Kink.com Owner Inoculating Against Piracy By Selling The Scarce

from the the-wrath-of-pron dept

Wed, Nov 7th 2012 3:13am — Timothy Geigner

Usually when I have the godly duty of writing about porn on this site, it has to do with a pornographic company acting (shockingly) nefarious. Maybe they're reaping millions in a judgment over a handful (unintentional innuendo) of films. Or else they're attacking speech using IP laws to silence critics of their jack-ass-ery. It might be very easy for readers to assume that pornographers as a whole (still unintentional, I swear) would be aligned against the philosophies and economics that we discuss every day. They're an easily painted "bad guy" for a host of social reasons.

But, as reader Flix alerts us, in the diverse population of pornographers, some of them do see the opportunities in the digital revolution. Such is the example of Peter Acworth (possibly NSFW, check your local listings), founder and CEO of Kink.com, who took part in a Reddit AMA. One of the first topics discussed was the impact of piracy on his business and what he plans to do about it.

Q: When its as easy as typing "the name of the movie" + torrent into google and getting at least a dozen sites that have the torrent. How do you deal with piracy of your videos?

PA: Good question!! We are investing heavily in live and social aspects of our products and then integrating them together. I.e. in the future you will join divinebitches.com, and that gets you the material, but also live shows with models, interactivity on their blogs, etc.

Note that he doesn't list off all the reasons why piracy is such a huge problem for him and his business. He just goes straight to how he's improving his business model to inoculate against piracy by supplying un-pirateable content, like live shows and connections/interactivity with models.

This is CwF + RtB at its core. Moreover, assuming the content he's supplying is of a quality that his customers enjoy, it's unbeatable. Sure, you can pirate the films if you like, but you forgoe the rest of the product. It's a wonderful response to all the boobs (okay, that one I did on purpose) shouting "you can't compete with free!"

Of course you can. Sell the customers something scarce in a way that also connects with them.

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Filed Under: competing with free, cwf+rtb, porn, selling scarce
Companies: kink.com

29 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2012 @ 3:25am

Fnur "digital revolution"
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2012 @ 3:40am

Must...resist...

Must...not...follow...links...while...boss...is...giving...presentation
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explicit coward (profile), 7 Nov 2012 @ 3:51am

The definite scarce IS what sells
But I know why "the old" entertainment industry doesn't go that route: Definite scarce can only be sold ONCE. After you sold it you have to produce NEW definite scarce before fresh money comes in.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 7 Nov 2012 @ 3:56am

Its nice to see a pron maker who isn't just screaming how he is losing millions, but looking at ways to adapt and compete in the changing market.

If only more of them tried things like this instead of lawsuits.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2012 @ 4:03am

maybe its just me but i really dont want social connectivity with my porn..
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TheLoot (profile), 7 Nov 2012 @ 4:13am

Who pays for porn anyways?
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2012 @ 4:18am

Re:
If more of them tried they would have to compete!
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Call me Al, 7 Nov 2012 @ 4:19am

Re:
Same thought here. Though the whole CwF idea in the context of pron intriguing.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 7 Nov 2012 @ 4:29am

Re:
Quite. Porn is for those private moments when you are alone in your hovel.
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Josef Anvil (profile), 7 Nov 2012 @ 4:33am

Re: Huh?
Yeah, it's a multi-billion dollar industry and I'm the ONLY one paying for it???

Guess I am the 1%
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Tim Griffiths (profile), 7 Nov 2012 @ 4:36am

Re:
It's not exactly social connectivity in this case it's just expanding on something that the industry has always known. Lots of people go to porn conventions to meet stars they like and live cam girl shows are endlessly popular because of the interactivity they provide. Cam girls are often building as much of a following with the personality they put across as with what they are showing.

At this point you can sell internet porn based on it be scarce but what is scarce is interaction with the stars. It's exactly the same idea behind why gigs are more important now for musicians than they have ever been and it's not at all odd that this is also the case in porn.
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The eejit (profile), 7 Nov 2012 @ 4:55am

Re: Re:
I'm pretty sure porn is an expensive competition.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2012 @ 5:15am

I don't think their approach will work very well. Live streams are very much pirateable by anyone with a little technical expertise. The fact they use expensive professional porn stars will also make it hard to turn out a decent profit with one-time showings unless they charge crazy rates per minute.
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The dude, 7 Nov 2012 @ 6:15am

Re:
Yeah, because everyone spends his time and resources thinking how to pirate something right?

I can already see it: dude trying with one hand to configure his capture tool and capturing his tool with the other hand.
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Tim Griffiths (profile), 7 Nov 2012 @ 6:26am

Re:
The live stream can be pirated, being part of and interacting with the live stream can't. A lot of twitch tv casters have access to the chat as part of a sub or at lest special privileges in the chat for example. The content is often free but your access to and interaction with the creators of that content is not.
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BentFranklin (profile), 7 Nov 2012 @ 6:58am

I think I would want one of those inoculations after they CwF me.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2012 @ 7:03am

Re: Re:
It only takes one person to do it and unlike chatting, you only need one hand to press the Fraps record button. And yes, there are people who get almost as much enjoyment out of pirating and sharing porn as they do from watching it.
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azuravian (profile), 7 Nov 2012 @ 7:21am

Unintentional Innuendo
"Moreover, assuming the content he's supplying is of a quality that his customers enjoy, it's unbeatable."

