Co-founders shut down site due to creative differences in the face of growing pressure from video pornography podcasts
April 1, 2006 (Press Release) --
Podwanker.com, one of the world's first audio pornography blogs, will shut down and sell its assets after a dispute between its two co-founders failed to be resolved.
Co-founder Ryan Bishop will use proceeds from the sale to start a new adult-themed business. The other co-founder, who did not wish to be identified, will pursue an unrelated business.
Podwanker.com, founded in October 2005, rose to prominence with the growing popularity of podcasts and adult-themed content created for the platform. The site had been profiled in blogs such as Fleshbot.com, AVNOnline.com, DominantDiva.com and StripPocket.com. While other content creators focused on video content, Podwanker.com concentrated on what it believed to be an underserved market for audio pornography.
"I thought, and still do believe, that we had a great business model," Mr Bishop said. "The video podcast porn sites offer content that is really no different from what's already widely available over the internet. Podwanker.com, on the other hand, offered erotic audio content for the millions of MP3 player devices in the market today. And unlike video podcast porn, you can listen to audio porn in public and not be embarrassed."
Many audio pornography sites feature chat on adult subjects. Podwanker.com, however, was billed as "Podcast porn you can wank to." It's content sourcing model relied on partnerships with phone-sex operators to provide erotic, yet cheap-to-produce audio content.
Podwanker.com targeted a podcast audience that is largely male. According to Forrester Research, more than 12 million households will listen to podcasts by 2010, but at present the audience is small with a penetration rate of just 1 percent of all internet users. Forrester estimated 78 percent of today's podcast audiece to be male. This made Podwanker.com an attractive advertising platform to companies such as online casinos.
"Within a few weeks of launch we quickly sold out our inventory," Mr Bishop said, estimating the value of the spots at more than US$50 per thousands downloads. The radio advertising market is worth US$21 billion annually, according to Forrester.
But at its peak Podwanker.com never attracted more than 14,000 downloads per episode and the blog has been dormant since January as Mr Bishop and his partner attempted to work out "creative differences" and map the future direction of the company. "My partner saw the growing competition from the video podcast porn sites in the wake of the video iPod and PlayStation Portable. I, however, thought Podwanker.com should remain true to its roots," he said.
Mr Bishop dismissed notions that the sale of Podwanker.com indicated the "podcast bubble" had popped. "The penetration rates is just 1 per cent of internet users. This market hasn't yet begun to take off."
Under terms of their settlement agreement, both Mr Bishop and his partner have agreed not to start another adult-themed podcast for at least one year. Mr Bishop said he planned to explore the possibility of a VoIP-based phone sex business.
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For more information, please contact podwanker@yahoo.com
Co-founder Ryan Bishop will use proceeds from the sale to start a new adult-themed business. The other co-founder, who did not wish to be identified, will pursue an unrelated business.
Podwanker.com, founded in October 2005, rose to prominence with the growing popularity of podcasts and adult-themed content created for the platform. The site had been profiled in blogs such as Fleshbot.com, AVNOnline.com, DominantDiva.com and StripPocket.com. While other content creators focused on video content, Podwanker.com concentrated on what it believed to be an underserved market for audio pornography.
"I thought, and still do believe, that we had a great business model," Mr Bishop said. "The video podcast porn sites offer content that is really no different from what's already widely available over the internet. Podwanker.com, on the other hand, offered erotic audio content for the millions of MP3 player devices in the market today. And unlike video podcast porn, you can listen to audio porn in public and not be embarrassed."
Many audio pornography sites feature chat on adult subjects. Podwanker.com, however, was billed as "Podcast porn you can wank to." It's content sourcing model relied on partnerships with phone-sex operators to provide erotic, yet cheap-to-produce audio content.
Podwanker.com targeted a podcast audience that is largely male. According to Forrester Research, more than 12 million households will listen to podcasts by 2010, but at present the audience is small with a penetration rate of just 1 percent of all internet users. Forrester estimated 78 percent of today's podcast audiece to be male. This made Podwanker.com an attractive advertising platform to companies such as online casinos.
"Within a few weeks of launch we quickly sold out our inventory," Mr Bishop said, estimating the value of the spots at more than US$50 per thousands downloads. The radio advertising market is worth US$21 billion annually, according to Forrester.
But at its peak Podwanker.com never attracted more than 14,000 downloads per episode and the blog has been dormant since January as Mr Bishop and his partner attempted to work out "creative differences" and map the future direction of the company. "My partner saw the growing competition from the video podcast porn sites in the wake of the video iPod and PlayStation Portable. I, however, thought Podwanker.com should remain true to its roots," he said.
Mr Bishop dismissed notions that the sale of Podwanker.com indicated the "podcast bubble" had popped. "The penetration rates is just 1 per cent of internet users. This market hasn't yet begun to take off."
Under terms of their settlement agreement, both Mr Bishop and his partner have agreed not to start another adult-themed podcast for at least one year. Mr Bishop said he planned to explore the possibility of a VoIP-based phone sex business.
+++
For more information, please contact podwanker@yahoo.com
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