How did we get to this point?
When TGPs started in the 90's many people complained that they were giving away too much porn for free. As technology progressed and videos become more popular the free porn standard changed to 30 second video clips. For the most part the TGP/MGP sites controlled the market and obeyed an unsaid standard limiting how much free porn could be displayed on their sites. Today, the standard seems to have changed to 2 minute video clips and the TGP/MGP sites are no longer the sites setting the standard.

Enter tube sites...
Porn tube sites have only become popular in the last 12 to 18 months. As bandwidth prices dropped, more and more tube sites were launched changing the standard of free porn on the net daily. On most tube sites the standard is 2 minutes, however 3 minute videos are becoming more and more common. But, the real killer is the illegal tube sites that are loaded with stolen, full length videos. Technology and laws have failed to slow down the illegal tubes sites which commonly give away 20+ minute videos clips.

Stolen Content is only as good as the means to distribute it, bandwidth prices use to keep things in check.

Stolen content is not a new problem, however the means to distribute it weren't the best in the past. Take p2p, file sharing type sites for example. They were able to find a way around the high cost of bandwidth to distribute stolen content but they were not user friendly sites by any means. On a p2p site you don't get to see a preview image of the video, download time is not fast at all, and there is a very good chance that what you downloaded is not what you wanted. Then thrown in the fact you had to download from people you did not know and take a chance of getting viruses, you can see why that method never become very popular, especially with inexperienced surfers. On the other hand, the tube site model is very easy to use, you can get a valid description and picture of the video before you play it, and you don't have to download the video so no worries about viruses. P2P is a joke compared to tube sites, take a look at alexa's top 100 sites and you will see several illegal tube sites listed there

When will this stop? Why do people keep giving away more and more porn?

Before you can understand why people give away free porn you first have to understand that there are two types of porn sites, interactive and non interactive websites. Simply put, interactive sites provide interaction between the website and the member, in ways such as live cams, chat, messageboards, etc. Non interactive sites are your traditional picture and video type site. Both types of sites use free content for advertising purposes. However the non interactive sites have a major limitation, they can only give away so much for free before they give the entire site away. On the other hand the interactive sites can give away massive amounts of pictures and videos and still use the " interaction " (live webcam, chat, etc..) as a major selling feature.

The non interactive sites are basically being squeezed out of the market. Three years ago both types of sites would give away 30 second clips for advertising and both sites still had a lot to offer to their members. For the non interactive sites if you liked the 30 second clip you could signup and watch the full video. There was still value there and an incentive for people to signup. Today, interactive sites are not only trying to compete with more and more free content being used for advertising purposes but also with content thieves that are displaying their full length videos. With illegal tube sites giving away full length videos there is no value or incentive left for people to signup to non interactive sites, everything is now being given away for free not just samples anymore. Interactive sites can continue to make sales because no one has been able to figure out a way to steal live video and actual human contact. Perhaps in 100 years there will be hot robot girls who look real giving cam shows and chatting with members, then we are all screwed.

The equation of disaster for non interactive sites: Stolen content + tube sites - high bandwidth prices - lack of technology or laws to stop theft = death of non interactive membership sites.

The other problem for non interactive sites is that this only affects them so good luck getting the industry together to fight this problem. Some benefit from it, some don't and some don't care. The interactive sites can keep pace and give more and more videos and pictures away for free to keep their traffic up. They use their live cams etc.. to upsell. So basically, the way it is going, all videos and pictures will be used for advertising purposes and generating traffic, unless something changes soon that will be the standard over the next couple years. This isn't doom and gloom for porn, interactive sites will still do well, but it will push non interactive sites to brink of extinction. They will have the choice to adapt by adding interaction, in which case they could use their videos and pictures to get traffic to upsell, or they will continue to watch their sales dwindle as more and more of their content is stolen and given away for free. While interactive sites will benefit from their loss and they will always be able to retain something of value to sell to the surfer who is looking for more.


Is free porn really the problem?

Yes and no. I say no because there are people who will refuse to pay and will find something for free to jerk off to. If you removed the internet people would jerk off to R-rated cable shows or Victoria Secret magazines if they were too cheap to pay for a playboy or rent the ppv porn movie on cable. Its no different online, the people who do not want to pay for porn will instead pleasure themselves to the best free porn available, whatever that may be. So if you removed full length videos they would jerk to the 2 minute clips, if you removed those they would just watch the 30 second clips to satisfy themselves. If you removed those they would jerk off to still pictures, if you removed those, then they would jerk off to the Victoria Secret website. You get the picture. The people who don't want to pay wont. The people who do want to pay will if you give them a reason to signup. So free porn in general is not a bad thing, it is great to use for advertising, it is when you get to the point of giving away the value or reason for someone to signup, that's when you have a problem. If your full length porn videos are all over the net what is the reason for someone who normally would signup to your site to do so now? So the problem isn't so much free porn and giving away " too much" it is making sure you don't give away everything. You must retain something of value for them to signup to get access to.