Note: this post deals with adult social networking - skip over it if you're not interested.
Aside from CES, the other big conference in Las Vegas this week is full of popular startups that rarely get coverage in the mainstream press. Companies at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo are talking about how to put an erotic spin on popular social sites like MySpace, YouTube and Metacafe. We used to think that pornography led innovation, but judging by the startups on display, it seems that the porn industry is more interested in making sex-related clones of existing sites.
xpeeps
PornoTube
YouTube's strict policy on adult content provided the perfect opportunity for PornoTube, but MySpace is more lax when it comes to monitoring the site: that would explain why xpeeps didn't get the same traction as its sister site. YouTube created a similar market gap by deleting clips of war and violence: LiveLeak is capitalizing on that opportunity.
Other Attendees
MySpace, a Place for Porn
The Porn Stigma
The question for startups, of course, is whether you're prepared to risk your reputation by launching a site in the adult market. PornoTube made success look very easy, but VCs don't seem to look favorably on those companies that allow this type of content. That said, some of the most well-known video sharing sites have included adult content in the past, and some continue to do so. Guba was a porn haven until they decided to spin off their porn unit in early 2006. Their traffic fell as a result, and the founder has since left. Meanwhile, sites like Metacafe and LiveVideo use family filters to hide adult content from those who wish to avoid it - some claim that Metacafe owes much of its success to this edgier content. It seems likely that Flurl.com, recently acquired by the MySpace founder, also relies on adult material.