Zivity is an adult content social network and user generated content site (they call it “Promoting Beauty 2.0″). It has the distinction of being one of the first adult content startups to be backed by venture capital via a $1 million seed round in 2007, and it caused quite a stir at its official launch at TechCrunch40. As we mentioned last month, mainstream press is starting to pay serious attention to them.
The company will announce a new $7 million round of financing in a deal led by both BlueRun Ventures and Founders Fund. The company has now raised a total of $8 million. The social networking experience that these VCs add is substantial. Founders Fund is an early Facebook investor. Both are investors in Slide.
John Malloy of BlueRun Ventures and Luke Nosek of Founders Fund join Zivity co-founders Scott Banister, Cyan Banister (who also models for the site) and Jeffrey Wescott on the company’s board of directors.
The site allows both amateur and professional models and photographers to show their stuff. Users vote on those that they like, which channel real dollars to the talent. The more votes, the more money. The basic site is free, but users must pay to vote. About 40% of gross revenue is given directly to the talent. With a recent redesign, the site is focused much more on social networking - users and talent have profile pages and can add each other as friends. They’ve even added a news feed feature that shows who is adding who as friends, and which models users have voted for.
Zivity remains in private beta (and will likely stay there until early 2009), although current users are given invitations to give to their friends. That means that most people joining the site today already know someone who’s using it, and can add them as a friend. In my “testing” of the site I noticed that the current users seem active in voting and friending. My guess is that building the community slowly but focusing on active users is a good way to go. And besides, anyone that really wants in can get an invitation on InviteShare.
The taboo about public sex is slowly being lifted.
People think about it incessantly - either consciously or subconsciously - so society might as well come to grips with the need for outlets
>The taboo about public sex is slowly being lifted.
Maybe where you’re from but that is not the case for US.
I like Zivity but they are in a horrible marketplace since porn sites are next to impossible to sell for a large valuation.
Wow… does TC own stock in this site? Seem to be promoting it a lot. For a rather mainstream site, the TC articles are really “pimping” up the site. I checked it out via a TC invite earlier but don’t see $7mm in VC coming into it. Guess the VC partners don’t have any issues investing in an adult related site. They based in the Valley?
daves - this one did ok -
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007.....0-million/
it’s not porn, but it is adult content and is certainly more questionable than zivity.
david - zivity is controversial, which makes it interesting. my disclosures are all on our about page.
Who the hell pays for porn on the internet? Just hit up redtube, pornotube, megarotic, etc. Likewise, thousands of erotic pictures are available for free just by searching. I don’t understand who would pay for the right to vote on some pictures and talk to other people who like the same hot women. I swear VCs hand money to anyone.
Why would an adult content site need VC funding?
“It has the distinction of being one of the first adult content
startups to be backed by venture capital”
That could be considered a dubious distinction. I guess time will tell.
“And besides, anyone that really wants in can get an invitation on InviteShare.”
Yeah right. 6 invites ‘given’ and 173 ‘pending’. Have you not realised that inviteshare is quickly becoming useless for any real beta/invite only sites? Shame, it could have been great.
@6, yes - i’d have to agree…porn is abundantly free.
“VCs will hand money to anyone” - yes, anyone co. where the founders have an ivy-league degree.
i think it will bomb.
Zivity doesn’t sound sexy, the site and name looks just like a private modeling agency
very nice idea. im very sure this will be a hit..
18 U.S.C. Section 2257
http://www.law.cornell.edu/usc.....-000-.html
Adult content social network? Yes, finally! I want to have sex!!!
Mike - last week on the FM sale story, in the comments you noted that they take 40% and believed that was too high.
Zivity takes 60%, what’s your take here? I get that you really like this service, but isn’t this percentage a bit off when you take into account how much “work” the woman must do just to maybe earn?
beta till early 2009…..thts really bold, but is it that wise?
haha, was going to post the same thing as david until i read it had already been witten, sorry just boggles me why it keeps popping uo,.
its getting old now
The Internet was built on porn, just like many other industries were.
The Bannisters know how to make a startup. I am excited to see how Zivity evolves.
Looks like I’m not alone in thinking that it’s quite ridiculous how much coverage you’re giving this company. Is it really all that innovative anyway?
By the way, what is the difference between porn and adult content? All you’re doing is legitimizing a sleezy industry, making sex more accessible to everyone (which it doesn’t really need the help of millions of more dollars anyway), and giving young girls more chances to regret their adolescent decisions.
