13 ms·

Ask HN: Are there any innovative startups in the porn/adult industry?

126 points by rblion 12y ago

Just curious. I am, like many men, a fan of quality porn and wonder if anyone is trying to solve problems in that industry. Or is too taboo?

byoung2 12y ago
There was an interesting discussion about technology stacks in porn here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6137087 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6137087
staunch 12y ago
VR porn is a new area with difficult problems to solve.
- kefka 12y ago
  Given my new position at my workplace, I now have access to all sorts of gadgets and tech stuff. One thing I've been playing with is a EEG headset with Oculus Rift. My initial idea is to utilize brain patterns with Oculus content to increase certain emotions. For example, when one is playing Doom 3, the monsters come out closer and scarier when you are already frightened. Or if you're bored, nothing happens to try to increase suspense. Of course, this could easily be taken to the adult industry. The same feelings of heightened sexual arousal could be coupled with more intense visual stimulation.
  - therobot24 12y ago
    EEG is a mess of noise - it's easy to determine things like 'up', 'down', 'left', and 'right'. If you're really precise (user isn't moving very much and has one of those caps that uses electro-gel) you can infer activations of certain parts of the brain, however i don't know how correlated they'd be to non-strong emotions like boredom.
  - aangjie 12y ago
    That sounds like some increbily cool work. I'd imagine you can/already use some backend algorithms used by these people. http://emotiv.com/ http://emotiv.com/. If you would be willing to mail me the company you work for.
  - cindygallop 12y ago
    90% of the audience at any Oculus Rift presentation/demo are thinking 'Sex' :)
- robzyb 12y ago
  I think that there's opportunity in teledildonics as well. If it wasn't for it being, well, teledildonics, I'd be interested in pursuing it.
  - cindygallop 12y ago
    That's precisely why you should. :) Seriously, I and my team and every other #sextech entrepreneur are working to change the public attitude. For the people ahead of the curve - OH MY GOD THE MONEY TO BE MADE :)
    - srybchin 12y ago
      I agree. Why not? It doesn't make you any less respectable or a bad person. You might be surprised as to how much you like it!
      - cindygallop 12y ago
        And on this topic - can I introduce Peiqi Su's fantastic ITP installation, the Penis Wall? :) http://itp.nyu.edu/shows/thesis2014/peiqi-su/ http://itp.nyu.edu/shows/thesis2014/peiqi-su/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJw-JUmjq0U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJw-JUmjq0U
      - robzyb 12y ago
        It doesn't make me any less respectable or a bad person in my own eyes... but other people's eyes count for a lot.
    - robzyb 12y ago
      I care about public attitude towards sex. But that's not the reason that I'd be interested in teledildonics. You hit the nail on the head with your second point - the money to be made. Just think about how much money the online pornography, and camgirl, sites pull in.
  - frixionme 12y ago
    We're doing our part! www.frixion.me
garethsprice 12y ago
Cindy Gallop's "Make Love Not Porn" (http://www.makelovenotporn.com http://www.makelovenotporn.com) is trying to solve some of the issues around the rise of Internet pornography (addiction, detachment from intimacy, unrealistic/degrading portrayal of women, etc). She's approaching it from a great, sex-positive way but is having issues whenever the company touches the "regular world" - hard to get funding, taken seriously by non-adult industry people, payment processing, etc. The "problems" in Internet porn do not appear related to reducing barriers to access or better tech, but in solving issues with how people cope with sudden, instant access to a historically unprecedented amount of material. Yet again, porn is trending ahead of regular tech use, which is also starting to deal with the same issues of addiction, information overload, how to monetize premium content in the face of a vast universe of free, tech saturation causing detachment and loss of intimacy (and the controversy over whether it does any of these in the first place).
- chris_overseas 12y ago
  Here's another data point confirming the "regular world" issues you mention: http://recode.net/2014/10/17/its-hard-out-there-for-a-sex-toy-entrepreneur/ http://recode.net/2014/10/17/its-hard-out-there-for-a-sex-to...
  - couchand 12y ago
    Rybchin said she suspects it has something to do with tech being dominated by men, who might be nervous about working with a sex-toy startup: “All these companies are run by men, and they don’t appreciate a woman’s pleasure.” I don't know whether this really is the underlying issue, but damn, it's unfortunate how plausible it is. And the reaction from Stripe to the reporter's request for comment all but confirms.
    - itengelhardt 12y ago
      IMHO the problem is not that men "don't appreciate a woman's pleasure" - that is some serious bullshit in my opinion. Most men love it when their SO enjoys sex. The problem (to me) is the criminalization of porn and prostitution in the US. Just think about what kind of outrage it would cause if Stripe had a single prostitute or porn website use their service to receive payments. (For the sake of argument assume the prostitute is located in a jurisdiction that does not prohibit the practice, IIRC it is allowed in parts of Nevada) Now Stripe gets flack for being overly cautious - there's just no way to do this without provoking a shit storm from one group.
k__ 12y ago
I don't know if they are a startup but the page of chaturbate feels linke one. Like the idea of shared cams where all people can see even if just a few pay. Also That the people on the cam can do their own thing. Most innovative idea I've seen in That sector for long.
shittyanalogy 12y ago
What are you looking for, innovative content delivery, production style, search technology, payment schemes? What problems for example? All the main video sites you go to are startups that are trying to innovate and make money. Porn is a very competitive industry. Pornhub and redtube for example are innovative startups it's just hard to amit it to ourselves because they are peddling smut.
- tormeh 12y ago
  Their websites are horrible, though, and the content is pretty meh.
  - matijagoljar 12y ago
    Threshold of achieving minimum customer satisfaction is also very very low - for the most part you just need to show nakedness and the problem is solved :) Tough industry. Hard to break out of a niche.
    - Bud 12y ago
      I see this argument a lot. I don't think it's true at all (at least, assuming you're not talking about teenage boys). Consumers of porn are picky and choosy about porn just like they are picky about anything else they consume. Better porn beats worse porn. Nakedness is not sufficient at all. It's kinda hard to get off if you are doubled-over laughing at how lame the porn is.
      - jenmcewen 12y ago
        Agreed. With so much free porn online, everyone has be come a connoisseur. What stands out is experience, quality/niche, and convenience. I found this reddit thread on who pays for porn and why an interesting read. http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2i5cf6/redditors_that_pay_for_porn_memberships_why_nsfw/ http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2i5cf6/redditors_...
  - fidotron 12y ago
stared 12y ago
It seems that porn business pushed technology for e-payments and data storage/transfer: http://www.enterprisefeatures.com/2011/06/ten-indispensable-technologies-built-by-the-pornography-industry/ http://www.enterprisefeatures.com/2011/06/ten-indispensable-... I have no idea if now they are frontiers of innovation.
striking 12y ago
http://faploid.com http://faploid.com has been in beta a long time but it's gotten awards. Hopefully it works out soon.
kingkawn 12y ago
Porn sites are janky, unpolished, often half-broken, and prone to suddenly disappearing as quickly as they appeared. This is what innovation looks like. I think they are the definition of innovation in online content delivery of any kind. Live video streams, monetizing content, creating minor internet celebrities who can live off of their online work, confronting head-on issues of privacy and censorship. All of these things and more came far earlier in internet porn than anywhere else, and theres a good chance that whatever edge they're struggling with will be where the rest of tech finds itself shortly thereafter. It's like graffiti in the subway as a precursor to ads for HSBC. It may be grimy, but they have nothing to lose so there's a good chance what they're doing is a brilliant move.
- cindygallop 12y ago
  Funnily enough, while that used to be true, it's no longer the case. The tech world has advanced to the point that it's outstripped the porn industry, which is struggling for the business reasons I outline here in my open letter in Wired, 'Don't Block Porn, Disrupt It': http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/14/cindy-gallop-open-letter http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/14/cindy-gallop-... That's what makes #sextech a huge, huge opportunity - including bringing everything that innovates, does well and makes money in every other sector online - including great design. This is my co-founders, Corey Innis (CTO) and Oonie Chase (UX Lead) talking to BusinessInsider about how you design and build a sex site that isn't a porn site: http://www.businessinsider.com/designing-make-love-not-porn-2013-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/designing-make-love-not-porn-...
  - kingkawn 12y ago
    I think it is still the case. The production of porn is democratizing and becoming a smaller and smaller economic blip as its production dissipates, so I agree that the economic model is hurting. I also think its serving a valuable social function which is exposing our expectations and fantasies of sex as the ludicrous oddities that they are, despite our protestations that we are mature and civilized.
    - 12y ago
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durkie 12y ago
