July 25, 2006

YouTube has Porn Clone

Michael Arrington

128 comments »

The porn industry has always had an “early adopter” model. We’ve covered a few porn related sites that have adopted new web features in the past (notably Heatseek and Social Porn). PornoTube (Note: NOT WORK SAFE), which integrates YouTube-like features, is the most recent example of the trend. While YouTube has a clear policy banning porn, PornoTube has a policy that is just the opposite.

PornoTube offers on demand Flash videos (our sponsor Adobe will be proud I’m sure) of user uploaded pornography, including video, audio and photgraphs. The site is surprisingly well designed and has social features like rating, commenting, etc. All videos are tagged and can be browsed via a tag cloud or by straight or gay content. There are RSS feeds for various categories. Videos can also be embedded into other sites.

The site is free for users. For more technically saavy users, bittorent has long been a source of free pornography. But PornoTube, which is usable by anyone with a computer, could be disruptive to sites that are charging for similar content. I imagine PornoTube will have similar copyright issues as YouTube, however, and will have to pull that content down over time.

They even have a “beta” in their logo. Check it out, if it’s your thing.

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Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. É isso.org » Blog Archive » Tributo a Onã na Web2.0
  2. Fatadam.tk
  3. matblog
  4. A Page of Random
  5. PornoTube - pestaola.gr
  6. So It's Come To This:
  7. PornoTube, una réplica porno de YouTube - GurusBlog
  8. offline.pl » Prostszy age check - maÅ‚a rzecz, a cieszy
  9. Basic Thinking Blog » YouTube Pornoklon: Pornotube
  10. Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Google Porn?
  11. E-Branding The Red Light District - Internet Insider Report
  12. Headmuck » Late breaking news
  13. Grumblesnark » Late breaking news
  14. Snarkmeatskull » Late breaking news
  15. Meatdip » Late breaking news
  16. Moderne Zeiten » Blog Archive » YouTube has Porn Clone - PornoTube
  17. Utube Videos » Clips of Utube Videos: Watch Popular Clips of Utube Videos Online
  18. PULSE 2.0 » Blog Archive » Google Should Destroy PornoTube and Other YouTube Porn Clones
  19. Malas Palabras » Get a (second) life!
  20. Techcrunch » Blog Archive » EroShare - User Generated Porn
  21. EroShare - User Generated Porn
  22. www.digbuzz.com

Comments

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  1. Ryan Williams

    “… if it’s your thing”.

    Good one! ;)

  2. LuxEurope

    What a foolish thing to write about.

  3. Jeff

    I hate seeing stuff like this on techcrunch, but porn is such a huge business and it is interesting to see how their business models are changing to adapt stuff like youtube which is clearly a good model. thanks for at least bringing it to our attention

  4. chris

    Mike,

    I usually hear about new stuff first on your site….but you were a little slow on this one. This is over a week old. The alexa spike has happened, and wasn’t caused by TechCrunch ;). Enjoy

  5. James

    Why didn’t i think of that…

  6. bipto

    “What a foolish thing to write about.What a foolish thing to write about.”

    Foolish? It’s a massive industry with millions of customers that very often determines the shape and direction of technology. There’s nothing foolish about it.

  7. LuxEurope

    Bipto - I realize that, but really… is there anything that significant about it that distinguishes it from regular sites? People aren’t going to be uploading videos they made themselves for the most part like YouTube. You won’t have the viral effect either. You’ll just have some people uploading lots and lots of copyrighted porn that’s all over the internet already. Basically if you’re going to write about this you might as well write about each new BitTorrent index site.

  8. Seth

    If it’s your thing well of course its anybody’s thing, who doesnt like a little porno here and there when your girlfriend goes away for a week with her friends for a girls week out at the beach and your left home alone going to work everyday no one to love you and you get lonely so….

  9. Search Engines Web

    Great idea -

    the only flaw is that they could have a front page - informing potential viewers about the various legaleese (as if that would have any effect on them) :LOL

    YouTube should have a Sex section, perhaps with a seperate subdomain -

    There is no eally need for society to be so schizo about this - how were we all conceived (duh) ????????

