Page 42 - AVN May 2015

GAYVN
CATCHING PETER FEVER
Danny Z adds pioneering site to his network
PEOPLE HAVE THESE
STEREOTYPES THAT
ASIAN MEN AREN’T
ATTRACTIVE OR HAVE
SMALLER PENISES OR
WHATEVER IT IS, AND HE WANTED TO
BREAK ALL THESE
STEREOTYPES.
AND THAT’S WHAT
REALLY INTERESTED
ME ABOUT HIM.
—DANNY Z, ZBUCKZ
INDUSTRY MOVES | By Brady Jansen
established leaders.
involved in a reduced capacity.
Z
ZBUCKZ HAS ACQUIRED PETERFEVER.COM, beefing up its diverse
portfolio of Asian-themed websites with one of the genre’s
Zbuckz owner Daniel “Danny Z” Zeeman says PeterFever
founder Peter Le handed him the keys to the site but will stay
“He’s looking to focus more on his personal training and
his fitness stuff and he wanted to not necessarily get out of
the industry but to be able to have someone that he could
give his brand to and leave it in good hands,” Zeeman told
AVN.
“He will still be involved but he didn’t want to have all
the responsibility of owning the website and having all the
employees and shooting all the content himself. He thought
our company was the best match so he just asked me if I’d be
interested in buying him out, basically.”
An 18-year veteran of the online industry whose
management company, WebMediaProz, runs several affiliate
programs such as Zbuckz and Glamourbuckz, Zeeman
lived in Asia for 10 years and speaks fluent Thai and some
Japanese. His latest acquisition is something for which he’s
always had a passion.
“It’s really a perfect match because he’s in a niche that
I’ve always been personally interested in and invested in,”
said Zeeman, who has made a career out of helping different
studios and sites grow their brands through his creative
marketing and business savvy.
PeterFever, online for the past seven years, was a pioneer in
Asian American gay content, Zeeman said.
“He’s got a really big following mostly because he tried
to break the stereotypes of Asians,” Zeeman reasoned.
“Like people have this idea that Asians are kind of feminine
or small or whatever. He’s this big, buff really masculine
Asian guy. I think in the U.S. people have these stereotypes
that Asian men aren’t attractive or have smaller penises or
whatever it is, and he wanted to break all these stereotypes.
And that’s what really interested me about him.”
Zbuckz already manages sites such as JapanBoyz and
GayAsianNetwork “but they’re more twinkish.”
“Most of the Asian porn content up until Peter was
42 | AVN.com | 5.17
filmed in Thailand or Japan, which is where I’ve
filmed before, but as far as Asian American content is
concerned I think he really pioneered it.
“And he’s the first to break that stereotype of
showing that there really are hot, muscular Asian men
and not all Asian guys are these effeminate, skinny
twinks or whatever people think of when they think
of Asian men. That’s why I’ve always been a big fan of
his since he started.
“We worked a deal where we were able to purchase
it from him and still keep him involved with the
directing. He’s not actually the main director but
we’re using the same director that he was using. His
role is as an organizer. He would organize all the
models, the location and all that kind of stuff. Sort of
being like the producer.
“So now we’re taking over that producer role and
still working with him, too.”
Zeeman said the deal came together thanks in part
to his strong working relationship with Le, whose
mainstream popularity includes a successful series
of fitness e-books. The two have done trade deals for
content for years.
“So when he came to me and said he wanted less
responsibility and to sell and I was the first person he
thought of, I was honored,” Zeeman said.
Zbuckz is in the process of revamping the
PeterFever tour, optimizing it for mobile and
modernizing the site. The new tour—much of the
content for it was shot just last weekend by Zeeman
in Los Angeles—is on track to debut in about a
month.
“We’re making it fully responsive for mobile
phones and we’re improving all the streaming
video quality,” Zeeman explained. “Because
we’ve already got a large affiliate program with
thousands of gay affiliates and a big pool of
members already that are into Asian content
that we can market to.”
Even though Le intends to not do any more
nude solo videos as he turns his focus to his
fitness career, Zeeman will be shooting him in
various personal training clips that he’ll add to
PeterFever as bonus content.
“So for example they’ll get an update where
he’s telling people how to get a better six-pack.
Or he’s flexing and showing people how to get
bigger arms.”
Zeeman said PeterFever is going to be more
selective with casting.
“We’re going to be a little more picky
but we’re going to have a very strong brand
association,” he said. “If you see a model that’s
a more muscular and masculine Asian guy you
think PeterFever. It’s kind of similar to if you
think of TitanMen you have a certain image in
mind. Like you’re thinking of a very muscular—
usually a beard, maybe a little bit hairier—older
guy. So the same kind of way Titan has branded
themselves, that’s what I want to do with
PeterFever.
“The challenge of course is it’s very difficult
to find those kinds of muscular Asian guys that
will do porn. Maybe if you approach a hundred
of them one will say yes. It’s a definite challenge
to find the guys.”
The good news is Zeeman has identified
some prospects, finding a couple newcomers
who “fit the mold” who took part in his recent
content shoot.
Zeeman, who was born in Chatsworth and
now resides in Chicago, also wants to bring
more serious storytelling to PeterFever, noting
he’ll personally write the scripts for upcoming
scenarios. He recently wrote and produced The
Hungover, which was a parody of The Hangover.
“And also focusing on the messaging. We
want to break the stereotypes of what people
think Asians are and even working that into
the scripts. We have a lot of different ideas of
different ways we can do that,” he added. “Like
an allegory where you’re actually making films
that have a message, too.”
Plans also call for making PeterFever
content available on more than one channel
of distribution, including for the first time
bringing movies to DVD.
“That’s one of the other things that excited
me about buying the website is the content
hasn’t been anywhere other than on PeterFever.
com,” Zeeman said. “It’s never been on VOD or
DVD or any other outlet so I want to definitely
start producing DVDs out of it and get it into
broadcast networks.”