We're in the process of launching our first product at Comingle(http://www.comingle.io http://www.comingle.io), making Arduino-based, open source and hackable sex toys. We're making a sex toy platform (our library is named OSSex of course) so that it won't matter if your sex toy is made by guys. You can reprogram it to your liking, attach sensors that respond to your feedback or even build your own. It is super hard to find a payment processor, but I imagine that their hands are tied by the card networks. I bet Stripe would love to support adult payments if they could: lots of adult specific processors charge like 14%. Seems like that'd be some nice action to be a part of, even if only in the adult industries that are lower risk (the adult industry is huge and there's no way some dildo shop is as high risk as a cam site, even though every one treats them the same.)
- cindygallop 12y ago
  Yes, Stripe would love to. It's their bank that refuses. Patrick Collison really went to bat for us but couldn't win.:( Ben Milne of Dwolla supports adult ventures, and we work with them, but unfortunately as a startup themselves they only operate in the US currently - we're global and need global solutions.
- srybchin 12y ago
  WOW! Looks very interesting! We are not denying that it's the banks that are the problem. Last I checked, the money that my company generates is as green as the money as an non-adult company makes. It's just a shame that banks and companies that work with those banks, like Stripe, are making blanket statements that all adult related businesses are risk.
detcader 12y ago
Is porn really "taboo"? Or is the idea merely useful for justifying the state of the industry? What is OP's response to Robert Jensen [1], Germaine Greer [2], Corina Taylor [3], Clara Bennathan [4], Meghan Murphy [5], and Gail Dines [6] [7]? [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbxBJf9UtWg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbxBJf9UtWg [2] http://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/24/society http://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/24/society [3] https://www.thepinkcross.org/pinkcross-articles/october-2011/ex-porn-star-corina-taylor-story https://www.thepinkcross.org/pinkcross-articles/october-2011... [4] http://www.bad-housekeeping.com/2014/01/08/violence-teenagers-and-gonzo-porn/ http://www.bad-housekeeping.com/2014/01/08/violence-teenager... [5] http://feministcurrent.com/9087/meghan-murphy-on-elliot-rodger-misogyny-and-porn-culture/ http://feministcurrent.com/9087/meghan-murphy-on-elliot-rodg... [6] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/05/conversation-gail-dines-anna-arrowsmith http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/05/convers... [7] http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/pornographyisaleftissue.htm http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/pornographyisale...
- icebraining 12y ago
  I don't think you know what "taboo" means. It doesn't mean it's not harmful.
  - hawkice 12y ago
    Wiki says: "A taboo is a vehement prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behavior is either too sacred or too accursed for ordinary individuals to undertake, under threat of supernatural punishment." This clearly does not describe pornography, not even the Pope thinks this.
    - jeffreyrogers 12y ago
      I'm not sure if you're a native English speaker or not, but the meaning of taboo extends farther than this. A simple definition would be something like "something prohibited to do/mention in respectable company"
resca79 12y ago
I have not the competences to do something like that but in my opinion this is original hacking. In a small town of Sicily (near where I live) some guys are making incredible stuff with retro - computing. They have restore hold computers like PDP11, apple one with all original components. http://museo.freaknet.org/en http://museo.freaknet.org/en
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- resca79 12y ago
  Sorry for this comment, I wanted comment another article( iphone issue)
unoti 12y ago
I'd love to make XXX videogames. There aren't many serious players in that space, and I'd love to go after it. I can't do it alone, though, I need artists and a couple other capabilities besides software development. When I pitch the idea to people I'd like to work with on this, they don't want to participate in that space. So yes, there's definitely a stigma for a lot of people. I've done a good amount of sex things in different venues ranging from phone sex systems to phone dating systems to sex robots in Second Life, so I've long ago lost my aversion to such things. But it surprised me how many people seem to be scared of participating in the industry. It's easier to make high quality content now than ever before, and it's only going to get better from here.
- cindygallop 12y ago
  Would love you to do that. Huge opportunity. Email cindy@makelovenotporn.com.
- jenmcewen 12y ago
  I'm the co-founder of MiKandi, the adult app store. Adult games are a top search term in our store. If you're making adult Android or HTML5 games, I'd love to get in touch. We just made our first game, Fap Ninja. It was challenging but so much fun to make! If you're looking for artists, I recommend looking on deviantart, hentai foundry, furrafinity, and pixiv.
sysk 12y ago
For your reference, http://www.gfy.com http://www.gfy.com is the "HN" of the adult industry.
- hackerboos 12y ago
  More of a board for adult affiliates.
frankydp 12y ago
The guys I know in the industry are mostly on the bleeding edge of stream tech both hardware and software. The sheer size of the industry in proportion to the entire internet means that some giant portion of all IT in the world work in the space. The guys I know all communicate in private communities though, and not for the taboo reason but because the industry is overtly hostile and aggressive towards competitors. There are only 3-4 big players and they play dirty(no pun). They own the pay sites and free sites. They leak their competitors product on their own free site and pair it with upsale ads to their own sites. It is very dog eat dog and hard to innovate in because of the players not the taboo.
- JetSpiegel 12y ago
  I think it's also about the taboo. You can't go to the police and say "Some site is stealing my porn!" without getting laughed at.
  - frankydp 12y ago
    I agree that the taboo exist. But I would suggest that the AE industry is one of the most aggressive litigators in entertainment, I don't think they are afraid to use the courts.
sklogic 12y ago
http://www.kamaxcitra.com/ http://www.kamaxcitra.com/
frequentflyeru 12y ago
It just surprises me that mainstream brands haven't embraced advertising on porn sites. There is no reason why there couldn't be a Hulu style high end porn site with real ads from like Budweiser, Old Spice, Mountain Dew, Red Bull, Comedy Central. There might be backlash for the first company to advertise but after that I can't imagine people would care.
- cindygallop 12y ago
  Porn sites have tried, but it's really tough. We want to help break down the social barriers that prevent that. However, here is one mainstream brand who wholeheartedly embraced that and wrote up the BEST.ADVERTISING.EFFECTIVENESS.CASESTUDY.EVER. This is Eat24's hilarious report on 'How To Advertise On A Porn Site': http://blog.eat24hours.com/how-to-advertise-on-a-porn-website/ http://blog.eat24hours.com/how-to-advertise-on-a-porn-websit... and here's what we plan at MakeLoveNotPorn as our version of advertising - Forget Sex In Advertising, How About Advertising In #realworldsex? http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/2013/09/25/forget-sex-in-advertising-how-about-advertising-in-realworldsex/ http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/2013/09/25/forget-sex-in...
MrJagil 12y ago
http://www.pornmd.com/ http://www.pornmd.com/ is a very interesting site. For one, it scrapes all the top sites. For another, you can see what people search for in which region. I.e. I am in Denmark and danish people apparently wants to see danish porn. I wasn't aware of that. For a third, they have a live-search which is quite interesting. (and amusingly, read aloud by porn actors here: http://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=1025156889 http://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=1025156889) For a fourth, they also have a chrome extension, which if nothing else is curious as the adult industry has so far shied away from apps and such (I believe because of regulations). Another interesting take is http://www.porniq.com http://www.porniq.com The site speaks for itself.
- brettz 12y ago
  Those are Pornhub/Mindgeek projects. We are hiring if anyone is interested.
testhater 12y ago
nope. everything is terrible.
- cindygallop 12y ago
  Not quite :) Sex Tech Is Untapped: These 11 Players Are Trying To Change That http://blog.referralcandy.com/2014/06/03/sex-tech-is-untapped-these-11-players-are-trying-to-change-that/ http://blog.referralcandy.com/2014/06/03/sex-tech-is-untappe...
snug 12y ago
My girlfriends company, https://zivity.com https://zivity.com is testing out some waters on a few things. Zivity has been around for awhile, where you pay for votes and you vote on your favorite sets, and pays out pretty well to their artist. Right now they are testing a sexy crowdfunding site, where you vote for which theme you want to win. Live Preview/Beta (https://fund.okidokiokami.com/ https://fund.okidokiokami.com/)
throw_away4778 12y ago
Not really a start-up but a Django one-weekend project: "isexdb is the biggest global directory of adult entertainment locations worldwide" http://www.isexdb.com/ http://www.isexdb.com/ Programming mostly done by my buddy.
cassgames 12y ago
My problem with modern porn as an industry is the low production values. Even big (ish) budget movies suffer from bad acting and ridiculous plots. Adult games only exist as a hobbyist past-time--they are few and far between and you have to be really "hard core" to be able to enjoy them. So, I'm trying to solve the problem by creating adult games that have realistic plots. My goal is to try and create a niche and prove that adult games can be a profitable business, so that big players take interest and we see some major adult titles that are rated "A" not because of the gore and violence in them, but for the erotica/porn content. Since I'm only one person, I have to start small, with sub-genres where it is possible for one person to make something worthwhile in a reasonable amount of time--currently it's illustrated interactive fiction. So far I've released one game that is more of a demo than a full featured game. I'm currently working on my second game which is much bigger.