  10. Michael Arrington

    Jesus Seth, take it easy man.

  11. Eric Willis

    Mike,

    Heatseek and now Pornotube…Did you spend more time reviewing these than the others…just kiddin!

    Lux,

    Why not cover it? The porn industry has in many cases been in the forefront of adopting technology on the web…it is also a multi-billion dollar industry. I ran across pornotube a couple of weeks ago. When I first saw it, I was surprised that we had not seen someone create something similar earlier.

  12. Eric Willis

    Chris,

    Pornotube actually has a daily ranking of 748..impressive for such a young site…considering the current ranking, age of the site, and the content (porn)..this site could be really huge very quickly….

  13. Jeremy

    We were all conceived through porn!

  14. Charles Martin

    I came across another one just yesterday, xtube.com. Unlike pornotube, you do have to register to view any videos.

    Um… where are the sex content / age warnings that all other such sites have before displaying any content?

  15. Tony Marcini

    Who are the founders in the site and / or investors? Anyone have any idea? Thanks

  16. JB

    Sites like these are content provider’s nightmare. A lot of copyright infringement going on here.

  17. gass

    thanks for the link..

  18. Emre Sokullu

    So they can keep serving Flash Media Server content even after the Techcrunch effect! There should be VC - angel (or devil :P) money behind!

  19. Alex

    There is also a Digg-type porno site - http://www.idigporn.com

    It crashes half way through each month because they go through so much bandwidth. I know because someone told me - seriously.

  20. Otis

    This site is more than a week old. I know because I looked at it a few weeks old. I didn’t see anything THAT exciting there, though. Copy-cat applied to porn, just like socialporn.com (go copy/paste, don’t be shy) is a copy-cat based on the social bookmarking model a la Simpy.com .
    Perhaps it’s pathetic (or maybe just a little funny), but this site will soon surpass TechCrunch, Digg, and Slashdot.

  21. Taz

    I may never visit Techcrunch again. I’m busy at another site.

  22. Scott Matthews (Bitty Browser)

    It should have been…. lubetube.com

  23. Chris Yeh

    Mike,

    Why am I not surprised that it was you rather than Marshall that wrote this review???

    Now I know when you claim to be “busy” or “travelling” you’re actually researching your next review.

    (we kid because we care)

  24. Nick Gavronsky

    I think this can be a subject for techcrunch. Porn is a business, and a HUGE business. Just because it is a sensitive subject for some or because most of us would never go into business in this industry doesnt mean that it cant be profiled on TC, I think this is a good post Marshall.

  25. Alan

    I thought this was a joke article… Joke is on me… Good thing I didn’t have a look at work. Any idea what the revenue model is? I didn’t see any ads.

  26. Jim

    What is wrong with you? Why are you covering trash like this? You should be ashamed of yourself.

  27. Ryan Williams

    Jim, see comments #3, #11 and #24.

  28. Maximus Prime

    I am happy that he’s not a hypocrite. Pron is part of life, and should be covered.

  29. Why

    PrOn rulez!

  30. Robbie Liu

    F**k around

    LOL
    the site’s title is hilarious

  31. Mark Devlin

    The obvious answer is for Michael to launch PornCrunch - a blog covering Porn 2.0.

  32. joe simpson

    What about 2257? it seems like these guys are in violation?

  33. Lewis Salem

    That site is in serious need of a wang filter.

  34. Adam

    And you thought YouTube’s “Terms of Service” were bad …

  35. DaveU

    porn was the driving force behind VCR and DVD. why not internet? i can’t believe anybody could be offended by your review. most of youtube video clips are low quality bs’s, which are no better than porn…

  36. Seo Sites

    Jesus,
    This should not be free site.
    I am sure this will grow much faster that youtube.com

  37. Concerned

    I don’t see how pornotube is going to be able to exist when they have no way of discerning the age of the participants in some of their amateur videos. It’s a lawsuit waiting to happen.

