Page 40 - AVN June 2015

TECH NEWS
COMPANY PROFILE | STOP, THIEF | |By Nate Glass
| By Tom Hymes
Different Strokes
Gay, bi or straight, men share one love … for themselves
slim even a few years back. I had heard of solosexuals, but I didn’t know the sort of devotion that some
solosexuals can really have toward the practice. And I had started to hear about gooning and edging through
the Yahoo! groups and my brief time spent on BateNation before it closed down.
But since we started BateWorld I’ve learned so much more about the scope of masturbation in men’s lives.
It’s not just a matter of people having different fetishes or whatever. I’ve seen the evidence of how important
sexuality is to our sense of identity and our focus toward the world around us.
The sub-genres of masturbation represent an evolutionary drive that’s unique to every individual. What
turns us on is never the same for any two people. The idea that we fit into neat little boxes is a myth.
How would you define your online community now, and what is your most effective pitch as far as attracting new members?
BateWorld is a world-wide online community of very welcoming men. It’s an affirming site full of guys who
love to masturbate alone or with others. The wonderful thing for me about BateWorld is that our members
are so encouraging and positive about masturbation, and there’s very little of the negativity you find on other
sites. Men of all races, types, ages and orientations gather together on BateWorld and work together to get
each other off. It’s amazing.
Peter and I see our role as serving a community that defines itself. We try to intrude as little as possible in
the user-generated content of BateWorld. All men are welcome to join in with us, because masturbation is
healthy and fun. It’s a vital part of your life as a man.
Why live in shame and resentment of your cock when you can embrace your sexuality and love what your
cock can do for you? There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, it can be very healthy. Adding others into the
mix creates bonds and deep experiences between men, free of shame and full of camaraderie.
If there’s one thing that gay, bisexual and straight men
share in common, it’s the ability to spend quality time
with their first true love—themselves. BateWorld.com is
Does it vary depending on the sub-genre you want to attract?
devoted to the art of self-love, with its stated mission to
BateWorld is open to all men who want to share in all the varieties of masturbatory pleasure. We don’t set
“promote and encourage men’s masturbation as a fun,
many limits on the subject matter, but we do have strict rules about some subjects to safeguard the site and
healthy and vital part of life.”
our members. But there are all kinds of ways and reasons that men masturbate, and we have thousands of
Members interact with one another through instant
groups and polls devoted to exploring those varieties.
messages and chat rooms, share videos, and enjoy
other user-generated content. Members post photos
and videos and post comments to share their personal
experiences as well as fantasies.
when you can embrace your sexuality and
Launched in September of 2009, the site has more
than 70,000 active members. Recently AVN talked with
David, the site’s co-founder and creative director, to find
”Why live in shame and resentment of your cock
love what your cock can do for you?
—David, BateWorld.com creative director
out more about what makes BateWorld go ’round.
How important is word-of-mouth from existing members in that regard?
The most obvious question is, how did the idea first pop into
your heads, or head?
I met my business partner Peter in 2009 through a
website called BateNation. We hooked up to masturbate
together, and he and I became really good friends. When
BateNation closed down shortly after we met, Peter had
the idea to start our own site. He had done the research
and when he presented it to me, I was impressed. It
sounded like a really fun project. He would take care of
the business and I would design the graphics.
There wasn’t a lot of decision put into it, at least
on my part. I only ever imagined it as a small site,
though—not the giant amusement park complex it’s
become. At that time I didn’t realize just how many
masturbators there are in the world, so I seriously
underestimated the demand!
Word-of-mouth was integral to our first three years online. During that time, we barely advertised at all,
so most every one of our new members had heard about it from someone else. I’m used to it now, but in
the beginning I had no idea there were so many masturbators out there, all connected like Six Degrees of
Separation.
It was fascinating for me to observe the effects of word-of-mouth in action. I never would have believed
so many men were interested in masturbating together, all connected to each other. I just kept thinking that
there would eventually be some kind of plateau in the slow-but-steady rise of our membership numbers, but
it’s never happened.
Now we have a steady stream of new advertising going out, as well as the demands of all the other social
media barnacles like Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube that help promote our little project.
When you launched it in 2009, did you have any idea that
there existed such a diversity of sub-genres of the art of male
masturbation?
Although I’ve always been a really active masturbator,
the possibilities for meeting others like me were very
Your price point of $60/year seems reasonable and designed to keep people around. How is member retention?
We charge as little as we can. Our purpose is not to get rich off of other people masturbating, our intent is
to provide as much to as many as possible. Peter and I both want to make the premium features as cheap as
possible so a maximum number of men can participate.
There are still a ton of options for free, and we have three-month Helping Hand memberships for those who
can’t afford it. Our success is the result of community support, and we’re really grateful that men love the site
enough to keep us keepin’ on online.
In our five years online, we’ve surpassed well over 100,000 signups and currently have an estimated 30,000
active members. During peak hours every day there are usually between 300 and 500 members, and those
numbers continue to increase as well. The majority of profits we make get put right back into developing
BateWorld and our other sites, because this is a labor of love for us. (continued on page 98)
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