Why are paid porn sites so expensive?

[Guy]

Why are paid porn sites so expensive? http://www.die-screaming.com/porn-memberships-expensive-429291/

 

[mynameisbob84]

I think the article has it arse about face.

"Porn producers complaining about tube sites would do well to lower their prices before complaining" (I'm paraphrasing, innit) doesn't really wash when it's because of the tube sites that the prices are so high.

If 100 people want to watch porn but can't access it for free, then a porn site has 100 customers. In the interest of simplicity, let's say the site needs to generate $500 a month to pay their servers, pay the performers, cover any other costs and make enough of a profit to make it worthwhile. They can then afford to charge $5 a month per customer.

If however, 100 people want to watch porn but have access to all the free porn they want, then the site will have far fewer customers. Let's be optimistic and say 5 of those 100 people still opt to pay a monthly subscription for their porn, then in order to make the same money, the site now needs to charge $100 a month.

 

[DrWangFei]

Why are paid porn sites so expensive? http://www.die-screaming.com/porn-memberships-expensive-429291/

With the amount of content you get from those sites, most of them (I think) update content on a daily/bi-daily basis... $27/month (avg from that link) is expensive at all.

 

[Empress Mika]

Why are paid porn sites so expensive? http://www.die-screaming.com/porn-memberships-expensive-429291/

I completely disagree with this article in its entirety. I'm not sure why the author is comparing porn subscription sites to vanilla movie subscription services like Netflix. They are two completely different things, in my opinion. In fact, I think porn membership sites are a HUGE bargain.

Porn is a "high-risk" business that places like Netflix do not have to worry about. Having a payment processor for an adult site is more expensive than having one for a vanilla site, and that is just the tip of the ice berg.

My view point mostly comes from the fact that I sell clips. On Clips4Sale, the minimum amount for a clip is $1/minute + .99cents. This would make a 5 minute video be $5.99 minimum. Many guys buy multiple clips and many spend well over $20-$30 a month on clips. For most clips, $20-$30 is 21 minutes to maybe 45 minutes-ish tops of content. For that same price range of $20-$30 a month, they can subscribe to a porn membership and have access to hundreds-thousands of videos and content, well over 45 minutes worth of content.

 

[Guy]

I completely disagree with this article in its entirety. I'm not sure why the author is comparing porn subscription sites to vanilla movie subscription services like Netflix. They are two completely different things, in my opinion. In fact, I think porn membership sites are a HUGE bargain.

Porn is a "high-risk" business that places like Netflix do not have to worry about. Having a payment processor for an adult site is more expensive than having one for a vanilla site, and that is just the tip of the ice berg.

My view point mostly comes from the fact that I sell clips. On Clips4Sale, the minimum amount for a clip is $1/minute + .99cents. This would make a 5 minute video be $5.99 minimum. Many guys buy multiple clips and many spend well over $20-$30 a month on clips. For most clips, $20-$30 is 21 minutes to maybe 45 minutes-ish tops of content. For that same price range of $20-$30 a month, they can subscribe to a porn membership and have access to hundreds-thousands of videos and content, well over 45 minutes worth of content.

Is online porn really "high risk"?

 

[ThePrincessLuxy]

Is online porn really "high risk"?

Uhm. Yes I would say so. It is highly stigmatized and can cost you public humiliation and careers.

 

[Guy]

Uhm. Yes I would say so. It is highly stigmatized and can cost you public humiliation and careers.

The term " high risk" refers to industries that have high chargeback rates.

 

[ThePrincessLuxy]

The term " high risk" refers to industries that have high chargeback rates.

Oh! Yes, online porn has lots of charge back rates. I have no idea why though. A lot of girls stick to cam sites that offer charge back protection for that reason.

 

[Sevrin]

The sites on that list don't have download limits for the most part. What people do is join the site for a month, download years of whatever turns them on and then cancel their subscriptions. Most of those sites are considerably cheaper per month for long-time subscribers. I belonged to MET Art for a few years at $99 a year, whereas a monthly subscription is now $19.99, which is cheaper than it was 10 years ago.

I've subscribed to a lot of sites over the years. Somebody has to pay for porn, or those girls will just keep their clothes on!

 

[JoleneBrody]

Yeah... Porn site subscriptions are low as hell.

And "high risk" is the term used by payment processors to justify the insanely high rates charged to adult sites.