  38. danny

    JIM…I think u need to go get laid ..u freaking test tube baby!!!

  39. andy

    Mike, did you register PornCrunch.com for future? or did somebody else?

    Also, the porn industry doesn’t go after copyrights as the regular industry.

  40. Michael Arrington

    Andy,

    Ah, no, sadly I am not the registrant of that particular domain name.

  41. Josh

    I’ve been following techcrunch for quite some time now. Although i appreciate that you have spoken about the dirty version of Youtube, the post seems much like glorifying the porn site more than providing information.

    If you restricted yourself to providing tech info (which you guys are doing a good job of) we would be very appreciative indeed.

    Please be informed that your site reaches different age groups and many of your ‘cutomers’ would have formed an image about your site.

    I’m not not against porn or nudity, but sometimes you go overboard with posts like these..

    Even youtube is bordering around porn with suggestive videos or so called porn videos of the non-nude kind….

    i found your post thru digg and i guess most will be using the linsk in your post to vsisit the actual site; this may not be the intended use..

    Though techcrunch and your authors have the final say in the content of the blog, once you reach out to a particular auidence, you have to maintain that level of professionalism that you have been showing.

    Cheers

  42. Garry

    Hey,

    Whats news about this? There are already dozens, if not hundreds, sites all over the internet, which are for porn video sharing.

  43. Jesse P

    A few months ago, I tried to register YouBoob.com–it was already taken, so much for my big shot!

  44. AndrewC

    Firstly, I appreciate coverage like this. Porn is a huge business and drives technology adoption. Secondly, I’m kinda suprised no-one has picked up who owns this site… It is aebn (aebn.net or Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network) who run the adult industry’s largest legal video on demand site, a behemoth which has thousands of DVD’s and an Alexa Rank of 162 (and I’m assuming is insanely profitable!). So they’re clearly not toooo worried about the copyright aspect because if it hurts anyone, it hurts them first.

  45. Guk

    I guess, sex sells. Always!

  46. Josh Stomel

    Mike -

    Nice find, yeah the url is pretty good. Great idea, we will see how it works out. There are infinite ways to turn this in to a cash cow. Think about a membership fee. That is always fund and simple. The biggest issue / possibility will be how will the service be able to compensate the production company of the videos? Obviously, home made porn is fine, but for the people uploading copyright material something needs to be done. They would have to have a pretty solid sales / bd team working on strategic rev share plans with the labels..

    Pretty cool, it will be a race to see who will win and successfully be able to pull it off.

    If anyone is interesting with the execs who is behind this pornotube.com can be found here; http://www.myspace.com/eroticnudes

    P.S. My Blog is back, http://www.joshstomel.com

  47. Dario

    I have already talk about this here:

    http://dariosalvelli.wordpress.....-for-hard/

    ;)

  48. SNAGY MANN

    50+ comments so far, and as far as I can see, its all guys. The crossroads of technology and porn are a man’s domain - even the comments speaking out against TC posts like this are men.

    Are their women out there that care at all about new and slick ways to deliver porn content? If not, perhaps they should. Xeni where are you now?!!!

  49. gonzo

    FREE PORNOTUBE!!!

  50. David

    Another YouTube clone - I looked at some of the other AEBN sites, and they are just copies/clones - nothing original, but they are badly done.

    Their Youtube clone is full of copyright infringements, and tons of possible underage videos. I wonder if FBI will visit them soon?

  51. Jon

    Coming from the adult industry, I have to say that I’m very envious. How they’re going to get around 2257 and copyright infringements, I can’t quite figure out. However, I’m sure by the time the Feds come knocking on their door (if they show up), they’ll already have a large enough success.

  52. gprime

    I hope for their sake their server location was carefully considered, since there is plenty of content (like beastiality) that is illegal in most places. And as has been mentioned, you were a bit slow on this one Michael. I heard about this one three weeks ago.

  53. JonD

    “How they’re going to get around 2257 and copyright infringements”

    The same way YouTube gets around it.

