For more than two decades, beautiful women have been dancing across the desktops of computer users, entertaining, enticing — and evolving, today becoming liberated from the laptop to find a place in the realm of virtual reality and beyond, immersing fans more fully into their rich erotic experience.
Boasting an average of 100,000 active installations of its software, with more than 2 million previews delivered every week and a roster of some 650 girls performing 4,000 striptease shows in its library, iStripper is one of the internet’s most perennially popular, content-rich adult entertainment mainstays — and it is now poised to become so much more as it pushes its technology forward.
We recommend that our affiliates concentrate on hentai, adult gaming and cosplay niches.
Company co-founder Richard Excoffier, aka “Rex,” recently described the initial creation of the “desktop stripper” and how the brand has evolved over the years from VirtuaGirl to iStripper since its inception in 1998 when he and his partner were working in the video game industry.
“When we saw the success of the first shareware programs, we decided to use video game technology to create an erotic Tamagotchi,” Rex told XBIZ, noting that the first version of VirtuaGirl allowed its users to feed the girls. “That didn’t last long and we quickly focused on stripteases,” he said.
Back then, the software was contained on a 1.44Mb diskette, a far cry from its current 32Mb download.
“In 2016, we felt we needed a stronger, more explicit brand to conquer new markets and customers,” Rex said. “That change, combined with better content and a stronger marketing strategy, boosted our sales up by 30 percent in 2017 and another 8 percent in 2018.”
The ongoing growth the company experienced in 2018 might have been even more impressive, except for a serious setback: a fire completely destroyed its Parisian studio. Fortunately, nobody was injured and it has since been rebuilt better than before. And although the company closed its Las Vegas studio after three years of operation, further expansion in the U.S. is expected.
“It was good to add a bunch of American models to our portfolio,” Rex said. “We’re now looking at opening a studio in L.A. since most of the talent is there.”
Beyond attracting talent, iStripper relies on attracting long-term devotees and is among the pioneers of adult “freemium” marketing — offering a free preview that upsells to a premium show. Those premium shows offer varying degrees of explicitness, from a single model performing a full-nudity striptease, to hardcore solo action with toys, to girl-on-girl romps as well.
“When they download the free software, users get the preview of a new girl pushed via P2P to their desktop every 10 minutes,” Rex explained. “Previews remain active for an hour and don’t feature any nudity, so it’s only a question of time before users see the girl they really like and buy her full show for a few bucks.”
One important ingredient in iStripper’s success is fan involvement, with the brand enjoying a strong community of members who share their passion for beautiful women through a private forum where they can be involved at every step of the product’s production and development.
“Clients vote for casting, participate in contests to win fan signs and buy outfits. We communicate with them through the forum every day, to announce our new releases and post some backstage images to tease them,” Rex said. Another distinct advantage for the company: “We also reach them directly through desktop notifications — we have direct access to our clients as we are on their desktop, after all.”
Rex is proud of the lengths that iStripper goes to in reaching customers and cited a VIP program that gives its members discounts and other perks at each step of their progression in collecting shows, along with promotions every weekend to help fans build their collection. In addition, an active presence on Instagram and Twitter provides another option for reaching fans and receiving their feedback.
“All these powerful levers help us keep our customers for years and we can boast of having among the best retention rates in the industry,” Rex added. “iStripper’s average customer lifetime is currently 28 months and more than 8,500 clients have been here for several years, buying every show we offer.”
Despite these already admirable statistics, the most significant change in the company’s reach for 2019 has been the launch of iStripper on mainstream gaming platform Steam.
“The Steam community is a completely different animal,” Rex revealed. “Members now discuss our product and girls directly on Steam and Discord. It is a second wind for iStripper and we expect a lot from this new market.”
The subject of new markets raised the question of whether or not we’ll see a mobile version of iStripper.
“Products with nudity are banned from the Apple Store so it’s not as easy as it seems,” Rex said. “But we’re working on an AR version of iStripper for mobile as a tool to access the rest of our universe.”