 

[Violet Dawn]

There is so much wrong with that article.

It does make me think of all the people in the world who are starving and cannot afford basic necessities, but this guy is complaining that he doesn't want to pay that much for porn. PORN.

Sorry I'm going through rough times financially so my minds been on poor countries so I don't pity myself too much.

 

[Camgirl]

Oh! Yes, online porn has lots of charge back rates. I have no idea why though. A lot of girls stick to cam sites that offer charge back protection for that reason.

I think it has so many chargebacks from buyer remorse, scammers, and maybe married people denying the purchase when their spouse sees the charge and claiming fraud.

Not really related, but sorta - brought up a sort of funny and crazy memory..

Back in the mid 80's party chat lines (1-900 numbers) were all over TV. I was 10 and my brother was 12. We called the party chat line all the time for a month messing with all the different supposedly local people on the lines. We even (stupidly) gave some rando our neighbors address to see if they would show up! When my mom got the phone bill it was SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS! This was in 1985!!! Anyway, my mom explained that it was her kids that did it and they reversed every last charge!!

 

[LuckySmiles]

I think it has so many chargebacks from buyer remorse, scammers, and maybe married people denying the purchase when their spouse sees the charge and claiming fraud.

Not really related, but sorta - brought up a sort of funny and crazy memory..

Back in the mid 80's party chat lines (1-900 numbers) were all over TV. I was 10 and my brother was 12. We called the party chat line all the time for a month messing with all the different supposedly local people on the lines. We even (stupidly) gave some rando our neighbors address to see if they would show up! When my mom got the phone bill it was SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS! This was in 1985!!! Anyway, my mom explained that it was her kids that did it and they reversed every last charge!!

You just reminded me I did something similar when I was around 5 years old for a telephone number to "Santa Claus" that was advertised on TV. An older sibling asked my mom or whoever if it was ok the first time so I called with them and I guess everyone had a laugh... but then I called Santa all by myself a few times. hahahha I must have had to get or give vital intel. I couldn't have been the only kid that did that though.

I don't remember what the charges were but I know it was bad, and I wasn't allowed to call Santa anymore.

EDIT: HAHAHAHHAHA

 

[Guy]

I've subscribed to a lot of sites over the years. Somebody has to pay for porn, or those girls will just keep their clothes on!

Have you ever subscribed to Cosmid or FTV Girls?

 

[Mikey_P]

It is totally high risk and so are adult dating sites. Around 7 years ago I was an affiliate for cam, porn and adult dating sites and the chargeback rate is really high. A lot of affiliates and sites lost a ton of money when payment processors would drop sites.

 

[Guy]

It is totally high risk and so are adult dating sites. Around 7 years ago I was an affiliate for cam, porn and adult dating sites and the chargeback rate is really high. A lot of affiliates and sites lost a ton of money when payment processors would drop sites.

Is it because of sexual dissatisfaction?

 

[Mikey_P]

Is it because of sexual dissatisfaction?

I think it is more about impulse spending, regret, guilt, thinking with the little brain, spending more money than they should, tricky incentive marketing (something that affiliates do a lot that causes customers to charge back.)

 

[Guy]

I think it is more about impulse spending, regret, guilt, thinking with the little brain, spending more money than they should, tricky incentive marketing (something that affiliates do a lot that causes customers to charge back.)

What's tricky incentive marketing?

 

[yummybrownfox]

Is it because of sexual dissatisfaction?

I think Camgirl already answered this question for you earlier when she said...

I think it has so many chargebacks from buyer remorse, scammers, and maybe married people denying the purchase when their spouse sees the charge and claiming fraud.

 

[Sevrin]

Have you ever subscribed to Cosmid or FTV Girls?

FTV Girls several years ago for a month. That's an example of a site with a LOT of content.

 

[LuckySmiles]

What's tricky incentive marketing?

If you want to go down a youtube rabbit hole of awesomeness search
1-900 number commercials. There's Ice Cube,New Kids on the Block, Hulk Hogan Hotline, The Coreys, A bunch of crazy stuff aimed at kids, and of course all the phone sex and psychic hotline ones. It's amazing they were allowed for so long.

When you look at them now like how could anyone fall for it, and kind of understand why some older folk are so skeptical of webcam sites hah.

The FTC kind of shot them all down in 1993 by making laws tougher and requiring people to get a clear warning when calling these numbers without being initially charged.