    Theres this thing called the DMCA you might have heard of. Content owners report copyrighted content, Pornotube/Youtube/whatever company removes it.

  54. JonD

    “And as has been mentioned, you were a bit slow on this one Michael. I heard about this one three weeks ago.”

    Well good for you. But for people like me, this is the first time I’ve heard about it.

  55. Jon

    “Theres this thing called the DMCA you might have heard of.”

    DMCA circumvents 2257?

  56. Erhardt Eckbert

    Good Idea!
    I hope the bandwidth will be enough. In this industry there is no enough bandwidth! Just check out

    http://www.eveangel.com
    http://www.myadiamond.com or
    http://www.balkan-amateurs.com !

  57. TechTalk

    In my mind, the promise of the internet has finally been fulfilled. I’m just overcome with joy at being alive and here to see it happen. I think, if nothing else ever happens with technology, people centuries from now will still say “it was enough.” And then, after a moment lost in thought, they will smile.

  58. xxxLinker

    Actually xtube.com is first youtube like adult site.
    I like xtube.com more than pornotube.com

  59. David

    > DMCA circumvents 2257?

    No, and my guess is that anyone who accept user submitted adult content is playing with fire.

  60. Al

    What about naming it BOOBTUBE?

  61. DeccanBazaar

    Hello we have some good and exact clone of youtube

    in General they are Youtube clones

    visit us at :

    http://www.deccanbazaar.biz/se.....at=youtube

  62. Keith

    I think such online videos are inevitable. There is huge market in the social networking, no doubt that this could be possibly a good income-generating revenue.

  63. Kevin

    WHOIS Record For
    pornotube.com

    Registration and WHOIS Service provided by directNIC.com

    Intercosmos Media Group, Inc. provides the data in the directNIC.com
    Registrar WHOIS database for informational purposes only. The information
    may only be used to assist in obtaining information about a domain name’s
    registration record.

    directNIC makes this information available “as is”, and does not guarantee
    its accuracy.

    Registrant:
    AEBN
    5300 Old Pineville Road Ste160
    Charlotte, NC 28270
    US
    704-559-5208
    Fax:704-529-5159

    Domain Name: PORNOTUBE.COM

    Administrative Contact:
    Kurt, Steve steve1k99@yahoo.com
    5300 Old Pineville Road Ste160
    Charlotte, NC 28270
    US
    704-559-5208
    Fax:704-529-5159

    Technical Contact:
    Kurt, Steve steve1k99@yahoo.com
    5300 Old Pineville Road Ste160
    Charlotte, NC 28270
    US
    704-559-5208
    Fax:704-529-5159

    Record expires on 02-14-2007
    Record created on 02-14-2006

    Domain servers in listed order:
    NS1-AUTH.AEBN.NET 64.132.47.254
    NS2-AUTH.AEBN.NET 216.54.226.100

    By submitting a WHOIS query, you agree you will use this data only for
    lawful purposes. You also agree that, under no circumstances, will you use
    this data to: (a) allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission by
    email, telephone, or facsimile of mass, unsolicited, commercial advertising
    or solicitations to entities other than the data recipient’s own existing
    customers; or to (b) enable high volume, automated, electronic processes
    that send queries or data to the systems of any Registry Operator or
    ICANN-accredited registrar.

    The compilation, repackaging, dissemination, or other use of this WHOIS
    data is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of
    directNIC.com.

    directNIC.com reserves the right to terminate your access to its WHOIS
    database in its sole discretion, including without limitation, for
    excessive querying of the database or for failure to otherwise abide by
    this policy.

    directNIC reserves the right to modify these terms at any time.

    NOTE: THE WHOIS DATABASE IS A CONTACT DATABASE ONLY.
    LACK OF A DOMAIN RECORD DOES NOT SIGNIFY DOMAIN AVAILABILITY.

    The previous information has been obtained either directly from the registrant or a registrar of the domain name other than Network Solutions. Network Solutions, therefore, does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.