- sumedh 12y ago
  > Even big (ish) budget movies suffer from bad acting and ridiculous plots. Probably because most of the audience does not care about acting or the story. So before you invest your time and money make sure the users actually want good acting and a story in porn.
  - cassgames 12y ago
    I don't know of any other way of making sure other than putting out a pilot release and seeing how it does. So far the stats look pretty good: lots of people have played my pilot game and liked it. I've received a handful of donations, and since donations rarely work in general, I think there's an opportunity worth exploring.
brettz 12y ago
We do pretty innovative and fun things at Pornhub. We're hiring too if you're interested.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- parados 12y ago
  I'm curious, assuming you are hiring tech staff, do you find any difference in the quantity or quality of applicants compared to other, non adult, tech companies?
  - brettz 12y ago
    Quantity and quality is the same. We are in Montreal though so there is not as much talent as other cities.
manny5d 12y ago
There was a talk at SXSW this year that was called the "Relieving Frustration The UX of Porn" that showed insights on how the Porn industry was innovating in UX design and showed how mainstream sites were following in its footsteps it was a good talk. http://www.slideshare.net/SteveJohnson35/relieving-frustration-poir http://www.slideshare.net/SteveJohnson35/relieving-frustrati...
cindygallop 12y ago
I'm delighted you ask that question! I can tell you that there are plenty of us, but that as #sextech entrepreneurs we fight a battle every day to build our startups. Every piece of business infrastructure any other startup can at least take for granted, we can't, because the small print always says 'No adult content'. This is me and other #sextech founders interviewed about this by Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/3029634/bottom-line/the-difficulties-of-running-a-sex-inspired-startup http://www.fastcompany.com/3029634/bottom-line/the-difficult... and the Daily Beast: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/29/silicon-valley-s-soft-sex-ban.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/29/silicon-val... Silicon Valley welcomes innovation and disruption in every other area of our lives except this one - which is why I gave this short talk at New York Tech Meetup back in Feb on why the Next Big Thing in tech is disrupting sex, and intro-ed Colin Hodge of Down and Dema Tio of Vibease to demo their products (go to sex+tech in player): http://mlb.mlb.com/media/player/entry.jsp?calendar_event_id=14-402301-2014-02-05&source=NYTM http://mlb.mlb.com/media/player/entry.jsp?calendar_event_id=... and why I organized a 'Changing The World Through Sex' track at Social Media Week New York also in Feb: http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/events/?id=139287#.UqhnJPRDuAh http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/events/?id=139287#.UqhnJP... You can get a sense of the various #sextech startups who demo-ed in 'Sex Tech Shark Tank' here :) http://seen.co/event/social-media-week:-sextech-new-york-city-2014-6240 http://seen.co/event/social-media-week:-sextech-new-york-cit... We welcome as many people as possible to join us in disrupting sex and porn - for anyone interested, this is my talk on 'The Future Of Porn' at SXSW last year: http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/news/2013/cindy-gallop-celebrates-real-life-sexuality-sxsw http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/news/2013/cindy-gallop-celeb... and I spell out the business opportunity in my open letter to David Cameron and Silicon Valley published by Wired last year - 'Don't Block Porn, Disrupt It': http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/14/cindy-gallop-open-letter http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/14/cindy-gallop-... One day I want to start the YCombinator for porn - who's in? :) http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/15/makelovenotporn-founder-wants-to-make-the-y-combinator-for-porn/ http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/15/makelovenotporn-founder-wa...
- rblion 12y ago
  Thank you so much for all the information you've provided Cindy, I was not expecting this much of a response. I basically got nothing on Reddit. I'm going to study everything in this thread and use it for my startup. I have some ideas of how human sexuality can be explored through using technology without losing our humanity. Hopefully, we can all change the perception of porn and the dynamics of the industry. I will post again in due time. :)
cindygallop 12y ago
And to answer your question even more specifically - here's a list of founders and ventures doing innovative things in this space: Kit Maloney, Oactually http://oactually.com/ http://oactually.com/ Cyan Banister, Zivity https://www.zivity.com/ https://www.zivity.com/ Tina Gong, HappyPlaytime http://happyplaytime.com/ http://happyplaytime.com/ Sarah Jayne Kinney, UnboundBox https://unboundbox.com/ https://unboundbox.com/ Dema Tio & Hermione Way, Vibease http://www.vibease.com/ http://www.vibease.com/ Danny Wax & Tyler Elick, Spreadsheets http://spreadsheetsapp.com/ http://spreadsheetsapp.com/ Akbar Dhanaliwala, MinnaLife http://www.minnalife.com/ http://www.minnalife.com/ Kathleen Funk & Alan Harris, XSync http://xsync.com/ http://xsync.com/ Colin Hodge, Down https://www.downapp.com/ https://www.downapp.com/ Ben Tao, Offbeatr http://offbeatr.com/ http://offbeatr.com/ Kaitlin Prest & Mitra Kaboli, AudioSmut http://audiosmut.ca/ http://audiosmut.ca/ Roger McNulty, Gasm.org http://gasm.org/ http://gasm.org/ Joe Nelson, TheyFit http://www.theyfit.co.uk/ http://www.theyfit.co.uk/ Meika Hollender, Sustain http://sustaincondoms.com/ http://sustaincondoms.com/ Sherif Maktabi, Glance http://www.glanceapp.info/ http://www.glanceapp.info/ Cassie Robinson http://www.cassierobinson.net/ http://www.cassierobinson.net/ Kathy Harris, Slixa https://www.slixa.com/ https://www.slixa.com/ Christian Thorn, Pinsex http://www.pinsex.com/ http://www.pinsex.com/
- xSync_alan 12y ago
  Hi. Alan with xSync here. We're a sex-positive sextech startup that synchronizes vibrators to adult videos. Our web service is built on some very innovative technology. What Cindy said about how difficult it is for an adult startup is absolutely true. We're launching our pilot soon, but this technology would've reached market much more quickly if we were mainstream. We typically can't talk as openly about our ideas. Some adult startup founders run into trouble with family and friends. VC is also incredibly challenging because they nobody wants to be known as "the adult VC" in a financial world that patently discriminates against anything labeled adult. At xSync we don't produce our own content or our own vibrators. Our website is completely clean, but because we have links to the videos on 3rd party adult sites where users can experience xSync, PayPal or your typical payment processors aren't willing to let us use their services. We definitely encourage you to follow all of the innovative companies in this space, just know that, for the time, our products will take a little longer to reach market than you might expect.
vextape 12y ago
I'm someone making porn but trying my hardest to fund it without making it a business. It became important to create a model that wasn't reliant on profit. I try to treat it as a co-op. Often it feels like the issue with the industry is that it's so uncertain financially that it's too scared to make content for anyone other than the assumed stereotype porn consumer (straight dudes mainly) so there's over saturation of very similar, repetative content which breeds a strange, one-upmanship quest for never ending novelty. The ease of access to consistently good and cheaper video equipment (dslrs that support video etc) mean that the people making the most interesting work exist outside of the industry, uploading onto tumblr or sites like clips4sale. Basically they're Etsy of porn, allowing independence from selling the rights to your work to big companies. They take a bit of searching but they're like gold dust when you find them. our work is: http://afourchamberedheart.com http://afourchamberedheart.com http://fourchambers.tumblr.com http://fourchambers.tumblr.com
throwawaycx 12y ago
One thing I thought about was to have a reverse porn search(by using an image) See that reddit has an /r/tipofmypenis , where people are seeking the porn they once saw, or they have a picture of it. It would be quite powerful if it work with publishers and has face recognition ability, so when people upload a screenshot, they can be directed to the porn video over at the publishers. Also, it is strange how one cannot search by body type by specify a 3D model of the body... we can only use descriptive terms.
pygeek 12y ago
Glad someone asked, its just the thing we need to innovate!
- cindygallop 12y ago
  Exactly. The Next Big Thing in tech is disrupting sex. :) #sextech
SilviaSerra 12y ago
I think Erika Lust's Xconfessions.com is one of the better approaches to rethinking pornography I've seen so far. Using the public’s own sex confessions, published on the site anonymously every day, Erika has established by far the most sophisticated and innovative crowdsourced erotic cinema ever seen. Each month, she picks two of the best submissions and turns them into beautiful, original and edgy adult short films.
jenmcewen 12y ago