Are you saying that unbeatable didn't even register as innuendo?
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2012 @ 9:28am

Re: Re: Re:
and then it's recorded non interactive content like everything else.

It's not the video that's scarce, it's the live and interactive nature of it. Recording it doesn't matter.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Nov 2012 @ 9:30am

Re: Unintentional Innuendo
Doesn't innuendo register as innuendo too?
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Michael, 7 Nov 2012 @ 9:53am

Re:
"unless they charge crazy rates per minute"

I have not clicked through the links (still at work), but I would assume these are subscription sites with live "events" on some sort of regular basis. There may be some live pay-per-view type events, but my guess is that they try to get some monthly or yearly subscription out of their customers to have access to live shows, chat, etc.

In addition to the live shows and interaction, their customers get high-quality access to old shows, movies, etc. This way it feels much less like you are paying $1 per minute of a 45 minute show that you only end up watching for 9 minutes.

Sounds like a reasonable business model to me. Even if it fails, he is actively trying something other than sitting around complaining that piracy is ruining his business.
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Rekrul, 7 Nov 2012 @ 11:30am

Call me crazy, but I've never been a fan of live porn shows. They list them on the site usually with a heavily edited version of the video. It's like saying "Look at what you missed last week!"
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Coalpepper, 7 Nov 2012 @ 4:41pm

This really doesn't surprise me that he's innovative, he started the company in his off campus apartment to pay for college (seriously, look it up), and only a year or so ago they bought the San Francisco Armory for $14 mil (its used for more than just filming). Seriously, this guy's company was cutting edge when it started, and he's never stopped trying, every year they expand the types of sites they offer, retiring or retooling weak ones, and constantly trying to find a new way to make money. These live streams are recorded, edited, and offered that way, this is what is being torrented, but you lose out on the interaction, which includes making suggestions for things to happen. I think that as long as Peter is around, this company will continue to innovate.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 7 Nov 2012 @ 5:22pm

Re: Re: Re:
Not so much anymore.
You can film HD with a phone now.
People are making a living uploading their homebrew to tubesites, and that pisses the pron biggies off.
They (big pron makers) think tubesites only make money "stealing" their movies. In some cases you can find clips and whole movies on some tubesites, but if you send a notice they come down.
Tubesite stars pay more attention to what people want and react much faster to those wishes. They know if they churn out boring mechanical porn the fans will move to someone else. They understand people sharing clips leads to... *GASP* more fans and some of them buy access.

Pron used to push technology, now they just push themselves back on their laurels remembering how they used to be kings. Its like the **AA's all over again. An industry content to stay in a model that ignores reality.
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DCX2, 7 Nov 2012 @ 7:27pm

Re:
Kink isn't about your generic get-your-jollies-off porn. Kink fills a very specific niche, and the people who enjoy this niche often view this sort of thing as a life style.

If you're into this type of life style, then the chances are high that you'd want to connect with other people who share it.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 Nov 2012 @ 5:32am

Well this is a very hard business to get into. Don't let them yank your chain either. You have to do some pretty nasty shit to come out on top. It's no easy task for the female actors at Kink they will run their ass through the grinder. They give a whole new meaning to a days hard work.

The contracts are awful as they will tie you down to them for years.
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ethicalfan ethicalfan, 27 Nov 2012 @ 6:38pm

lets just abandon 300 years of intellectual property?
Google can build a business that can help you find a needle in a haystack, i.e. the exact site you want out of tens of billions with one word and we can't compensate creators of books, songs, movies, packaged software and tv shows? Now every writer, filmmaker and musician needs to get a new business model? Simply not true. Youtube now has content ID and can compensate every creator properly if they wanted to. the logic of this article is fundamentally flawed. It is possible to identify digital content and pay content creators in fast, highly automated networks. By the way THE LIVE MUSIC BUSINESS REVENUES ARE DECREASING IN THE US, NOT INCREASING!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ethicalfan ethicalfan, 27 Nov 2012 @ 6:38pm

lets just abandon 300 years of intellectual property?
Google can build a business that can help you find a needle in a haystack, i.e. the exact site you want out of tens of billions with one word and we can't compensate creators of books, songs, movies, packaged software and tv shows? Now every writer, filmmaker and musician needs to get a new business model? Simply not true. Youtube now has content ID and can compensate every creator properly if they wanted to. the logic of this article is fundamentally flawed. It is possible to identify digital content and pay content creators in fast, highly automated networks. By the way THE LIVE MUSIC BUSINESS REVENUES ARE DECREASING IN THE US, NOT INCREASING!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ethicalfan ethicalfan, 27 Nov 2012 @ 6:38pm

lets just abandon 300 years of intellectual property?
Google can build a business that can help you find a needle in a haystack, i.e. the exact site you want out of tens of billions with one word and we can't compensate creators of books, songs, movies, packaged software and tv shows? Now every writer, filmmaker and musician needs to get a new business model? Simply not true. Youtube now has content ID and can compensate every creator properly if they wanted to. the logic of this article is fundamentally flawed. It is possible to identify digital content and pay content creators in fast, highly automated networks. By the way THE LIVE MUSIC BUSINESS REVENUES ARE DECREASING IN THE US, NOT INCREASING!
[ link to this | view in thread ]