    Show underlying registry data for this record

    Current Registrar: INTERCOSMOS MEDIA GROUP, INC. D/B/A DIRECTNIC.COM
    IP Address: 64.132.43.73 (ARIN & RIPE IP search)
    IP Location: US(UNITED STATES)-TEXAS-SEGUIN
    Record Type: Domain Name
    Server Type: IIS 6
    Lock Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK
    Web Site Status: Active
    DMOZ no listings
    Y! Directory: see listings
    Web Site Title: Home | PornoTube.com - Fuck Around
    Secure: No
    E-commerce: No
    Traffic Ranking: Not available
    Data as of: 14-Jun-2005

  64. Lance

    Like xxx said, XTube was the first on the scene in March 2006. PornoTube showed up a few months after us and used their already massive network of adult sites to get immediate traffic, thus the great alexa ranking. XTube started from scratch and we are doing awesome considering.

    I wonder how many people it took to get PornoTube up and running. We did it with 3. Beat that!

  65. flevour

    Looks like some guy (I found its nickname linked from the source, “voyance”) has thought to raise some money creating a best pornotube video blog, too bed the page tries to load and start all the videos at once after loading the page…

  66. found on digg.com

    To save media from XTube and Pornotube check this out:

    http://1024k.de/save-a-sex/video-scripts.html

    I believe the content on XTube and Pornotube is best described as low quality excerpt of what can easily be found in better quality and length with any regular search engine, but it seems that many people like the two sites and are looking for ways to archive the videos. So this link may make some people happy.

  67. Paula

    Pornmotube, Xtube, and now there is yuvutu (http://www.yuvutu.com)

    How many nore sites are there out there?

  68. DeccanBazaar

    Anyone out of you want to have a website like youtube just check out te site to get your own pre made website script to run similar site here is the direct link :

    http://deccanbazaar.biz/search.....at=youtube

  69. Getube.com

    Anyone interested to buy this domain name its registered at namecheap make and offer at linkbuilding at hotmail .com

    Thank You

  70. zerotsm

    I uploaded, or rather tried to upload a video to Pornotube.com and after the wait was rewarded with an error message. To attempt an upload to Xtube.com I had to compress the file down to 20 mb, however the Xtube site says that you can link segments into one video. The Xtube site still needs work, for example, while waiting for conversion, if you try to view the video the site will say “rejected due to content”. However YouTube has its share of bugs.

    Enjoy the sites while they last. I don’t see how their business model can pay for the bandwidth, and with the way the things are in Washington DC these days, you can be sure that the Justice Deparment is going to go after these porn sites for section 2257 violations.

  71. melanie

    free your groovy mind, grrrllls and boyz,
    it’s time to start putting money where your groin is. while your brain is in the gutter, put your conscience at ease and think about making a difference!

    groovy doesn’t have to mean geeky!

  72. Holger

    it is an funny site to skip around but nothing which attracts for longer time like for example webwatchers.com. to much copyrighted content like said before no t that much user contributed one.

    http://www.amidalla.de - search engine

  73. Darkness

    PORNOTUBE is SHIT!!!
    Plain and simple!
    xtube.com is much much MUCH better. While pornotube is more for anonymous users, xtube offers much more!
    Now stop all this winging about pornotube and grow up the lot of you, lmao!

  74. gonzo

    Hey Lance…

    How about a little cheese with that WHINE?

  75. fusionx

    Responce to #64 - Lance

    Actually, we haven’t fed Pornotube with a single hit of external traffic. Our growth is purely organic.

    I think the main difference is that you guys put your sales and advertising directives on the site from day one.

    We have a very different business model. We built Pornotube.com to support our partners, affiliates and studios. We really aren’t that interested in direct revenue.

    “Beat that”? Ok - you win! Feel better?

  76. The

    What ever happened to honest intellectual exchange? I was greatly disappointed in most of the new users of the Internet when I noticed a sad trend on sites as YouTube and IFlipYouOff dot com. People are filming themselves screaming profanity and posting this. That’s it. Just some person saying the F-word.