Oh man, you've just opened the floodgates. I just love to geek out on this topic. :) I've been in the adult industry for almost a decade- both in "hardware" (sex toys) and software (mobile app store, video streaming). What sort of innovations are you looking for? Content, social, tech? A sex toy company I find innovative is Revel Body. Most vibrators use a rotary motor that spins an off-kilter weight to create the vibration. Revel Body developed their own patented linear motor that uses magnetic fields of alternating polarity to slide a weight back and forth in a linear motion. It's super quiet, more powerful and last longer than the older motors. They also designed their own chip to give the user precise control of the frequency and speed. I would have loved to have used RB's motor in the toys I designed. Lovepalz has the Zeus and Hera toys that couple hardware with software for long distance partners. Minna toys have pressure sensitive control panels. The folks at Utherverse created an immersive adults-only virtual world. I believe they launched a major overhaul to their platform last month. They've also built a VR compatible platform specifically for the Oculus Rift universe. In terms of VR porn, Utherverse is at the forefront. For software, I think we tend to look at consumer-facing sites and products, but there's a wealth of tech innovation happening behind the scenes. SendFaster, while not an adult company (but a tech co that powers a number of adult sites, mine included) has amazing TCP acceleration and image compression software. While not a startup, Streamates developed their own live streaming technology that's used by millions of visitors daily. Speaking of my company, I co-founded the MiKandi Adult App Store. We launched almost 5 years ago as the first adults only app store, before Android really hit it big. Being early adopters of Android and one of the few third party Android app stores at the time, we really dove head first into it. Under our belt today, we've got app distribution, mobile video streaming, in-app billing, notifications, DRM and content management, and soon-to-launch an ebook reader, mobile game creator, and comic reader and creator. We've tried to push other tech forward but are usually shot down soon after launching them- our Google Glass adult app, Tits & Glass, and our third party Chrome app store, MiKandi Mint. As far as the problem we're trying to solve, it's less about a problem in the adult industry as much as it's a problem in the mainstream tech and banking industries, which is being discussed a lot here. I wrote about the hostile business world here: http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/sextech-startups-in-a-hostile-business-world http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/sextech-startups-in-a-hos...
dematio 12y ago
The adult industry isn't lack of innovation, it has pushed the wide implementations of VHS, Online payment, Virtual Reality, teledildonic, etc. The much needed disruption is how to bring positive impacts to the mainstream market by using sex technologies, without leaving the sex element. How to use sex technologies to help couples to stay intimate, increase safe sex awareness, help individuals to understand his/her sexuality, sexual wellness, help men to understand female orgasm (no, it's not about bigger dick), etc. In the recent years, we started to see sex-positive startups stepped up to this challenge. From MakeLoveNotPorn, Jimmy Jane, Crave, RevelBody, HappyPlaytime, PerfectFit, DOWN (Bang With Friends) and many more. I'm the co-founder of www.vibease.com, the world's first wearable smart vibrator. I created Vibease because I was in a long distance relationship and I couldn't find any solutions that was easy to use and not invasive. Eventually we 'pivoted' to create immersive pleasure experience for women using audio erotica. Cindy Gallop from www.makelovenotporn.com has been a great advocate to disrupt the old adult industry. She successfully brings the hard topic, porn to be discussed in the society. She takes the good parts of porn and leaves the bad ones behind, to encourage a healthy discussion about sex. The challenge is that these startups always being treated like the old shady sex business, especially from the mainstream and holy (aka. hypocrite) institutions. The best way to overcome this problem is to pitch it boldly and hide nothing.
benjora 12y ago
Hey! We have a company called http://Enjora.com http://Enjora.com, which tries to give a whole new way of watching porn, and separate itself from the malicious and low-end porn tube sites by giving credit not just the actors and producers, but provide the users full-length adult movies. Enjora.com is a streaming service, like Netflix, where you can watch high quality porn videos from multiple productions companies for a low monthly fee. Although we are still in the development process, we already contacted a lot of producers, who realised that its win-win-win situation because the users get their movies in HD, without annoying ads, on a well designed easy to use website. You can follow channels, porn-stars, and multiple fetishes. Apart of the search engine, we are planning integrated payment methods like mobile, crypto-currencies, and Paypal which makes easier - and more trustable - to pay for our service.
RevelBody 12y ago
Great stream of comments, I figured I would weigh in with our experience. I founded Revel Body (www.revelbody.com) with the goal of using our new vibration motors to build better vibrators. We have been working on increasing the sensation and versatility of our products (more power and a broader range of vibrations than existing products) and removing the drawbacks of noise, reliability, numbness, etc. Right now we build and sell the most powerful, quiet and reliable battery-powered vibrator on the market. It is strong enough for muscle massage and can do things like create underwater suction and vibration (using the backside). Unlike a lot of brands in the 'sex toy' world, our branding and design aesthetic are purposely designed to be clean, healthy and accessible. We focus on health and wellness as a way to enable consumers to buy and try our product. We want to remove barriers from people trying our products. We believe that the industry could double in size if people we not embarrassed to buy these products, so we are focusing on enabling that. We need to remove stigma, give people permission, etc. Focusing on the many almost endless medical benefits of regular orgasm is our focus right now. These products are about as intimate a product as anyone can use, but they tend to be called 'sex toys'. This does not do justice to some of the better products our there, but probably is good for cheaper/mass market items. Toys are cheap and do not do anything important, and these are not just for sex in the traditional sense. Some brands are starting to use 'pleasure product', but we are looking for a new name for a high quality category of products like we build. Personal Appliance is too bulky. I would love if someone could put together a new for this category of product which really captures what these products can do. We launched on Indiegogo, because the biggest crowd funding site would not allow 'sexual' related products. We blew past our goals nicely, but do not think kickstarter will come around and allow other sexual related products. Unlike other sexual products, we have had good success at raising equity capital. We have done three small rounds which closed very fast and we ended up leaving many investors on the outside. I think our experience was different because we had a technology disruption story that made sense as well as being able to point out the many ways in which the industry is mainstreaming and growing rapidly. These points create a path for a company that can disrupt and industry as well as lead the charge to make it mainstream, which will lead to a great exit when a big consumer product is looking to enter this industry (they will want the best brand and technology). Other companies like Crave (raised $2.4M to angels), and Pipedream and Peekay show that mainstream PE money is entering this space. There are ways to position companies for investment if you understand how investors view these kinds of investments; they are looking for an exit based return and to be part of something cool. Think of what kind of company would be bought (build versus buy decision). On being part of a cool startup, I think it is difficult to imagine better cocktail party talk than being part of a disruptive vibrator company. Companies in this space will probably do better with angel investors than with VCs, many VCs are funded by institutional funds which limit investment into 'morally questionable' activities (think fun stuff like sex, drugs, tobacco, rock and roll). Like other sexual start-ups, we have had a lot of issues with other companies not wanting to do business with us because our sexual nature or association/proximity to porn start-ups. This includes banks, merchant accounts, advertisers (Facebook included), retargeting ads, etc. It is ridiculous but if you plan for it, you can work around it. Lots of interesting things going on here...
Faploid 12y ago
Hi guys, great discussion! @Striking, thanks for mentioning our company Faploid! Due to the overkill of free porn online these days, piracy and the overkill of scam websites, we decide to create http://www.faploid.com http://www.faploid.com. Faploid hasn’t officially launched, but has already build an active audience, is socially accepted and actively mentioned and promoted by various mainstream media outlets. Faploid’s users are as diverse as the content we serve. They are socially engaged, digitally equipped and searching for safe and quality adult content in an user friendly environment. All content including movies, pictures, articles and more are based on our user's taste and interests. Faploid evaluates millions of new adult content every day and uses this information to match content to their personal interests and then delivers them automatically to their personal Faploid magazine. Our users aim high and for that reason we only work directly together with the best publishers/content owners in a variety of niches from A to Z. For them Faploid isn't only a trusted partner in brand building, but also a quality partner in sending them traffic of people who are seriously interested in their content and willing to pay for safe and quality adult content. After a long time of developing and deal making, we're in our run up to public launch. In the upcoming months, partly because of the enormous positive attention we´ve received from both (mainstream) business and consumer side, we will invite all the subscribers on our waitinglist step by step. Cheers, Team Faploid