Michael, I appreciate your work; I’m an avid reader. I respectfully discourage you to use your influence to promote the sex industry, however.
Zivity wants a credit card for the free beta, for verification. I am not willing to do this.
Here is a question:
who are all these people on sites like redtube playing with themselves? What’s the upside? why post explicit sex of you or a partner? wHAT can this get you?
Patrick said “giving young girls more chances to regret their adolescent decisions”.
This site, along with all the social neworks ( FB and MySpace) will be the cause of many people, ot just young girls, to regret decisions made on the internet. Either people just don’t care or so looking for someplace to belong; they don’t realize what goes around , comes around. It’s gonna bite so many people in their ass. It happens everyday, so zivity is no worse than FB really. Who knows, if Arrington gets payment in kind ( wink wink ), what’s the harm? if he makes a few bucks on the side, may the Gods be with him. LOL
social networks are getting played out.
Good one Michael for putting your own profile.
it gives the impression that you have done research and will leave no content or industry out for the sake of entrepreneurship.
Thanks.. don’t know much about the company but i liked techcrunch’s enthusiasm on exploring all matters !
keep it up!
It’s nice to see them copying more from Suicide Girls, who already had profile pages for the models and ways to friend them. And an active blogging and message board network.
with a multi-billion dollar porn industry, they may just make a buck or two
Really good coverage Mike as this is a great site with a really interesting business model.
Taken from the Forbes ‘07 interview.
…..”We like to think of Zivity as the HBO of the Web.”…..
I think they have as good a shot as anyone. I just wish that they would have responded to my email I sent them after signing up last time. I received an invitation, went through the sign up, put in my credit card info (ONLY to verify age) and got an error, sent email……Never heard back from them otherwise I could have given a better user experience and feedback…..oh well.
For me the bigger part of the story is the participation of BlueRun Ventures. It should not come as a surprise that The Founders Fund invested due to the close ties -this was known and expected. But, the fact that another *legitimate* VC fund participated took me by surprise. What will BlueRun Ventures Limited Partners think? Personally, I think its bold and like the aggressive approach. Would Kleiner or Sequoia ever participate in such an opportunity?
Again, I reiterate that The Founders Fund is disrupting the status quo VC model…….
spankeedoodle.com is a great adult site too.
This is a total joke. People won’t use this for porn; there are much more interesting and free places to find that. People won’t use this for social networking; there are much more interesting and useful places for that.
What exactly is this offering that would make people suddenly want to visit repeatedly, and more succinctly, what the fuck are these investors considering in throwing this money around?
Hey BlueRun - I’ve got this great idea where I eat a lot of Indian food and take a dump on a public sidewalk in the city. I’ll take a photo, upload it, and build a social network around it. I’ll call it Shitivity. You’ll love it.
lol @ hater
redtube.com, megarotic.com, xtube.com, pornhub.com and youporn.com will always be bigger than these social networking sites…
Millions of dollars? That means it will devolve into a spam vehicle. Just look at gexo.com
That’s so funny, Hater!
Zivity is simply porn disguised as “art”. Add a social network (which is the only other thing these VC boys understand), and you’ve got a really uncreative and lame start-up idea. VC boy back scratching is the only reason this company has gotten the funding it has.
And if they think giving the models 40% is going to empower them and “revolutionize” the porn industry, they are equally delusional. At the end of the day this project is simply another attempt by boys with money and power to fatten their pockets further by convincing young women to take their clothes off for “art” and a few more dollars in their panty straps.
Congrats to Zivity on getting funding. Now, let’s see how you do with it. Remember, many eyes are on you.
Do not a nice site
investing in scott banister is smart.
zivity is just like a old internet site called bikini.com ….without the bikinis…they got blown out but didnt have scott doing the coding.
what a great post.
that is a great post
trying again to respond
last time
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is this web 2.0? seems to have lots of web 2.0 style features
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Who is going to pay to vote?
If I were a model or artist/photographer of the quality they are obviously hoping to attract, I’d have a real problem with the idea of them using my content to build traffic and membership in exchange for a 40% payout of some imaginary pay-to-vote bonanza. There are plenty of sites which will pay models and artists cold hard cash for quality adult content.
I’m not confident they’ll get much traction with a 40% payout. Part of the reason MyFreeImplants has been so successful is because we pay out 85% and give members a lot of freedom as to how they earn.
I don’t see these VC’s ever getting paid!
@Alex: sorry that you had a problem signing up — drop us an email (info@zivity.com) and we’ll get you sorted out right away!