Porn online is currently (as I write in early 2016) going through a revolution. It's been happening for the last few years and will happen for at least the next few years.
Between 2008 and 2011, "tube sites" (eg, porn tube , and many other similar sites, based off the youtube model) made their sites, populated them with stolen video content from pay sites, and encouraged users to upload their "own" content - stuff the users had downloaded from paysites (by paying, or stealing it).
These sites exploded - they got so many users searching for free porn, and people shared the site names amongst friends socially (verbally, certainly, but also on social media). Around the same time, the Global Financial Crises was in effect, so people had less to spend on entertainment, so free porn that was just as good as the stuff they had been paying for, was irresistible.
The tube sites had enormous hosting bills to pay but sold ads on their site that more than covered the expenses. Ads for "herbals" (penis enlargement), gambling, webcam feeds were most often seen. It was a profitable business, to have a tube site. They owned the traffic and were in the top 30 most trafficked sites online.
Then, the pay sites whose content had been stolen and was now being given away for free took notice (slower than they should have) and pressured the Tube sites to remove content they did not have the right to use.
Because the industry has always been fragmented (that is, lots of small players, owner-operators), it was impossible for there to be a consensus - should we get together and sue the tube sites? Should we start our own tube sites? Everyone was in it for themselves, and could not agree on how to work with Tube sites.
Tube sites said, "Gosh, sorry, we did not realize this was stolen!" (ie, bullshit), "how about we let you place an ad above it for free for your site, and you let us keep the video?". Some pay site operators were okay with this, got 5,000 clicks and a few joins each day. Other pay site operators arranged for the Tube sites to become affiliates: Tube sites get 50% of each sale made from clicking on the ad, so long as there were prominent ads around the video for the pay site. Other pay site operators requested all their content be removed, and the tube sites complied... slowly.
Now, in 2016, most paysites feel they have to put some of their content on Tube sites to get customers (the theory being, a prospective customer will see their free video on a tube site, like the model/production style, and pay to join the pay site). It works to a small degree, but tube sites have so much traffic seeking porn, that there's virtually no other way to find customers.
And as a customer, why would you pay for a porn site, when there is so much stuff for free? The content is of reasonable to excellent technical quality, a range of creative qualities, and every fetish is well-covered.
The problem is, the models, photographers, videographers, and producers who make all this porn people are watching for free have a problem:
- Porn performers and crew have never earned less than now
- There has never been less work available for porn performers and crew
- There have never been fewer employees in the porn industry
There's no way this gets better - everyone loves free porn (especially the tube sites, cos they get a lot of ad revenue, and we're starting to slowly see mainstream ads on tube sites as well, an untapped market for them).
Paysites' income has reduced by 50% to 80% of what it was five years ago, but the demand from the few paying customers is "more updates, please" (which cost money to produce), and "lower prices - you know I can get this for free, right?". But, their cost base has not reduced much at all.
Thus, the people who pay for porn these days, are those who see what the tube sites have done to the industry, and know that the people who work to make porn still deserve to be paid.
While we never grant permission for our content to be added to Tube sites, it is regularly (by people who use stolen credit cards to join our site, download lots of content, then cancel their subscription). We employ a copyright enforcement agent who gets it removed, to the tune of 50,000 to 80,000 incidents per month. Tube sites are slow to react, and they often get thousands or tens of thousands of views and up-votes before being removed...
The industry is de-fragmenting - as sites go out of business they are bought up for cheap by... you guessed it, Tube sites. So they get huge back catalogs for cheap. Tube sites have dabbled in production (I'd love to hear performer Sabrina Deep's view on that!), or, they keep on production staff from companies they have bought out. We've had offers to buy us out, for example, 1x annual revenue (paid over three years), so we've chosen to stick with it.
The tube sites had good ideas and implemented them well. I'd be more respectful if they did not steal content to get started in this, but that's water under the bridge. All that's left is for porn producers like me to innovate, provide services that tube sites cannot steal (like...? No one really knows, and that's why I'm not hopeful for the future of the industry).
So, please pay for porn you like. It really matters. You'll be directly supporting small businesses, performers and crew who work hard to make you the best stuff they can.
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