126 points by rblion 12y ago

Just curious. I am, like many men, a fan of quality porn and wonder if anyone is trying to solve problems in that industry. Or is too taboo?

byoung2 12y ago

There was an interesting discussion about technology stacks in porn here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6137087 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6137087

staunch 12y ago

VR porn is a new area with difficult problems to solve.

kefka 12y ago
Given my new position at my workplace, I now have access to all sorts of gadgets and tech stuff. One thing I've been playing with is a EEG headset with Oculus Rift. My initial idea is to utilize brain patterns with Oculus content to increase certain emotions. For example, when one is playing Doom 3, the monsters come out closer and scarier when you are already frightened. Or if you're bored, nothing happens to try to increase suspense. Of course, this could easily be taken to the adult industry. The same feelings of heightened sexual arousal could be coupled with more intense visual stimulation.
- therobot24 12y ago
  EEG is a mess of noise - it's easy to determine things like 'up', 'down', 'left', and 'right'. If you're really precise (user isn't moving very much and has one of those caps that uses electro-gel) you can infer activations of certain parts of the brain, however i don't know how correlated they'd be to non-strong emotions like boredom.
- aangjie 12y ago
  That sounds like some increbily cool work. I'd imagine you can/already use some backend algorithms used by these people. http://emotiv.com/ http://emotiv.com/. If you would be willing to mail me the company you work for.
- cindygallop 12y ago
  90% of the audience at any Oculus Rift presentation/demo are thinking 'Sex' :)
robzyb 12y ago
I think that there's opportunity in teledildonics as well. If it wasn't for it being, well, teledildonics, I'd be interested in pursuing it.
- cindygallop 12y ago
  That's precisely why you should. :) Seriously, I and my team and every other #sextech entrepreneur are working to change the public attitude. For the people ahead of the curve - OH MY GOD THE MONEY TO BE MADE :)
  - srybchin 12y ago
    I agree. Why not? It doesn't make you any less respectable or a bad person. You might be surprised as to how much you like it!
    - cindygallop 12y ago
      And on this topic - can I introduce Peiqi Su's fantastic ITP installation, the Penis Wall? :) http://itp.nyu.edu/shows/thesis2014/peiqi-su/ http://itp.nyu.edu/shows/thesis2014/peiqi-su/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJw-JUmjq0U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJw-JUmjq0U
    - robzyb 12y ago
      It doesn't make me any less respectable or a bad person in my own eyes... but other people's eyes count for a lot.
  - robzyb 12y ago
    I care about public attitude towards sex. But that's not the reason that I'd be interested in teledildonics. You hit the nail on the head with your second point - the money to be made. Just think about how much money the online pornography, and camgirl, sites pull in.
- frixionme 12y ago
  We're doing our part! www.frixion.me

garethsprice 12y ago

Cindy Gallop's "Make Love Not Porn" (http://www.makelovenotporn.com http://www.makelovenotporn.com) is trying to solve some of the issues around the rise of Internet pornography (addiction, detachment from intimacy, unrealistic/degrading portrayal of women, etc). She's approaching it from a great, sex-positive way but is having issues whenever the company touches the "regular world" - hard to get funding, taken seriously by non-adult industry people, payment processing, etc. The "problems" in Internet porn do not appear related to reducing barriers to access or better tech, but in solving issues with how people cope with sudden, instant access to a historically unprecedented amount of material. Yet again, porn is trending ahead of regular tech use, which is also starting to deal with the same issues of addiction, information overload, how to monetize premium content in the face of a vast universe of free, tech saturation causing detachment and loss of intimacy (and the controversy over whether it does any of these in the first place).

chris_overseas 12y ago
Here's another data point confirming the "regular world" issues you mention: http://recode.net/2014/10/17/its-hard-out-there-for-a-sex-toy-entrepreneur/ http://recode.net/2014/10/17/its-hard-out-there-for-a-sex-to...
- couchand 12y ago
  Rybchin said she suspects it has something to do with tech being dominated by men, who might be nervous about working with a sex-toy startup: “All these companies are run by men, and they don’t appreciate a woman’s pleasure.” I don't know whether this really is the underlying issue, but damn, it's unfortunate how plausible it is. And the reaction from Stripe to the reporter's request for comment all but confirms.
  - itengelhardt 12y ago
    IMHO the problem is not that men "don't appreciate a woman's pleasure" - that is some serious bullshit in my opinion. Most men love it when their SO enjoys sex. The problem (to me) is the criminalization of porn and prostitution in the US. Just think about what kind of outrage it would cause if Stripe had a single prostitute or porn website use their service to receive payments. (For the sake of argument assume the prostitute is located in a jurisdiction that does not prohibit the practice, IIRC it is allowed in parts of Nevada) Now Stripe gets flack for being overly cautious - there's just no way to do this without provoking a shit storm from one group.

k__ 12y ago

I don't know if they are a startup but the page of chaturbate feels linke one. Like the idea of shared cams where all people can see even if just a few pay. Also That the people on the cam can do their own thing. Most innovative idea I've seen in That sector for long.

shittyanalogy 12y ago

What are you looking for, innovative content delivery, production style, search technology, payment schemes? What problems for example? All the main video sites you go to are startups that are trying to innovate and make money. Porn is a very competitive industry. Pornhub and redtube for example are innovative startups it's just hard to amit it to ourselves because they are peddling smut.

tormeh 12y ago
Their websites are horrible, though, and the content is pretty meh.
- matijagoljar 12y ago
  Threshold of achieving minimum customer satisfaction is also very very low - for the most part you just need to show nakedness and the problem is solved :) Tough industry. Hard to break out of a niche.
  - Bud 12y ago
    I see this argument a lot. I don't think it's true at all (at least, assuming you're not talking about teenage boys). Consumers of porn are picky and choosy about porn just like they are picky about anything else they consume. Better porn beats worse porn. Nakedness is not sufficient at all. It's kinda hard to get off if you are doubled-over laughing at how lame the porn is.
    - jenmcewen 12y ago
      Agreed. With so much free porn online, everyone has be come a connoisseur. What stands out is experience, quality/niche, and convenience. I found this reddit thread on who pays for porn and why an interesting read. http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2i5cf6/redditors_that_pay_for_porn_memberships_why_nsfw/ http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/2i5cf6/redditors_...
- fidotron 12y ago

stared 12y ago

It seems that porn business pushed technology for e-payments and data storage/transfer: http://www.enterprisefeatures.com/2011/06/ten-indispensable-technologies-built-by-the-pornography-industry/ http://www.enterprisefeatures.com/2011/06/ten-indispensable-... I have no idea if now they are frontiers of innovation.

striking 12y ago

http://faploid.com http://faploid.com has been in beta a long time but it's gotten awards. Hopefully it works out soon.

kingkawn 12y ago

Porn sites are janky, unpolished, often half-broken, and prone to suddenly disappearing as quickly as they appeared. This is what innovation looks like. I think they are the definition of innovation in online content delivery of any kind. Live video streams, monetizing content, creating minor internet celebrities who can live off of their online work, confronting head-on issues of privacy and censorship. All of these things and more came far earlier in internet porn than anywhere else, and theres a good chance that whatever edge they're struggling with will be where the rest of tech finds itself shortly thereafter. It's like graffiti in the subway as a precursor to ads for HSBC. It may be grimy, but they have nothing to lose so there's a good chance what they're doing is a brilliant move.

cindygallop 12y ago
Funnily enough, while that used to be true, it's no longer the case. The tech world has advanced to the point that it's outstripped the porn industry, which is struggling for the business reasons I outline here in my open letter in Wired, 'Don't Block Porn, Disrupt It': http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/14/cindy-gallop-open-letter http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/14/cindy-gallop-... That's what makes #sextech a huge, huge opportunity - including bringing everything that innovates, does well and makes money in every other sector online - including great design. This is my co-founders, Corey Innis (CTO) and Oonie Chase (UX Lead) talking to BusinessInsider about how you design and build a sex site that isn't a porn site: http://www.businessinsider.com/designing-make-love-not-porn-2013-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/designing-make-love-not-porn-...
- kingkawn 12y ago
  I think it is still the case. The production of porn is democratizing and becoming a smaller and smaller economic blip as its production dissipates, so I agree that the economic model is hurting. I also think its serving a valuable social function which is exposing our expectations and fantasies of sex as the ludicrous oddities that they are, despite our protestations that we are mature and civilized.
  - 12y ago

