XBIZ World is pleased to present “Execs of 2016: The Year in Review” — a special showcase of the thoughts and strategies of 2016’s most influential and motivational leaders as they offer their take on the year’s top trends.
Each of the executives we spoke to is among the finalist nominees for the Online Industry edition of the 2017 XBIZ Exec Awards.
Terpon is focused on creating high quality, affordable and easy to use VR camera technology for the adult industry. We are working closely with content creators, studios and live cam companies to provide state of the art VR devices, webcams and studio cameras in 2017. -Jean-Claude Artonne, Terpon
The following question about the year in review was asked to those running for the Tech Leadership Award:
XBIZ: What technological innovations helped your business this year?
Michael Donohue
CEO, RubyVR
“Lower cost of technology for creating VR content (cameras, software, etc.) and VR capabilities built into smartphone platforms, combined with a growth in speed and capacity of Wi-Fi bandwidth and device data storage.”
AJ Hall
CEO, Elevated-X
“With the adult paysite market evolving the way it has, we’re seeing a convergence of different business models that producers previously kept separated by channel. Until very recently, there was a very distinct split between DVD, cable, membership websites and VOD or pay-per-view, and how studios and independent producers promoted each offering. This led to the long-term development and 2016 release of our own unique spin on selling digital content ‘on demand.’ We introduced an on demand system inside Elevated X paysite CMS software that lets site owners run a membership site alongside or as part of a content purchasing site using their choice of multiple popular, proven business models. The end result is any combination of membership/photo download, online video rental/pay per view or pay per download website with a sales model similar to Amazon, Netflix, iTunes or Clips4Sale that works with a variety of popular adult billing companies and lets the site owner retain all of their revenue. This was done, much in part, to the extended online purchasing capabilities of the leading adult industry third-party billing companies and merchant services companies, and the resulting options available to site owners are really powerful.”
Andy Alvaraz
President, Webmaster Central/VR3000
“If you would have asked me this in 2015, I would not have had a great answer for you. In 2016, Webmaster Central was very focused on the upcoming tech wave that is virtual reality. We opened a dedicated VR studio in 2016 called VR3000, and we believe virtual reality is the biggest opportunity for the adult sector since mobile. Our team has been working on educating ourselves in every aspect of VR including the technology behind a VR player, the editing required, and what works best on both sides of the camera. It’s given WC a reinvigorated sense that there is real opportunity ahead for the online adult market and we plan on being a big part of the revolution.”
Ela Darling
Content Manager, Cam4VR
“As a pioneer in the VR space, the biggest innovations that helped us this year were the consumer release of the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. We had a running start in the VR space having started VR production back in 2014, but until this year, the only consumer VR devices available were mobile options such as Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard. The release of these two devices created a global conversation about virtual reality and brought the work we do to the attention of mainstream industry conferences and news publications.”
Fabian Grey
CEO, AliceX
“For me it’s obviously virtual reality. We have never witnessed a more disruptive technology that will increase profit margins so substantially in both the adult and especially cam industries. This technology offers consumers an entirely new and immersive experience, greater than anything to-date. As people are exposed to VR and all of its sensory potential, the demand growth is directly proportionate to the revenue possibilities. The cards are being reshuffled, and once again it’s about who has the best grasp on applied technology and can position themselves at the forefront of this new medium. Our commitment to expanding VR technology, and using those expansions in real applications which engage and retain the customer, has been our goal at AliceX for the last couple of years, and we don’t intend to slow down.”
Jean-Claude Artonne
CEO, Terpon
“Terpon is focused on creating high quality, affordable and easy to use VR camera technology for the adult industry. We are working closely with content creators, studios and live cam companies to provide state of the art VR devices, webcams and studio cameras in 2017. Key executives in the industry have already tested our prototypes, and the reception our products have received so far is motivating us to work even harder, as we gain feedback and fine-tune our cameras to exceed the expectations of all our clients and their customers. We humbly accept this XBIZ award nomination, and see it as inspiration to continue pushing tech forward for the benefit of the entire industry and erotica fans around the globe.”
Juicy Jay
CEO, JuicyAds.com
“Just recently, we launched the newest version of our banner ad zones, which besides supporting SSL (https) for secure websites is also faster through asychronous loading. We also increased the speed of our popunder delivery by three times in the last few weeks by embracing new systems architecture. When your goal is building a better advertising network (not just a bigger one), we simply can’t stop moving and there’s an endless list of ways to be better. Improved keyword targeting on our display banner ad zones have quietly entered beta testing and full unlimited IP targeting is available to select advertisers. It’s been a very busy year.”
Lauren MacEwen
CEO, 7 Veils
“Sometimes the best tech innovations are the ones you develop yourself. We have been frustrated with the existing tech tools for social management and have been developing our own that meet both our business needs, as well as the needs of the adult industry. I developed tech that allows me to get tweets ranking in Top Tweet for Twitter search, aka the FAD Algorithm. This is dramatically increasing CTRs and is starting to change the way we do social marketing. It is the ultimate example of successful social engineering. We also have a link shortener in development that is tackling many of the issues in adult and social media, such as proper analytics, privacy, and better CTR. Tech developments are cornerstone to keeping on top of social media marketing trends. If it doesn’t exist, then we will build it ourselves!”