content. If the price is right (big if) no doubt this is a legitimate strategy.
- ddingus 8y agoGreat. They should do that. The reality is, way too many of us are more prudish than we should be, and we are all humans after all.
- mellow-lake-day 8y agoOriginal article that broke the news: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/pornhub-interested-in-buying-tumblr https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/pornhub-i...
- DoreenMichele 8y agoI hope they succeed. Tumblr is not really my thing and neither is porn, but I have been dismayed by the seeming trend to criminalize and stamp out all expressions of consenting adult sexual behavior on the internet. It would be nice to see some successful push back.
- nkkollaw 8y agoHow is porn criminalized? If anything, it's the opposite. Pornstars are heroes for kids nowadays, we should be trying to avoid kids getting their sex education from PornHub, not favor even more exposure.
- DoreenMichele 8y agoI didn't say porn was being criminalized. Just curious, can you give me a list of good resources for sex education?
- burgerzzz 8y agoHow much education do you really need for safe sex?
- DoreenMichele 8y agoI was molested for a few years as a child. I ended up suicidal and frigid. I spent a year in therapy in my teens and 2.5 years in my twenties. I read stacks of research-based books to educate myself. It took me decades to learn to have sex safely without being some man's victim.
- CryptoBanker 8y agoMore education is never a bad thing. Especially in a topic this important
- crowbahr 8y agoMore than the public school system provides in things like abstinence only states. Knowing how birth control works is important. Knowing how STDs are transmitted: also important. Knowing that you can, in fact, get pregnant even when the girl is on top: important. These are things not understood by children who go through the public school systems in some of the less liberal states.
- ungzd 8y agoDefinition of "porn" is too much different for Pornhub and Tumblr. For former, it's kafkaesque-lovecraftian movies with Hollywood-level effects depicting impossible forms of multi-person sexual intercourse, for latter it's usually just photos of women with uncovered breasts. I can't remember seeing "real porn" on Tumblr.
- uxp100 8y agoThere was plenty of hardcore porn tumblr. But I agree, many of people posted softcore on their main blog, but it was rare to see hardcore reposts on someone's discourse blog.
- gizmo686 8y agoThere is clearly a market for tublr style porn, and it is a market that most of the industry refuses to touch. Pornhub is leveraged to overcome most of the difficulties in that market, which makes tumblr more valuable to them than it is to most companies. Put another way, most buyers would proceed to (continue to) destroy a significant portion of tumblrs value in order to be willing to operate it. Pornhub would not.
- Zircom 8y agoMy ex-girlfriend was a pretty active pornblogger on Tumblr(her own content and reblogging other stuff before it got shut down), believe me there was a pretty big porn community on there, although it's broken down into pretty specific niche categories(like DDLG, CNC, BDSM, etc), but within those niches there's lots of active content creators that are pretty well-known within their little Tumblr social circles. warning possible triggering content ahead Example, this one guy ran a blog called "Rapebait Academy"(CNC fetish, Google if you're interested I'm not gonna get into that here) where he could post pictures and videos of him with the girls he would meet of Tumblr and what they got up to together(with their consent of course). And anyone who was involved in that little community on Tumblr knew the guy and who you were talking about if you mentioned his name, or at least his blog. So there's definitely people interested in making content on the platform, people interested in consuming the content, and there's always gonna be people willing to pay out the nose for personalized niche specific content, which will be easy given how Tumblr is a directly creator-to-user platform.
- microtherion 8y agoI'm reminded of the Perry Cox quote: > I’m fairly sure if they took porn off the internet, there’d only be one website left, and it’d be called "Bring back the porn!"
- sjcsjc 8y agoI like Resolute's comment below the article: I'm not sure Verizon's "buy high, ruin it, sell low" strategy is going to pay off.
- jarjoura 8y agoI think Tumblr is a lost cause. The younger generation has shifted to Instagram/OnlyFans and Reddit for their porn fixes.
- technofiend 8y agoHonestly if PH doesn't do it I feel like Cards Against Humanity will now that the idea's been floated.
- huffmsa 8y agoWell at least someone still knows what the internet is for. They'll make a bundle.
- OrgNet 8y agowow, this post was submitted 5 hours ago and has 311 points and it already fell off the front page? someone here doesn't like porn at all
- srndh 8y agoSo, Tumblr will soon become the twitter for pornstars.