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durkie 12y ago

We're in the process of launching our first product at Comingle(http://www.comingle.io http://www.comingle.io), making Arduino-based, open source and hackable sex toys. We're making a sex toy platform (our library is named OSSex of course) so that it won't matter if your sex toy is made by guys. You can reprogram it to your liking, attach sensors that respond to your feedback or even build your own. It is super hard to find a payment processor, but I imagine that their hands are tied by the card networks. I bet Stripe would love to support adult payments if they could: lots of adult specific processors charge like 14%. Seems like that'd be some nice action to be a part of, even if only in the adult industries that are lower risk (the adult industry is huge and there's no way some dildo shop is as high risk as a cam site, even though every one treats them the same.)

cindygallop 12y ago
Yes, Stripe would love to. It's their bank that refuses. Patrick Collison really went to bat for us but couldn't win.:( Ben Milne of Dwolla supports adult ventures, and we work with them, but unfortunately as a startup themselves they only operate in the US currently - we're global and need global solutions.
srybchin 12y ago
WOW! Looks very interesting! We are not denying that it's the banks that are the problem. Last I checked, the money that my company generates is as green as the money as an non-adult company makes. It's just a shame that banks and companies that work with those banks, like Stripe, are making blanket statements that all adult related businesses are risk.

detcader 12y ago

Is porn really "taboo"? Or is the idea merely useful for justifying the state of the industry? What is OP's response to Robert Jensen [1], Germaine Greer [2], Corina Taylor [3], Clara Bennathan [4], Meghan Murphy [5], and Gail Dines [6] [7]? [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbxBJf9UtWg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbxBJf9UtWg [2] http://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/24/society http://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/24/society [3] https://www.thepinkcross.org/pinkcross-articles/october-2011/ex-porn-star-corina-taylor-story https://www.thepinkcross.org/pinkcross-articles/october-2011... [4] http://www.bad-housekeeping.com/2014/01/08/violence-teenagers-and-gonzo-porn/ http://www.bad-housekeeping.com/2014/01/08/violence-teenager... [5] http://feministcurrent.com/9087/meghan-murphy-on-elliot-rodger-misogyny-and-porn-culture/ http://feministcurrent.com/9087/meghan-murphy-on-elliot-rodg... [6] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/05/conversation-gail-dines-anna-arrowsmith http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/05/convers... [7] http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/pornographyisaleftissue.htm http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/pornographyisale...

icebraining 12y ago
I don't think you know what "taboo" means. It doesn't mean it's not harmful.
- hawkice 12y ago
  Wiki says: "A taboo is a vehement prohibition of an action based on the belief that such behavior is either too sacred or too accursed for ordinary individuals to undertake, under threat of supernatural punishment." This clearly does not describe pornography, not even the Pope thinks this.
  - jeffreyrogers 12y ago
    I'm not sure if you're a native English speaker or not, but the meaning of taboo extends farther than this. A simple definition would be something like "something prohibited to do/mention in respectable company"

resca79 12y ago

I have not the competences to do something like that but in my opinion this is original hacking. In a small town of Sicily (near where I live) some guys are making incredible stuff with retro - computing. They have restore hold computers like PDP11, apple one with all original components. http://museo.freaknet.org/en http://museo.freaknet.org/en

deleted 12y ago
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resca79 12y ago
Sorry for this comment, I wanted comment another article( iphone issue)

unoti 12y ago

I'd love to make XXX videogames. There aren't many serious players in that space, and I'd love to go after it. I can't do it alone, though, I need artists and a couple other capabilities besides software development. When I pitch the idea to people I'd like to work with on this, they don't want to participate in that space. So yes, there's definitely a stigma for a lot of people. I've done a good amount of sex things in different venues ranging from phone sex systems to phone dating systems to sex robots in Second Life, so I've long ago lost my aversion to such things. But it surprised me how many people seem to be scared of participating in the industry. It's easier to make high quality content now than ever before, and it's only going to get better from here.

cindygallop 12y ago
Would love you to do that. Huge opportunity. Email cindy@makelovenotporn.com.
jenmcewen 12y ago
I'm the co-founder of MiKandi, the adult app store. Adult games are a top search term in our store. If you're making adult Android or HTML5 games, I'd love to get in touch. We just made our first game, Fap Ninja. It was challenging but so much fun to make! If you're looking for artists, I recommend looking on deviantart, hentai foundry, furrafinity, and pixiv.

sysk 12y ago

For your reference, http://www.gfy.com http://www.gfy.com is the "HN" of the adult industry.

hackerboos 12y ago
More of a board for adult affiliates.

frankydp 12y ago

The guys I know in the industry are mostly on the bleeding edge of stream tech both hardware and software. The sheer size of the industry in proportion to the entire internet means that some giant portion of all IT in the world work in the space. The guys I know all communicate in private communities though, and not for the taboo reason but because the industry is overtly hostile and aggressive towards competitors. There are only 3-4 big players and they play dirty(no pun). They own the pay sites and free sites. They leak their competitors product on their own free site and pair it with upsale ads to their own sites. It is very dog eat dog and hard to innovate in because of the players not the taboo.

JetSpiegel 12y ago
I think it's also about the taboo. You can't go to the police and say "Some site is stealing my porn!" without getting laughed at.
- frankydp 12y ago
  I agree that the taboo exist. But I would suggest that the AE industry is one of the most aggressive litigators in entertainment, I don't think they are afraid to use the courts.

sklogic 12y ago

http://www.kamaxcitra.com/ http://www.kamaxcitra.com/

frequentflyeru 12y ago

It just surprises me that mainstream brands haven't embraced advertising on porn sites. There is no reason why there couldn't be a Hulu style high end porn site with real ads from like Budweiser, Old Spice, Mountain Dew, Red Bull, Comedy Central. There might be backlash for the first company to advertise but after that I can't imagine people would care.

cindygallop 12y ago
Porn sites have tried, but it's really tough. We want to help break down the social barriers that prevent that. However, here is one mainstream brand who wholeheartedly embraced that and wrote up the BEST.ADVERTISING.EFFECTIVENESS.CASESTUDY.EVER. This is Eat24's hilarious report on 'How To Advertise On A Porn Site': http://blog.eat24hours.com/how-to-advertise-on-a-porn-website/ http://blog.eat24hours.com/how-to-advertise-on-a-porn-websit... and here's what we plan at MakeLoveNotPorn as our version of advertising - Forget Sex In Advertising, How About Advertising In #realworldsex? http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/2013/09/25/forget-sex-in-advertising-how-about-advertising-in-realworldsex/ http://talkabout.makelovenotporn.tv/2013/09/25/forget-sex-in...

MrJagil 12y ago

http://www.pornmd.com/ http://www.pornmd.com/ is a very interesting site. For one, it scrapes all the top sites. For another, you can see what people search for in which region. I.e. I am in Denmark and danish people apparently wants to see danish porn. I wasn't aware of that. For a third, they have a live-search which is quite interesting. (and amusingly, read aloud by porn actors here: http://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=1025156889 http://www.pornhub.com/view_video.php?viewkey=1025156889) For a fourth, they also have a chrome extension, which if nothing else is curious as the adult industry has so far shied away from apps and such (I believe because of regulations). Another interesting take is http://www.porniq.com http://www.porniq.com The site speaks for itself.

brettz 12y ago
Those are Pornhub/Mindgeek projects. We are hiring if anyone is interested.

testhater 12y ago

nope. everything is terrible.

cindygallop 12y ago
Not quite :) Sex Tech Is Untapped: These 11 Players Are Trying To Change That http://blog.referralcandy.com/2014/06/03/sex-tech-is-untapped-these-11-players-are-trying-to-change-that/ http://blog.referralcandy.com/2014/06/03/sex-tech-is-untappe...

snug 12y ago

My girlfriends company, https://zivity.com https://zivity.com is testing out some waters on a few things. Zivity has been around for awhile, where you pay for votes and you vote on your favorite sets, and pays out pretty well to their artist. Right now they are testing a sexy crowdfunding site, where you vote for which theme you want to win. Live Preview/Beta (https://fund.okidokiokami.com/ https://fund.okidokiokami.com/)

throw_away4778 12y ago

Not really a start-up but a Django one-weekend project: "isexdb is the biggest global directory of adult entertainment locations worldwide" http://www.isexdb.com/ http://www.isexdb.com/ Programming mostly done by my buddy.