    Is that supposed to be funny? Is it thought provoking? Why waste my electricity and bandwidth when I can go read a book or watch something on TV.

  77. marco

    nice idea

  78. cláudio pereira

    As brasileira são as melhores mulheres que transam no mundo todo!

  79. cláudio pereira

    Brazil - Porto Alegre RS - Da lhe grêmio

  80. a male

    80 posts and no mentionof ethics, just alot about ‘it’s big business’.

  81. b

    is pronotube free, like when u just watch the videos n it streams automatically?

  82. dc++

    But there is also puretna.com or sensualtube.com what do the same shit…

  83. jon

    Here is the tool to make your own pornotube

    http://www.insom.net/buy

  84. Pronguy

    Just caught this new website:

    http://pornotubebabes.com

    brings together the best of pornotube!!!

  85. markus

    I found a turkish version of youtube, trtube.com
    It is almost same as youtube.
    Everything was stollen from yt.
    I dont think there is a law about this.
    trtube.com cant be punished.

  86. Dario

    I talk about Porno Tube some months ago,i have already a comment here but i want to signal the new link of my blog:

    http://www.dariosalvelli.com/2.....e-for-hard

  87. JohnnyTrip

    check out this Youtube clone called Shufuni.com
    http://www.shufuni.com - it seems really cool for the moment, let’s see what will happen next.

  88. Mike

    Actually I prefer http://www.3xupload.com to xtube or pornotube , they have real amateur uploaded user submission , really closer to a You Tube adult site.

  89. thomas55

    There’s also http://www.pussyupload.com that’s a new web site and very easy to use to upload images and share it.

  90. Kaydub

    I’ve found a great site to upload and view free adult movies, it works the same a pornotube. http://www.uploadthenshare.com

    cheers,

  91. richard

    yeah it is a foolish thing to talk about nut i do love goood porn i know we all can agree on that u see there are only a few good site i like sexgoog.net and yuvutu.com there the best with good content of ameture videos

  92. sh00k

    Not that I spend a lot of time on this, but http://www.youporn.com is the same type of thing, but it’s clips have no limit to how long they are and tend to be over the 5 minutes mark.

  93. Freaky Z

    Damn! I thought I had this idea first! My name for it was Boob Tube.

  94. Chrissie

    Boob Tube…interesting.

  95. James

    Here is an other youtube porn clone: http://www.showyourporn.com

  96. Joe P.

    These porno tubes are becomming a dime a dozen. Heck, what do you expect. People are into sex and cute girls. Myself, I am happy with a sexy babe like Hayden Panettiere on Heroes, but I guess this will be a big hit anyway. Porn and sex sell and gets vistors

  97. Jesse

    I really dont think Adobe cares. thats the least of there problems… and your probly a user at pornotube.

  98. Butt Man

    Found yet another adult youtube site - http://www.pacoporn.com.

    According to their press release:

    “Pacoporn.com is a new adult video sharing platform that allows bloggers and adult content providers the ability upload and embed shared content that is freely accessible to everyone.”

    enjoy!

  99. orgyjoe

    i have found an other great porn tube site its called http://www.bestporntube.com check it out!

  100. youtube clone

    any one know how this is going?

  101. cheap web hosting

    where does youtube host their web site?

  102. nana

    best……………….

  103. apbt

    Hey there’s nothing wrong with all the Pervert tube and filthy tube poping up left and right. Sex is human nature, and living in a capitalistic society, business tends to exploit “human nature”.

  104. daniela

    oh yes, sex is absolutely human nature and it seems these days that watching part is human nature too ;) pornotube is still by far the best out of all these adult tubes, most of them are just copycats. take a look at http://www.pornotubeblog.com/ these guys always show the best amateur movies from porno tube!

  105. sucker

    does anyone here know by a porn website called something like http://www.d***boy.com?? i went der b4 but i forgot the url !! DAMN..

  106. grazitaly

    Cool!