Internet History Keeper
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Era 11970–19932 stories
Before the web: tapes, catalogues and pay TV
Home video and mail order build the first mass market that web businesses later grow out of: the VHS vs Betamax format war, publishers with public filings, pay cable channels.
Sony
Betamax
Sony released Betamax in 1975, the first mass-market home video recorder, with a better picture than its competitors.
What Wikipedia does not have: The first American Betamax was a television, not just a recorder.
JVC
VHS
JVC released the VHS format in 1976, a year after Sony and its Betamax, and openly licensed it to any manufacturer.
What Wikipedia does not have: The engineer at the origins of JVC's video division retired two years before VHS was released.
Era 21994–19996 stories
Early web: subscriptions and the birth of high-risk billing
The first paid websites and the billing companies that learned to handle chargebacks, recurring payments and banks unwilling to carry that volume.
Playboy Enterprises
A magazine conceived in 1953 on $600 and someone else's photo of Marilyn Monroe, bought for $500, grew into a media empire with a magazine, cable TV, and one of the first sites on the web (1994), but it had been losing readers…
What Wikipedia does not have: The cover that made the first issue was not a Playboy shoot.
Danni's Hard Drive
One of the first profitable subscription sites in the history of the internet: its founder taught herself HTML, built the site from scratch on her own for $8,000, and turned a free audience from Usenet into a subscription…
What Wikipedia does not have: She formally described the architecture of the entire industry, and chose not to be a directory herself.
Penthouse
General Media
A magazine that the unemployed artist Bob Guccione put together at a kitchen table in London in 1965 specifically to shoot down Playboy's rabbit had pushed its circulation to almost 5 million copies a month by 1979 (though,…
What Wikipedia does not have: The company went bankrupt three times, not once
Persian Kitty
A free directory of links to sex sites that former accountant Beth Mansfield launched in 1995 as a traffic experiment, and that banner advertising turned into a business earning over $1 million a year by 1998.
What Wikipedia does not have: Persian Kitty's first advertiser paid not for an ad campaign but for a hosting bill.
iBill
Internet Billing Company
One of the first major payment processing intermediaries for adult sites: it took on chargebacks and bank relationships for a commission of 12–20% (according to retrospectives); in 2002, by its CEO's account, it ran about $450…
What Wikipedia does not have: iBill was placed in Visa's anti-fraud program (RIS), with fines from $5,000 to $100,000 a month
CCBill
A billing company from Tempe, Arizona: since 1998 it has taken on card payment acceptance and chargebacks for adult sites and other high-risk content that ordinary banks do not want to work with.
What Wikipedia does not have: Buyers complain that a dispute over a single payment shuts them out of every site on CCBill
Era 32000–20068 stories
Traffic economics: affiliates and processing
Affiliate networks, tracking and international processing: the infrastructure that mainstream affiliate marketing grew out of, and the card network rules that set the limits for all high-risk commerce.
iFriends
Web Power
One of the early paid live video chat services: the customer pays for minutes, the host gets a share of revenue (from 50%, according to the company's claims), and the platform takes on the customers, billing, and weekly payouts.
What Wikipedia does not have: "1996" is not iFriends.
Beate Uhse
A German company that sold adult products through catalogs and in stores, and from 1999 was publicly listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
What Wikipedia does not have: In 2006–2011 all four segments fell almost equally.
Private Media Group
A European group (Sweden, Spain, Cyprus) that published and distributed adult print and video products.
What Wikipedia does not have: The public "Private Media Group" is a former stock-market shell with a failed deal behind it.
Epoch
Paycom
Epoch is an American payment provider from California that, from the late 1990s, accepted card payments for sites whose sales volumes ordinary banks considered too risky: it signed contracts with acquiring banks itself and,…
What Wikipedia does not have: The processor was itself a merchant of the network.
LiveJasmin
Docler Holding
A Hungarian paid video chat platform with performers, launched in 2001, that became one of the largest sites in this market.
What Wikipedia does not have: Out of every €100 of revenue in 2020, the platform kept less than €5.
Too Much Media
NATS
Too Much Media is a small American company from New Jersey that in the 2000s sold owners of paid sites a program called NATS, which calculates which webmaster brought in which buyer and how much that webmaster is owed for it.
What Wikipedia does not have: The software made money from licenses, not from a share of affiliate payouts.
Segpay
Segpay is a payment intermediary from South Florida that since the summer of 2005 has accepted card payments for subscriptions and digital goods from sites with an elevated risk of payment reversals.
What Wikipedia does not have: The British legal entity is six years younger than the company.
Elevated X
Elevated X is an American company from Los Angeles that since 2006 has sold owners of paid sites for an adult audience a ready-made management system: video upload and processing, update scheduling, memberships, payments.
What Wikipedia does not have: The product was born out of the team's own sites.
Era 42007–20152 stories
Tubes and consolidation
Free video sites push the price of content to zero; the market consolidates into a few heavily indebted holding companies.
FriendFinder Networks
formerly Penthouse Media Group
FriendFinder Networks is a holding company that in December 2007 bought the Various network of dating sites (AdultFriendFinder), mostly for notes to the sellers, and combined it with Penthouse magazine.
What Wikipedia does not have: The 2013 bankruptcy was filed under PMGI Holdings
MindGeek
Manwin, Aylo since 2023
MindGeek is a holding company that in 2010–2013 assembled free adult video sites and several paid sites into a single structure, and in 2023 changed owners and its name to Aylo.
What Wikipedia does not have: The empire started out being bought in installments and without a loan.
Era 52016–20262 stories
Creator platforms and payment de-risking
Direct payments to creators instead of studios, and with them dependence on card networks: the 2020–2021 cutoffs showed who actually sets the rules.
ManyVids
ManyVids is a Canadian platform from Montreal where independent creators sell clips, merchandise, subscriptions, and personal services, while the platform takes 20% to 40%.
What Wikipedia does not have: The platform is visible in the archive half a year before the "2014 launch."
OnlyFans
Fenix International
OnlyFans is a British platform where fans pay creators directly for subscriptions and paid messages, and the platform keeps about 20%.
What Wikipedia does not have: Non-subscription payments overtook subscriptions.
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