Page 36 - AVN May 2015

TECH NEWS
BRAND VALUE
Pornhub tops 10 years as the tube era’s dominant force
IN THE MAGAZINE ERA OF ADULT entertainment, brand names like Playboy, Hustler and Penthouse
dominated the zeitgeist and forever changed the way humans view their own sexuality. What’s perhaps
even more important is that those brands still remain relevant in the minds of millions of people decades
further along their trajectory. That’s because they harnessed the power of their brand and reached beyond
monthly distribution numbers or balance sheet metrics with a keen eye toward carving out an indelible
place in the market.
The last decade has been the tube site era, beginning in 2006 with the launch of such sites as
PornoTube and YouPorn and followed quickly in 2007 by xHamster and Pornhub. But in the Porn 2.0
landscape, no company has managed to fuel greater brand growth than Pornhub. Now that the brand is
celebrating its tenth anniversary, AVN is taking a look back at its past and its present, with an eye also on
its future.
If you haven’t seen it before, you should definitely take a long look at the published information
Pornhub included in its recent 2016 year in review at Pornhub.com/insights/2016-year-in-review. The
site has grown so popular that its own demographic data is now seen by many as a key signal of what all
adult sites should expect in terms of niche popularities, user behavior, regional traffic trends and more.
To put things in perspective, Pornhub now has more than 70 million daily visits, which equates to over
27 billion visits per year. Those visitors can now choose from more than 5 million videos, which is a large
part of the reason the site has now attracted an active community of well over 10 million members. With
that kind of size and global impact, it’s surprising how little is known by many about the way the site
actually started.
refine and make faster and crisper. The most important
part of video streaming is ensuring the pages our users are
perusing load quickly and are serving up fast video across all
parts of the world. After all, we receive 70 million visitors
each and every day, and want to make sure that our users
keep coming … back for more.”
Take a look around the internet at the litter of failed
tubes in Pornhub’s wake and honestly assess the quality gap
among them. Did you build your own tube site on a script
like Mechbunny’s tube script and throw a few thousand low-
resolution videos up on it to cut your monthly bandwidth
bill? Did you add a few videos each day or grind user-
uploaded content to a halt due to legal concerns or ethical
dilemmas? Did you go with a cheaper hosting company
or decide to grab quick cash by annoying your users with
countless pop-ups, popunders, interstitial video player ads
and other nonsense? How about your traffic sources—were
you pushing junk through the system just to inflate your
numbers to ad buyers? Well … Pornhub didn’t do any of
that. Perhaps that’s part of the reason why fans love the
Pornhub brand (even though there were so many other full-
length-video free porn options available at that time).
IN THE NEXT SEVERAL MONTHS, WE WILL BE WORKING WITH SOME
“As for the culture here at Pornhub, quite simply, we are
constantly striving to be the best that we can be,” Price
explained. “We want to continue to solidify our reputation
PARTNERS ON INTEGRATING
as being best in class and one of the companies people look
CONTENT THAT WORKS WITH
to for cutting-edge technological offerings and innovative
campaigns. For example, we were the first tube site to
INTERACTIVE DEVICES. I CAN’T
launch virtual reality, something that made waves across
the industry recently. At the end of the day, we have an
PROVIDE TOO MANY DETAILS ON
incredibly skilled staff that is extremely passionate for the
THAT JUST YET, BUT IT WILL BE A FIRST FOR TUBE SITES.
brand and product. That’s allowed us to be where we are
now and will enable us to continue to go above and beyond
in serving our loyal fans.”
It’s no secret that in the early days of the tube era the
—COREY PRICE, PORNHUB
entire genre of sites was grown largely on the backs of
content producers. Whether videos were being genuinely
MILESTONES | By Stewart Tongue
“We aren’t sure of the exact date to be honest, but it was in May of 2007 that Pornhub went live and
changed the face of the adult entertainment industry as we know it,” said Corey Price VP of Pornhub.
“Since then, we’ve helped deliver adult entertainment to millions of fans around the world and look
forward to what the future holds.”
Some in the adult industry will be quick to point out numerous lawsuits and other actions that alleged
Pornhub was working with stolen content, or hiding behind flaws in modern DMCA laws. Others will
want to talk about the way the original site was funded, and how large acquisitions by the brand have
turned out. Whether you are for or against the way things have been done will largely depend on how
your own finances have been affected. Those who profited from the modern digital climate tend to be
huge fans of Pornhub’s success, and those who have seen their own site revenue dwindle tend to hate the
site with all their might. There are two things, however, that remain completely and universally true…
First, there is the fact that thousands of tube sites have come and gone since Pornhub started, with only
a few ever coming close to the level of financial success that Pornhub has attained. The sustained growth
of the brand wasn’t a matter of blind luck, or every other tube site would have seen similar results.
Second, and this is perhaps the most important point of the entire analysis, is the fact that Pornhub
has proven it is here to stay. When the tube era began many thought it would fall apart. Some said it
would be sued out of existence, others thought content providers would band together to block it. Many
producers believed fans would want a premium paysite experience or would demonstrate some level of
loyalty to their own products. The simple fact is, ten years later, we can all see that Pornhub tapped into
something significant and navigated all the obstacles along the way to outpace the objectors and its rivals
at many milestones along the way.
Keep in mind, this isn’t to say Pornhub is right or wrong. It’s simply to remind people of the wise
words of Winston Churchill (or was it George Orwell?): “History is written by the victors.” Over the last
ten years it’s easy to see that Pornhub has ended up on the winning side of history … regardless of who
is for or against that outcome. So rather than focusing on who was right, let’s take a look at why Pornhub
succeeded where so many other tube attempts did not.
“High-quality video streaming has always been the core component of Pornhub’s DNA,” Price
explained. “It’s what the entire platform is built on, and something we are always looking to continually
uploaded by individual fans passionate about sharing their
favorite full-length scenes from paysites or any number of
other possible dynamics, the simple fact is that content
creators got hosed. A horrifically structured DMCA law and
complete misunderstanding by legislators and regulators
about the way digital content works opened a massive hole
in intellectual property protection. A hole that could not
be closed quickly enough, and one that many companies
exploited to their benefit.
Some blame content producers who sold off their catalog
for pennies in a panic, while others look at fans with disdain
and even tried suing them for their actions. Many blame the
tubes that monetized the situation. In recent years, however,
the climate does seem to be changing quite a bit. There is no
doubt the relationship between content creators and tubes
continues to change.
“Our relationships with content providers has changed
dramatically over the years, with the biggest change
occurring with the introduction of various partnership
programs with content partners,” said Price. “We are
fortunate to work with many talented and creative content
creators through both our content partner program and
model program. We recently renamed our amateur program
to the model program to be more encompassing of all our
amazing content creators uploading their self-made content
for ad revenue and promotion to cam shows and paid clip
sites.”
Some will note that the average length of videos on major
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