In the meantime, fans can embrace the company’s growing move into virtual reality.
“The first positive thing for iStripper with the development of VR technology is that people are enticed to invest in powerful computers to serve their VR games and videos, which is clearly a great opportunity for our desktop application,” Rex explained. “Of course, we have started to produce 180-degree VR content as 12 percent of our clients are equipped with a VR device — a figure that keeps growing daily.”
Initial feedback about iStripper’s VR content is very positive, with new fans enjoying the clips every day.
In parallel, iStripper has signed distribution deals with several top actors in the adult VR market in hopes of attracting new users to the platform who may start with VR shows, but then get caught up in the excitement and begin collecting non-VR shows as well.
The company’s main VR project is far more ambitious, however. Relying on its background in video games and its high-tech skills, iStripper developed a full 3D strip club, called “VR Paradise,” featuring some of its most popular models and the best pole dancers around.
Although the challenges were countless, including the advanced motion capture of real pole dancers plus the modelization and texturing of performers to bring everything to life in real time in a 3D space, the end result is compelling. According to Rex, one positive aspect is that very few customers on the new platform come from the ranks of traditional iStripper users.
“Most of our audience comes directly from Steam and has a different culture. It took a bit of time to find the right prices for this audience and to set up a customer service system to answer users in real time,” Rex explained. “On Steam, you’re committed to producing quality at a fair price. Each user can share pictures and comments of his experience so there is no room for low-quality, overpriced content.”
For their part, many affiliates love iStripper because it doesn’t cannibalize other offers, such as paysites or live cams, providing important “niche marketing” appeal for modern marketers, who make use of the company’s wide range of promotional tools.
“iStripper has always been different from traditional adult content,” Rex said. “It fits very well with the babes/single model/models catalog niches, and all the soft erotic, solo girl, masturbation niches, but things are evolving.”
Rex said the company invested a lot this year in creating erotic parodies and themed shows that echo news and entertainment headlines. That includes a parody of “Alita” for the release of James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez’s movie, a Chinese outfit for Chinese New Year, a Superbowl show, an Oxana Chic shoot with real snakes, a steampunk girl from Westworld and an erotic parody of Daenerys from the last season of “Game of Thrones.” But the absolute bestsellers are the erotic parody of Harley Quinn and of D.va from Overwatch, which not only immediately brought hundreds of new users to iStripper but also allowed the company to be featured on many gaming and entertainment news sites, gaining exposure in the niches it has now defined as its best performing: cosplay/hentai and adult games.
“The release of these strip shows is accompanied by all the marketing tools necessary for the success of our affiliates,” Rex said. “Our ‘popping models’ tool is by far the best promo tool, with 80 percent of our top affiliates using it. It perfectly pre-qualifies the traffic by showing exactly what users get when installing iStripper and occupies a unique ad space on sites — either at the bottom right or left, or at the top if affiliates choose the swing animations — and has a strong power of attraction.
“Obviously, we also produce banners and mailers,” he added, “especially for those who purchase traffic on ad networks and subscribe to our PPI offer.”
Rex noted that with iStripper on Steam and the success of its cosplays in the adult gaming universe, the company is willing to push iStripper even farther in that direction — and recommends affiliates do likewise if they are seeking success in 2020 and beyond.
“We’re working on a new version of the software, with a larger range of rewards, and will develop new promotional games to join our popular slot machines, scratch games and goose games, etc. that help make our affiliates rich,” Rex revealed. “We recommend that our affiliates concentrate on hentai, adult gaming and cosplay niches. Even on tube sites, these categories recently proved to be highly profitable for us!”
As for what the future holds for iStripper, Rex told XBIZ that the company is very lucky that its product is softcore enough to be promoted to the mainstream market.
“We plan to keep growing fast in that market,” Rex concluded, “and to stay at the edge of innovation with VR in 3D.”
That emphasis on innovation and on “staying at the edge” has driven iStripper forward from its humble beginnings to becoming one of adult’s most popular brands — a brand that is increasingly coming to mainstream users’ desktops (and headsets), too!
