Page 45 - AVN October 2015

brands, and at the same time, do we really need all of these new domains? Most
companies and most consumers will generally gravitate toward typing .com
anyway. Domain brokers often say that .net and .org get fewer type-ins. The
benefit to non-dot-coms is that they are being registered more and more because
of the domain squatters hoarding dot-coms. However, people will follow Google’s
move (and already have), causing .xyz to boost in popularity even if purely as
speculative buys.”
“I think it does matter more to Google and its shareholders than anyone else,”
mused Chad Whermarker of FriendFinder Networks, one of the only publicly
traded adult brands. “The restructuring should enable them to more effectively
manage the different silos, as well as provide more clarity on financial performance
to investors. I don’t believe this change will impact Google’s role in an advertiser’s
strategy, so I don’t see either a benefit or negative impact in the short term. If
anything, more effectively managing Google proper through increased focus (i.e.
larger companies have diversified into different areas of business. Amazon, best
known for being one of the biggest online retailers, now has also become one of
the largest cloud-based server companies in the world.
“In a memo to his staff, Google co-founder Larry Page stated his desire to get
the ‘next generation of big bets off the ground’ and warned if Google didn’t pick
up the pace it risked becoming irrelevant,” Clark added. “I think what he means
by this is technology is revolutionary, not evolutionary. The tech industry moves
at a phenomenal rate, as we have seen with our own software products. We have
had to continually add new features and redesign our systems to stay ahead of the
game and meet our markets’ demands. This move is mostly about spreading their
bets and not putting all of their eggs in one basket.”
Lastly, a number of industry people see Google’s past success as a strong reason
to give Alphabet the benefit of any doubts. “Larry Page, the CEO of Alphabet
Inc., proved his ability to brand the made-up word Google in 1997, and now he
new CEO Sundar Pichai) should benefit advertisers over time. A re-org like this
should pair better organizational efficiency with that mission and provide benefit
to those that spend money to drive demand.”
The looming specter of anti-trust actions hinted at by E.U. authorities and U.S.
preliminary investigations may also be playing a role in the self-induced spin-off
of Google from Alphabet. “Google is primarily restructuring to address both their
impressive diversification and their increasing vulnerability to antitrust suits.
Google picked ABC.xyz for the same reason most people choose a secondary
TLD—ABC.com was taken and they thought their name would sound good with
the .xyz suffix,” opined Amelia G of BlueBlood.com.
“Betting on your one core business, no matter how profitable, is risky,” said
Ben Clark, director of Webstream.co.uk, an adult company that similarly is not
branded on the .com version of its own company name. “Just ask Microsoft, which
has suffered as the internet has eaten into its Windows business. Most of the
will demonstrate the same ability for numerous diverse businesses,” said Shirley
Lara, COO of Chaturbate.com. “Alphabet Inc. owns multiple corporate identities
that vary from Google.com and Youtube.com to completely unrelated entities like
Calico Labs. Making Google part of the brand, not the brand itself, makes good
sense and likely would have been the way they would have set it all up originally if
they knew ahead of time what they now know about their company in hindsight.”
So, while many of these theories and opinions will take time to be proven right
or wrong, one thing is already certain. Having a very strong brand matters. It
matters whether you are the world’s best-known brand or a brand-new company
… and the amount of discussion taking place over this rebranding is, more than
anything else, proof that the Google brand is capable of moving markets and
making the world take notice any time they want to, even if just by shuffling
around some paperwork on their own legal department’s desk and purchasing a
two-dollar .xyz domain name.
Setting Her Site
Tanya Tate talks about her new paysite through ModelCentro
Tanya Tate has few rivals when it comes to finding
some stuff that I give away, but not too much.”
ways to interact with her fans. The British adult
Tate asked for feedback on the new site, and she got
performer and Filly Films director can often be
this from one member. Flutterbug said, “I love the
found meeting fans at events—adult expos, comic
new revamped site. It has a dominant, distinguished
conventions and cosplay events—and she’s used
but still enticing, sexy twist to it. It’s so much easier
webcams and live chat services to interact as well.
to flick back. P.S. Forgot to put that the new layout
So it’s no surprise Tate was intimately involved in
site is mobile friendly and just has easier use etc as
running her eponymous TanyaTate.com website. But
that’s how I mainly use it.”
recently she decided to get a little more help with the
Jojospud responded: “I love the new classy and
site, which is now part of the ModelCentro family.
updated design and it’s definitely more organized. It
“I have had a WordPress site, independently, for
has more user-friendly features like the ‘Favorites’
quite a few years,” Tate told AVN. “I always had
tabs and more fan interaction, which is nice. I know
issues with it, there was never anybody to help me
how much you value your fans so being able to have
and I had to hire freelance web developers to work it.
one-on-one conversations with you is really special.”
There was always trouble. Every time you try to do an
Tate likes the convenience of AdultCentro’s
update on software—it breaks.
interface: “When I ran the site, I had to go to four
“I didn’t find anybody who would make the kind of
places to update it. Now I jut literally click the
site that I wanted,” Tate said. And then she met the
button, I upload the video, I upload the images, I just
owner of ModelCentro. “He came to me and he said,
write something and I can upload the content. It’s
‘We’ve seen your site, and we’d really like to help you
very simple for the backend user.”
make it better, move it to our huge content platform.’
“It was expensive to hire developers all the time to
Over some time we talked about my requirements
fix things,” Tate said. “Before, it felt like a constant
and they talked about things they could offer me to
struggle. There was always something wrong with the
meet my requirements. It was amazing, really.”
site. Occasionally it would go down. Now if there’s
Tate worked with ModelCentro to craft the look
a problem, they can troubleshoot for me. I email
of the site. “They sent me questionnaires so they
them and they get back to me. They give me a lot of
could find out exactly how I wanted it to be. I wanted
support and I’m happy with how the site is going.”
a high-end feel to it, classy, something that would
Tate’s site is live at TanyaTate.com. For more on
appeal to my fans. I wanted to give my fans an
ModelCentro, email sales@modelcentro.com.
amazing experience.”
—Tod Hunter
The new site is built to appeal to Tate’s entire fan
base. “The last site was pink-y and girly. I wanted it
to be more appealing to guys as well. If you’ve got a
pink website and someone walks in, they can catch
the pink in your eyes. This design is more clean, and
it’s more fresh, and it still says ‘U.K.’”
The introductory page has links to a diary and
list of upcoming personal appearances, a site tour, a
calendar, a blog, and a selection of photographs and
trailers: “Some of the trailers are long, and some are
tease trailers. You’ve got to poke around. There’s
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