THE BUSINESS OF SEX: Sexhightech
This is a series from and for everyone connected with or interested in the porn industry. We ask various sex-companies about their history, break-event points, dealing with social stigma and what is specific while working in an industry like this.
Sexhightech is a French online magazine devoted to the sextech. It was launched with the objective of presenting French and international start-ups and sextech products without prejudice, as everyday consumer products.
How long did it take your company to start earning money? What should have to be done to monetize a business?
I hope to be able to answer you next year if all goes well. The difficulty for an online magazine is to find funds. I created this site based on my 14-year experience at Hot Video magazine, devoted to the porn industry. The advantage of this magazine is that it was paper. So the sales in newsstands and the ads were a source of obvious income. With an online site, it is much more complicated to make profitable. I am totally dependent on search engines and social networks to have visitors. Another difficulty for me to find funding is that I have nothing to offer in a crowdfunding campaign for example. A company that makes a sex-toy or porn VR site may offer items, subscriptions or other goodies. A free information site already gives free of charge whatever it does. Yet I believe thoroughly in my project.
What was the toughest part while building your company?
There are two really hard times. First, working alone. But when you have no means, you can not ask people to invest for free without knowing the future.
The second is perhaps the lack of communication from the French sextech start-ups or even the poverty of supply in this field in France. So there is so much to do.
What is specific when it comes to a porn industry? what is specific when it comes to work in a porn industry?
During all my years at Hot Video, I have always considered that working in porn industry means working in an area that is still taboo but must be considered as a real business with its companies, its players, and its professionals. Hot Video has made shows for the pro and the public, the Awards Hot d’Or, a prestigious ceremony in Cannes and that’s what I dream to do with the sextech. After it is true that there is a tendency to say that as it is only porn, it’s not really serious so let’s joke about it and sometimes one can do anything and it is a pity.
What about the social stigma?
There is a social stigma for sure. It speaks of sexuality, of the intimate, and it is always a taboo in our societies, even if it is a little easier to talk about it now. By presenting the products of the sextech seriously as consumer products like any others, in a certain way by making them trivial, we may be able to break down the barriers. There is nothing wrong with dating on an app or having fun with a sex-toy. But it will take time to be really accepted.
Sexhightech in association with thespotlive.com
Would you like us to feature your company? Write to kaja@thespotlive.com
Published on September 26, 2017.
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