cassgames 12y ago

My problem with modern porn as an industry is the low production values. Even big (ish) budget movies suffer from bad acting and ridiculous plots. Adult games only exist as a hobbyist past-time--they are few and far between and you have to be really "hard core" to be able to enjoy them. So, I'm trying to solve the problem by creating adult games that have realistic plots. My goal is to try and create a niche and prove that adult games can be a profitable business, so that big players take interest and we see some major adult titles that are rated "A" not because of the gore and violence in them, but for the erotica/porn content. Since I'm only one person, I have to start small, with sub-genres where it is possible for one person to make something worthwhile in a reasonable amount of time--currently it's illustrated interactive fiction. So far I've released one game that is more of a demo than a full featured game. I'm currently working on my second game which is much bigger.

sumedh 12y ago
> Even big (ish) budget movies suffer from bad acting and ridiculous plots. Probably because most of the audience does not care about acting or the story. So before you invest your time and money make sure the users actually want good acting and a story in porn.
- cassgames 12y ago
  I don't know of any other way of making sure other than putting out a pilot release and seeing how it does. So far the stats look pretty good: lots of people have played my pilot game and liked it. I've received a handful of donations, and since donations rarely work in general, I think there's an opportunity worth exploring.

brettz 12y ago

We do pretty innovative and fun things at Pornhub. We're hiring too if you're interested.

deleted 12y ago
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parados 12y ago
I'm curious, assuming you are hiring tech staff, do you find any difference in the quantity or quality of applicants compared to other, non adult, tech companies?
- brettz 12y ago
  Quantity and quality is the same. We are in Montreal though so there is not as much talent as other cities.

manny5d 12y ago

There was a talk at SXSW this year that was called the "Relieving Frustration The UX of Porn" that showed insights on how the Porn industry was innovating in UX design and showed how mainstream sites were following in its footsteps it was a good talk. http://www.slideshare.net/SteveJohnson35/relieving-frustration-poir http://www.slideshare.net/SteveJohnson35/relieving-frustrati...

cindygallop 12y ago

I'm delighted you ask that question! I can tell you that there are plenty of us, but that as #sextech entrepreneurs we fight a battle every day to build our startups. Every piece of business infrastructure any other startup can at least take for granted, we can't, because the small print always says 'No adult content'. This is me and other #sextech founders interviewed about this by Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/3029634/bottom-line/the-difficulties-of-running-a-sex-inspired-startup http://www.fastcompany.com/3029634/bottom-line/the-difficult... and the Daily Beast: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/29/silicon-valley-s-soft-sex-ban.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/29/silicon-val... Silicon Valley welcomes innovation and disruption in every other area of our lives except this one - which is why I gave this short talk at New York Tech Meetup back in Feb on why the Next Big Thing in tech is disrupting sex, and intro-ed Colin Hodge of Down and Dema Tio of Vibease to demo their products (go to sex+tech in player): http://mlb.mlb.com/media/player/entry.jsp?calendar_event_id=14-402301-2014-02-05&source=NYTM http://mlb.mlb.com/media/player/entry.jsp?calendar_event_id=... and why I organized a 'Changing The World Through Sex' track at Social Media Week New York also in Feb: http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/events/?id=139287#.UqhnJPRDuAh http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/events/?id=139287#.UqhnJP... You can get a sense of the various #sextech startups who demo-ed in 'Sex Tech Shark Tank' here :) http://seen.co/event/social-media-week:-sextech-new-york-city-2014-6240 http://seen.co/event/social-media-week:-sextech-new-york-cit... We welcome as many people as possible to join us in disrupting sex and porn - for anyone interested, this is my talk on 'The Future Of Porn' at SXSW last year: http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/news/2013/cindy-gallop-celebrates-real-life-sexuality-sxsw http://www.sxsw.com/interactive/news/2013/cindy-gallop-celeb... and I spell out the business opportunity in my open letter to David Cameron and Silicon Valley published by Wired last year - 'Don't Block Porn, Disrupt It': http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/14/cindy-gallop-open-letter http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/14/cindy-gallop-... One day I want to start the YCombinator for porn - who's in? :) http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/15/makelovenotporn-founder-wants-to-make-the-y-combinator-for-porn/ http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/15/makelovenotporn-founder-wa...

rblion 12y ago
Thank you so much for all the information you've provided Cindy, I was not expecting this much of a response. I basically got nothing on Reddit. I'm going to study everything in this thread and use it for my startup. I have some ideas of how human sexuality can be explored through using technology without losing our humanity. Hopefully, we can all change the perception of porn and the dynamics of the industry. I will post again in due time. :)

cindygallop 12y ago

And to answer your question even more specifically - here's a list of founders and ventures doing innovative things in this space: Kit Maloney, Oactually http://oactually.com/ http://oactually.com/ Cyan Banister, Zivity https://www.zivity.com/ https://www.zivity.com/ Tina Gong, HappyPlaytime http://happyplaytime.com/ http://happyplaytime.com/ Sarah Jayne Kinney, UnboundBox https://unboundbox.com/ https://unboundbox.com/ Dema Tio & Hermione Way, Vibease http://www.vibease.com/ http://www.vibease.com/ Danny Wax & Tyler Elick, Spreadsheets http://spreadsheetsapp.com/ http://spreadsheetsapp.com/ Akbar Dhanaliwala, MinnaLife http://www.minnalife.com/ http://www.minnalife.com/ Kathleen Funk & Alan Harris, XSync http://xsync.com/ http://xsync.com/ Colin Hodge, Down https://www.downapp.com/ https://www.downapp.com/ Ben Tao, Offbeatr http://offbeatr.com/ http://offbeatr.com/ Kaitlin Prest & Mitra Kaboli, AudioSmut http://audiosmut.ca/ http://audiosmut.ca/ Roger McNulty, Gasm.org http://gasm.org/ http://gasm.org/ Joe Nelson, TheyFit http://www.theyfit.co.uk/ http://www.theyfit.co.uk/ Meika Hollender, Sustain http://sustaincondoms.com/ http://sustaincondoms.com/ Sherif Maktabi, Glance http://www.glanceapp.info/ http://www.glanceapp.info/ Cassie Robinson http://www.cassierobinson.net/ http://www.cassierobinson.net/ Kathy Harris, Slixa https://www.slixa.com/ https://www.slixa.com/ Christian Thorn, Pinsex http://www.pinsex.com/ http://www.pinsex.com/

xSync_alan 12y ago
Hi. Alan with xSync here. We're a sex-positive sextech startup that synchronizes vibrators to adult videos. Our web service is built on some very innovative technology. What Cindy said about how difficult it is for an adult startup is absolutely true. We're launching our pilot soon, but this technology would've reached market much more quickly if we were mainstream. We typically can't talk as openly about our ideas. Some adult startup founders run into trouble with family and friends. VC is also incredibly challenging because they nobody wants to be known as "the adult VC" in a financial world that patently discriminates against anything labeled adult. At xSync we don't produce our own content or our own vibrators. Our website is completely clean, but because we have links to the videos on 3rd party adult sites where users can experience xSync, PayPal or your typical payment processors aren't willing to let us use their services. We definitely encourage you to follow all of the innovative companies in this space, just know that, for the time, our products will take a little longer to reach market than you might expect.

vextape 12y ago

I'm someone making porn but trying my hardest to fund it without making it a business. It became important to create a model that wasn't reliant on profit. I try to treat it as a co-op. Often it feels like the issue with the industry is that it's so uncertain financially that it's too scared to make content for anyone other than the assumed stereotype porn consumer (straight dudes mainly) so there's over saturation of very similar, repetative content which breeds a strange, one-upmanship quest for never ending novelty. The ease of access to consistently good and cheaper video equipment (dslrs that support video etc) mean that the people making the most interesting work exist outside of the industry, uploading onto tumblr or sites like clips4sale. Basically they're Etsy of porn, allowing independence from selling the rights to your work to big companies. They take a bit of searching but they're like gold dust when you find them. our work is: http://afourchamberedheart.com http://afourchamberedheart.com http://fourchambers.tumblr.com http://fourchambers.tumblr.com

throwawaycx 12y ago

One thing I thought about was to have a reverse porn search(by using an image) See that reddit has an /r/tipofmypenis , where people are seeking the porn they once saw, or they have a picture of it. It would be quite powerful if it work with publishers and has face recognition ability, so when people upload a screenshot, they can be directed to the porn video over at the publishers. Also, it is strange how one cannot search by body type by specify a 3D model of the body... we can only use descriptive terms.

pygeek 12y ago

Glad someone asked, its just the thing we need to innovate!

cindygallop 12y ago
Exactly. The Next Big Thing in tech is disrupting sex. :) #sextech

