YouPorn Causing Obscene Losses To Adult Film Industry

Portfolio:

DVD sales are in free fall. Audiences are flocking to pornographic knockoffs of YouTube, especially a secretive site called YouPorn. And the amateurs are taking over. What's happening to the adult-entertainment industry is exactly what's happening to its Hollywood counterpart--only worse.

On Friday, May 18, Steve Hirsch, founder of Vivid Entertainment Group, the world's largest producer of adult videos, was expecting a mysterious visitor. But Stephen Paul Jones was late. When Jones, an unknown figure in the pornography world, finally arrived in the all-white reception area of Vivid's Los Angeles offices at 2 p.m., he was apologetic. His private plane had broken down, he explained, and he was forced to fly commercial. Hirsch, dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, found that excuse a little slick. But he was eager to speak with Jones, so he let it slide and introduced him to two Vivid colleagues. When the four men sat down in the company's conference room, Jones got right to the point: He wanted Vivid to buy his website, YouPorn.com.

Related:

::Meet YouPorn, the X-Rated YouTube
::Nudity On The Web Not Easy Enough, Says Mark Cuban

Read the whole story: Portfolio

Comments

[miles120]

06:35 PM on 12/11/2008

Hey folks, this is a really old article. It's dated November 2007 and I read it over eight months ago. Why is it news now?

[NoElephants]

08:17 PM on 12/11/2008

That is why I came to this board....and I bet 90% of these people didn't notice that. Shame on you h ufp o

[ZimboChick]

05:32 PM on 12/11/2008

It's the recession, what do you people want! Gotta help here and there. Lol @ the silly heading

[eastcoastprogressive]

05:11 PM on 12/11/2008

Face it capitalism is dying. A system based on exploitation was bound to die off eventually.

[JScott]

01:57 PM on 12/11/2008

Yup porn just wants to be free.

Youporn is one good reason to try again to implement the .porn, .xxx or .adu (adult) domain.
Jeez why is everyone so leery of that, face it porn exists, if its own domain exists it will be FAR easier to filter out undeage users.

[MagisterLudi]

01:54 PM on 12/11/2008

Information will find a way to be free. People better get used to it. The ones that do make serious money.

[RobinSeattle]

01:11 PM on 12/11/2008

The problem with porn is threefold:

One, there is too much of it. Terming those you see engaging in the various choreographed ablutions in a Vivid production and their competitors as "actors and actresses" is extremely misguided since almost none of them can act their way successfully out of a junior high drama class. The *ahem* writing in porn has been an embarrassment from the get go. So you put those two elements together and *cringe. Plus there are thousands of titles released every year doing this ad nauseum in spite of those faults. It's a niagra of unintentional parody and tedium.

Two, the women in porn generally have two of their more salient body parts inflated to levels that would horrify a semitruck tire and the makeup is so thick you could mortar the Great Wall of China with it. Ugh!

Three, the moves are so stylized it is like kabuki with a double lobotomy. It is as exciting to watch as observing your neighbor watering his lawn.

The best porn allows us to do that which humans like to, watch other people being themselves for our entertainment. That is why I prefer either real amateur porn or that which has an amateur feel to it. That is also the best stuff on You Porn and the others. The porn industry thus needs consolidation and a naturalistic on camera direction. Give people that and it will stanch the financial bleeding the industry is enduring right now.

[naturallight]

11:52 AM on 12/11/2008

Protect the porn! America was founded on Porn and Violence. It is our chief export. Are we gonna off shore our BILLIONS dollar adult film industry?

Puuulleeeze---vivid doesn't have to buy youporn. they can make they own for free perhaps ourporn. or yourporn. Google shut down Redtube. Who even likes Vivid? 13 year olds?

[arvay]

10:58 AM on 12/11/2008

I don't want to hear about a federal bailout.

[Pyfagorus]

10:08 PM on 12/11/2008

But porn is a huge, throbbing--er, thriving industry. Think of all the jobs. In these long, rock-hard economic times, do we really want to blow jobs away just like that? Um, let me rephrase that: Do you think we should just hand jobs that pay this well--oh, never mind!

[BowlingForRevenge]

05:48 AM on 12/11/2008

An comment made by a sex addiction counselor at a neighborhood get together (Elliot Spitzer's stupidity started the ball rolling and it was an awkward conversation at first but we were all enthralled before the evening was over) I attended was that many sex addicts will pay anything for a fix and the paying is part of the stimulation.Paying gives them control.
For some reason the free stuff just doesn't get them off. Be it free porn or a one night stand they aren't interested.

[WilliePilgrim]

10:12 AM on 12/11/2008

Phew...that's good to know. For a minute I thought I might be addicted AND have controll issues. Oh, and by the way, psychology is one of those sciences kinda like intelligent design...in that it takes intelligence to make up stuff or interpret stuff like that to fit their preconceived notions.

[BowlingForRevenge]

05:03 PM on 12/11/2008

I agree and our government and private insurance co.s spend a disproportionate amount of money (taxpayers with medicaid patients) medicating and calling them disabled all because a psychologist said so. Many mental illnesses manifest in addictions like hypersexuality. Then it's just a vicious circle because they won't take their meds because it neuters them and then they can't work because their minds only on one thing. YEP! Interesting stuff.
So you say YOU have some of the symptom? Well I guess just wash your hands and gargle and you'll be OK. Peace!

[LiberalBuzz]

02:43 AM on 12/11/2008

It's the industry's own fault.

They charge an OUTRAGEOUS amount of money for their product. Twenty to forty bucks to download a SINGLE movie?

I don't think so. I've never downloaded any porn from Vivid or any of the other pay sites because they think their product ranks right up their with Gone With The Wind in regards to price.

AND ever check out the prices on the pay per view sites? Highway ROBBERY.

So scr ew you Steve, your own greed is doing you and yours in and good!

[Kevbo68]

02:27 AM on 12/11/2008

Porn wants to be free.

[JeremyO]

12:28 AM on 12/11/2008

Now if only somebody will teach these fools how to hold a camera steady.

[fcsakes]

11:42 PM on 12/10/2008

Porn is to sex what silicone is to breasts.

Too bad.

[TruthNow101]

11:37 PM on 12/10/2008

I find the title of this article hard to believe...there are MUCH better freebees, like redtube, youjizz or jizzhut, or even xtube

[qofdisks]

06:20 PM on 12/11/2008

Thanks.
I am an older gal outta fresh ideas. I have been looking for some free porn to keep myself juiced. I refuse to pay for visuals but I am looking to buy some good erotic lit.

[InformedMisery]

11:15 PM on 12/10/2008

Is the porn industry actually surprised that YouPorn is so popular? Never ceases to amaze me how out of touch business is with the consumer.