opinion

One Last Look

Recently, XBIZ World magazine asked several industry players, "What was the biggest newsmaker in 2006?"

Here's what they had to say:

"The biggest newsmaker of 2006 in the adult industry in my opinion had to be Zango. Webmasters are still baffled by how this company is allowed to continue to pop ads on top of websites, stealing targeted traffic paid for by someone else. Anger towards affiliate companies that go against their own TOS and use Zango to steal traffic is still growing within the webmaster community. It's a serious problem and one that isn't going away. What point is there to making a web page, paying for content, bandwidth or traffic when someone else pops an ad up for the same thing that you are selling, on top of what you are selling?"

— Sleazy Dream

"Pornotube. There was not a single webmaster seminar that I attended this year at which Pornotube was not mentioned on a panel — often with a tone of either disdain and fear, or excitement and awe. This adult hybrid of a mainstream idea masterminded by AEBN — setting new records for adult traffic sites — was generally misinterpreted as the downfall of paysites upon its debut. Now the perception seems to have changed, and talk on webmaster boards regarding the Pornotube phenomenon is predominantly positive."

— Juli Crockett, Stockroom.com

"I'm gonna have to go with the release of 'Corruption,' easily one of the best — if not the best — adult films I've ever seen. Finally, a film that lives up to all of the hype! I honestly wasn't expecting to be as blown away by it as I was. It definitely deserved all of the attention it received."

— Vito, XFANZ

"The report that more than 600,000 people probably died in Iraq; Sen. Mark Foley proving that it is better to vent your sexual energy in healthy outlets than to label your desires 'perverted' and become a true pervert; President Bush saying he suffered a thumpin' in the November 2007 elections; and lots more Republicans outed as gay, while 'God' destroyed pagan heathens in New Orleans for being 'deviants' by sending 'his' wrath in the form of a hurricane (actually caused by emissions from the exhaust pipes of limousines driven by evangelists)."

— Vic, Kick Ass Pictures

"The biggest news of 2006 was not any one event, but the culmination of market forces and consumer behavior being driven by the web. The adult industry is in a transformational phase, a phase that is altering how studios will need to produce, distribute and market their content for the web. This transformation provides both perils and opportunities; the key to not only surviving but thriving is to rethink assumptions to the traditional studio business model. This requires studios to re-prioritize wholesale distribution and make the web their No. 1 priority."

— Todd Montgomery, Falcon Family of Companies

"I think the biggest news event of the year has to be the recent wave of 2257 inspections. No longer are the days when you can go out and buy your content from some fly-by-night producer and list them as a 2257 record holder. The inspections have forced the industry (at least here in the U.S.) to really get its shit together. What is scary, though, is the idea that a group of 'initial guys' can pop into your office at any time they choose and dig through your stuff. I think it does, however, have an upside, in that it has forced a lot of guys who were not running their businesses properly out, and it has slowed the explosion of affiliate programs a little."

— Mike Strouse, Mayor's Money

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