SilviaSerra 12y ago

I think Erika Lust's Xconfessions.com is one of the better approaches to rethinking pornography I've seen so far. Using the public’s own sex confessions, published on the site anonymously every day, Erika has established by far the most sophisticated and innovative crowdsourced erotic cinema ever seen. Each month, she picks two of the best submissions and turns them into beautiful, original and edgy adult short films.

jenmcewen 12y ago

Oh man, you've just opened the floodgates. I just love to geek out on this topic. :) I've been in the adult industry for almost a decade- both in "hardware" (sex toys) and software (mobile app store, video streaming). What sort of innovations are you looking for? Content, social, tech? A sex toy company I find innovative is Revel Body. Most vibrators use a rotary motor that spins an off-kilter weight to create the vibration. Revel Body developed their own patented linear motor that uses magnetic fields of alternating polarity to slide a weight back and forth in a linear motion. It's super quiet, more powerful and last longer than the older motors. They also designed their own chip to give the user precise control of the frequency and speed. I would have loved to have used RB's motor in the toys I designed. Lovepalz has the Zeus and Hera toys that couple hardware with software for long distance partners. Minna toys have pressure sensitive control panels. The folks at Utherverse created an immersive adults-only virtual world. I believe they launched a major overhaul to their platform last month. They've also built a VR compatible platform specifically for the Oculus Rift universe. In terms of VR porn, Utherverse is at the forefront. For software, I think we tend to look at consumer-facing sites and products, but there's a wealth of tech innovation happening behind the scenes. SendFaster, while not an adult company (but a tech co that powers a number of adult sites, mine included) has amazing TCP acceleration and image compression software. While not a startup, Streamates developed their own live streaming technology that's used by millions of visitors daily. Speaking of my company, I co-founded the MiKandi Adult App Store. We launched almost 5 years ago as the first adults only app store, before Android really hit it big. Being early adopters of Android and one of the few third party Android app stores at the time, we really dove head first into it. Under our belt today, we've got app distribution, mobile video streaming, in-app billing, notifications, DRM and content management, and soon-to-launch an ebook reader, mobile game creator, and comic reader and creator. We've tried to push other tech forward but are usually shot down soon after launching them- our Google Glass adult app, Tits & Glass, and our third party Chrome app store, MiKandi Mint. As far as the problem we're trying to solve, it's less about a problem in the adult industry as much as it's a problem in the mainstream tech and banking industries, which is being discussed a lot here. I wrote about the hostile business world here: http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/sextech-startups-in-a-hostile-business-world http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/sextech-startups-in-a-hos...

dematio 12y ago

The adult industry isn't lack of innovation, it has pushed the wide implementations of VHS, Online payment, Virtual Reality, teledildonic, etc. The much needed disruption is how to bring positive impacts to the mainstream market by using sex technologies, without leaving the sex element. How to use sex technologies to help couples to stay intimate, increase safe sex awareness, help individuals to understand his/her sexuality, sexual wellness, help men to understand female orgasm (no, it's not about bigger dick), etc. In the recent years, we started to see sex-positive startups stepped up to this challenge. From MakeLoveNotPorn, Jimmy Jane, Crave, RevelBody, HappyPlaytime, PerfectFit, DOWN (Bang With Friends) and many more. I'm the co-founder of www.vibease.com, the world's first wearable smart vibrator. I created Vibease because I was in a long distance relationship and I couldn't find any solutions that was easy to use and not invasive. Eventually we 'pivoted' to create immersive pleasure experience for women using audio erotica. Cindy Gallop from www.makelovenotporn.com has been a great advocate to disrupt the old adult industry. She successfully brings the hard topic, porn to be discussed in the society. She takes the good parts of porn and leaves the bad ones behind, to encourage a healthy discussion about sex. The challenge is that these startups always being treated like the old shady sex business, especially from the mainstream and holy (aka. hypocrite) institutions. The best way to overcome this problem is to pitch it boldly and hide nothing.

benjora 12y ago

Hey! We have a company called http://Enjora.com http://Enjora.com, which tries to give a whole new way of watching porn, and separate itself from the malicious and low-end porn tube sites by giving credit not just the actors and producers, but provide the users full-length adult movies. Enjora.com is a streaming service, like Netflix, where you can watch high quality porn videos from multiple productions companies for a low monthly fee. Although we are still in the development process, we already contacted a lot of producers, who realised that its win-win-win situation because the users get their movies in HD, without annoying ads, on a well designed easy to use website. You can follow channels, porn-stars, and multiple fetishes. Apart of the search engine, we are planning integrated payment methods like mobile, crypto-currencies, and Paypal which makes easier - and more trustable - to pay for our service.

RevelBody 12y ago

Great stream of comments, I figured I would weigh in with our experience. I founded Revel Body (www.revelbody.com) with the goal of using our new vibration motors to build better vibrators. We have been working on increasing the sensation and versatility of our products (more power and a broader range of vibrations than existing products) and removing the drawbacks of noise, reliability, numbness, etc. Right now we build and sell the most powerful, quiet and reliable battery-powered vibrator on the market. It is strong enough for muscle massage and can do things like create underwater suction and vibration (using the backside). Unlike a lot of brands in the 'sex toy' world, our branding and design aesthetic are purposely designed to be clean, healthy and accessible. We focus on health and wellness as a way to enable consumers to buy and try our product. We want to remove barriers from people trying our products. We believe that the industry could double in size if people we not embarrassed to buy these products, so we are focusing on enabling that. We need to remove stigma, give people permission, etc. Focusing on the many almost endless medical benefits of regular orgasm is our focus right now. These products are about as intimate a product as anyone can use, but they tend to be called 'sex toys'. This does not do justice to some of the better products our there, but probably is good for cheaper/mass market items. Toys are cheap and do not do anything important, and these are not just for sex in the traditional sense. Some brands are starting to use 'pleasure product', but we are looking for a new name for a high quality category of products like we build. Personal Appliance is too bulky. I would love if someone could put together a new for this category of product which really captures what these products can do. We launched on Indiegogo, because the biggest crowd funding site would not allow 'sexual' related products. We blew past our goals nicely, but do not think kickstarter will come around and allow other sexual related products. Unlike other sexual products, we have had good success at raising equity capital. We have done three small rounds which closed very fast and we ended up leaving many investors on the outside. I think our experience was different because we had a technology disruption story that made sense as well as being able to point out the many ways in which the industry is mainstreaming and growing rapidly. These points create a path for a company that can disrupt and industry as well as lead the charge to make it mainstream, which will lead to a great exit when a big consumer product is looking to enter this industry (they will want the best brand and technology). Other companies like Crave (raised $2.4M to angels), and Pipedream and Peekay show that mainstream PE money is entering this space. There are ways to position companies for investment if you understand how investors view these kinds of investments; they are looking for an exit based return and to be part of something cool. Think of what kind of company would be bought (build versus buy decision). On being part of a cool startup, I think it is difficult to imagine better cocktail party talk than being part of a disruptive vibrator company. Companies in this space will probably do better with angel investors than with VCs, many VCs are funded by institutional funds which limit investment into 'morally questionable' activities (think fun stuff like sex, drugs, tobacco, rock and roll). Like other sexual start-ups, we have had a lot of issues with other companies not wanting to do business with us because our sexual nature or association/proximity to porn start-ups. This includes banks, merchant accounts, advertisers (Facebook included), retargeting ads, etc. It is ridiculous but if you plan for it, you can work around it. Lots of interesting things going on here...

Faploid 12y ago

Hi guys, great discussion! @Striking, thanks for mentioning our company Faploid! Due to the overkill of free porn online these days, piracy and the overkill of scam websites, we decide to create http://www.faploid.com http://www.faploid.com. Faploid hasn’t officially launched, but has already build an active audience, is socially accepted and actively mentioned and promoted by various mainstream media outlets. Faploid’s users are as diverse as the content we serve. They are socially engaged, digitally equipped and searching for safe and quality adult content in an user friendly environment. All content including movies, pictures, articles and more are based on our user's taste and interests. Faploid evaluates millions of new adult content every day and uses this information to match content to their personal interests and then delivers them automatically to their personal Faploid magazine. Our users aim high and for that reason we only work directly together with the best publishers/content owners in a variety of niches from A to Z. For them Faploid isn't only a trusted partner in brand building, but also a quality partner in sending them traffic of people who are seriously interested in their content and willing to pay for safe and quality adult content. After a long time of developing and deal making, we're in our run up to public launch. In the upcoming months, partly because of the enormous positive attention we´ve received from both (mainstream) business and consumer side, we will invite all the subscribers on our waitinglist step by step. Cheers, Team Faploid