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

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

#51

Post by cassgames »

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.

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

#52

Post by hawkice »

icebraining wrote: post #46
_bfhp wrote: post #26

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 [2] http://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/sep/24/society [3] https://www.thepinkcross.org/pinkcross-articles/october-2011... [4] h…

I don't think you know what "taboo" means. It doesn't mean it's not harmful.

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.

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

#54

Post by brettz »

MrJagil wrote: post #43

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=102515…

Those are Pornhub/Mindgeek projects. We are hiring if anyone is interested.

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

#56

Post by bilbo0s »

couchand wrote: post #9
chris_overseas wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-to...

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.

She's trying to fix the wrong problem.

The men in charge of those businesses don't care what you sell. They only care not to get in trouble with the businesses they work with up the line. She should make her business acceptable to the banks... and I guarantee the tech companies will be HAPPY to take her money.

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

#57

Post by JohnBooty »

sudokent wrote: post #22
itengelhardt wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 p…

As someone who is trying to a create a new, unique, non-janky, adult website I have learned a lot in the last 10 months. And I have never worked in this industry so it has been a serious learning experience. The biggest issue for me has been the banks. My assumption is that Stripe and other players would be "ok" accepting payments from "High Risk" merchants. But they cannot, their partner bank will not allow it. I la…

I know you've probably learned this already from your experience, but for other readers:

The (possibly) surprising thing here is that banks aren't moralizing here. You can walk into any adult bookstore and pay with a regular old credit card just fine, thank you. Visa and Mastercard are not averse to allowing you to pay for porn.

The reason why banks and credit card companies don't want to be involved with online porn because there's an incredibly high rate of chargebacks. People pay with stolen cards, and people pay with their own cards and then claim that they were "hacked" when their wife wonders why there's porn on their credit card bill.

All of this creates a certain amount of work for them, and it's unprofitable.

So in a sad way, the banks' distaste for dealing with online porn payments is a just sad reflection of our society's attitudes about porn. If we weren't a bunch of weirdos who caused a lot of chargebacks and, instead, paid for porn like actual grownups... banks would have no problem servicing this industry.

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

#58

Post by JetSpiegel »

rcfox wrote: post #41
itengelhardt wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 p…

> The problem (to me) is the criminalization of porn and prostitution in the US. Porn is illegal in the US?

IANAL(hehehe), but prostitution is illegal, but if you film it and sell it for profit than it's legal.

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

#59

Post by ufmace »

tormeh wrote: post #15
couchand wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think men are just wary of being seen as creeps. At a recent job search lecture at my uni we were told to never have a picture on your CV, with this as example of how it goes wrong: "Let's say you're a beautiful woman and you send a company your CV with pic on it. Now, the reviewer of your CV is male and if he asks you in for an interview the other employees at the company might suggest he did it because of the way…

Especially so with something as big and public as backing or working with a sex toy company. No matter what way you go with it, somebody's going to try to jump down your throat. Often several different groups, for contradictory reasons. Is it any wonder that most men, and anybody whose job involves making sure your company isn't the target of a negative media frenzy, doesn't want to touch this stuff with a 10-foot pole?

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

#60

Post by jeffreyrogers »

hawkice wrote: post #52
icebraining wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you know what "taboo" means. It doesn't mean it's not harmful.

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.

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"
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