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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?

#91

Post by vextape »

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://fourchambers.tumblr.com

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

#92

Post by kingkawn »

cindygallop wrote: post #80
kingkawn wrote: post #16

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…

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-... That's what makes #sextech a huge, huge opportunity - including bringing everything t…

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.

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

#94

Post by srybchin »

itengelhardt wrote: post #13
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.

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…

You are rare because most men don't understand the first thing about a woman's pleasure.

Regardless, as an adult retailer, we don't have anything to do with porn or prostitution. Stripe and their bank shouldn't put all adult businesses into 1 box.

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

#95

Post by srybchin »

pc wrote: post #25
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 work at Stripe. Some details in the article aren't very accurate. But, more broadly, we actually work hard to push against the rules in many cases. (Cindy Gallop, mentioned earlier in the thread, can attest to this -- we spent ages trying to figure out a way to accept payments for her startup.)

What details in the article are you referring to?

Unfortunately, we didn't have the same Stripe experience as Cindy Gallop. We were never given the chancee to explain that we are a different type of business.

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

#96

Post by throwawaycx »

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.

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

#97

Post by srybchin »

devNoise wrote: post #50
selmnoo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm, okay. Though, it's not clear to me why porn sites en masse would be classified as "High Risk"? Are you sure this is always the case? How are current popular porn sites doing this? And, now that Stripe is quite big, don't they have some leverage over the banks to be able to say they do want porn sites et al. to be able to work with Stripe?

The porn sites are classified as "high risk" because the banks believe/know that type of business has above average chargebacks. Apparently banks want to keep their chargebacks to a minimum.

It's not just porn sites that are classified as "high risk". Adult retailers are also put into that category.

We rarely get chargebacks. Maybe that's because we focus on a different kind of customer.

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

#99

Post by srybchin »

cindygallop wrote: post #90
robzyb wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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 :)

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!

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

#100

Post by cindygallop »

garethsprice wrote: post #4

Cindy Gallop's "Make Love Not Porn" ( 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 pe…

Thank you so much for referencing us! :) #realworldsex
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