So like... shady marketing would be like those phone numbers telling you, that you were going to get to talk to Corey Haim himself, or get to tell the real Santa Clause what you wanted for Christmas. But it was all a racket to get charged dollars per minute on phone bills.

It's the same as the webcam spam bots telling you can have "real sex now!" "with horny live girls in your area!"

 

[Mikey_P]

What's tricky incentive marketing?

LuckySmiles gave a good answer.

Deceptive marketing where the customer believes they are receiving something that they are not. I know that when affiliate adult dating offers were really popular there was a form of marketing called ewhoring, which has many diff' versions but what most ppl that i know did was pretend to be women in order to have ppl sign up to various sites. They used various forms of automation and trickery to do this. There was also a lot of that going on with cams affiliates too.

Some went as far to use background check aff orders to pretend like the woman wasn't trying to make sure that her potential hookup partner was safe! Different forms of craigslist swinger ads/clubs with the same bkgrnd check scam.

Also, what someone said above impulse + worrying about their spouse finding out.

 

[MDouble00]

I didn't read the article but as a person who has continually had pornsite subscriptions for the better part of the last 10 years I would have to say most of the monthly fee structures have went down. Since I've discovered camsites I've maintained less subscriptions and opted to buy more direct interest videos on girls from manyvids and clips4sale.

I'm also going to play devils advocate and say that I've been known to join a site and download a lot of the back catalog and then discontinue my membership. This is primarily done with sites that don't update that often or the updates they do are very pedestrian. That doesn't mean I'll never rejoin the site, it's just that once I've got my fill I will discontinue and wait until I see a bunch of new content to justify my re-subscribing.

I usually do 90 day subscriptions, with the auto-reup/opt out method. This granted is if I like the pricing model. I know there are some newer sites that have the plans I like but they have pricing points for upfront costs that I'd rather not have. I also can't stick to a site that doesn't allow you to download the videos.

 

[Boog]

I'm annoyed after reading that. Hes comparing apples to oranges by insisting adult only premium sites should lower their prices to match Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. Then its not like his focal point is VOD services are a better expense if you only need a few minutes to pop and aren't looking for someone/something specific, hes still renting time to full movies which varies in rental price depending on the movie and excludes/ignores the download aspect. Then he lists a rough estimate price difference between the the two options as ~$2.72. How is that so much better than subbing to a premium site?

 

[Albert_1]

I don't know about you lot but I have a hard time finding something to fap to on netflix.

 

[TacoBelle]

I don't know about you lot but I have a hard time finding something to fap to on netflix.

Two words: Peaky Blinders.

 

[Albert_1]

Two words: Peaky Blinders.

Well, he is dreamy so...

 

[Guy]

I completely disagree with this article in its entirety. I'm not sure why the author is comparing porn subscription sites to vanilla movie subscription services like Netflix. They are two completely different things, in my opinion. In fact, I think porn membership sites are a HUGE bargain.

Porn is a "high-risk" business that places like Netflix do not have to worry about. Having a payment processor for an adult site is more expensive than having one for a vanilla site, and that is just the tip of the ice berg.

My view point mostly comes from the fact that I sell clips. On Clips4Sale, the minimum amount for a clip is $1/minute + .99cents. This would make a 5 minute video be $5.99 minimum. Many guys buy multiple clips and many spend well over $20-$30 a month on clips. For most clips, $20-$30 is 21 minutes to maybe 45 minutes-ish tops of content. For that same price range of $20-$30 a month, they can subscribe to a porn membership and have access to hundreds-thousands of videos and content, well over 45 minutes worth of content.

What is a "vanilla site"?

 

[Empress Mika]

What is a "vanilla site"?

Vanilla means non-adult / non-porn. One example is Netflix.

Although vanilla also means non-fetish in the porn world. I guess it was not the best choice of words ^_^;

 

[Guy]

I'm annoyed after reading that. Hes comparing apples to oranges by insisting adult only premium sites should lower their prices to match Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. Then its not like his focal point is VOD services are a better expense if you only need a few minutes to pop and aren't looking for someone/something specific, hes still renting time to full movies which varies in rental price depending on the movie and excludes/ignores the download aspect. Then he lists a rough estimate price difference between the the two options as ~$2.72. How is that so much better than subbing to a premium site?

He also ignored the fact that none of those paid porn sites have millions of subscribers like those three streaming sites do.