2002 In Review....

[Mike AI]

IT seems this time of the year everyone does the year in review - news shows, internet sites all go over the past year - the highlights and low lights.

So I was hoping we could do the same here on Oprano.

They can be issues dealing with adult industry, politics, entertainment, etc.. Maybe we can make a top 10 or something.

I would say the biggest story of the year in the adult business is the new VISA regulations. Though so far besides the money grab ($750) not much has changed in reality.

For politics I would say Republicans winning elections and taking house and senate.

Well now its your turn to add more....

[Hooper]

The Epoch comeback seems pretty large to me, they went from being known only for having fucked a lot of people out of a lot of money to being the primary processor for most large paysites.

I would also point at the worldcom debacle as fairly important because of the ibill ramifications.

And reality porn made it's way into the vocabulary of most program owner's minds.

How fun it is looking back...

[Mike AI]

Hoop the Epoch comeback borders on the miraculous - that is a good story for this industry - we need as many solid processors in this industry as we can get.

The bankrupcies of lots of companies, including worldcom, and of course the stock market probably is going to end another year down - 3 total.

Reality porn is nothing new, at least not in video - but it definately hit big online in 2002....

What will year 2003 bring? We know there will be tons of copies - what will be the new trends?

[Hooper]

I'd be suprised if there werent a lot fewer celeb sites around in 2003.. as well i vote that we'll see more of a blur between the lines of adult and non-adult imho.

[Mutt]

how can you forget the biggest story of 2002 Mike?

YOU GOT MARRIED!!!

adult business wise, VISA was the number one story, the reality site craze, that's about it ..... i think Epoch made it's comeback before a year ago? I didn't see any company collapse or any company come out of nowhere in the past year.

I think I know what the story of the year next year will be .... end of a third party processor.

I would give CollegeFuckFest a nod for the most attention paid to a new paysite.

who died last year? i love when they do the rolecall of famous deaths at the end of the year - very sad and pretty moving the way they do them.

[Mike AI]

HAHA Mutt my marriage was my PERSONAL highlight of 2002...


Your prediction for 2003 of the collapse of third party processing is one that is not off the mark - VISA definately wants to shut these guys down. Thing is, if it happens, it will collapse a majority of the industry... that would be huge. Hopefully it will not happen, it seems the 3rd party guys have been working to get their house in order!!

Don't forgrt JLo and her new man.... that is the holywood romance of 2002... figured you would know that Mutt!

[Mutt]

no i don't think the end of all third party processing in 2003.........ONE of them is going to go down. Hooper alluded to it in his post.

i'm not big on JLo. doesn't do much for me.

[Mike AI]

Ahhhh I think we have all been saying each year that a 3rd party processor was going to bite the dust - in 2003 it may be IBill.

Yeah I do not like JLo either, she bugs me... but what do I know?

[gigi]

who died last year? i love when they do the rolecall of famous deaths at the end of the year - very sad and pretty moving the way they do them.

Lots of deaths this year:

Joe Strummer
Joey Ramone (or was this last year??)
Dee Dee Ramone
George Harrison
Queen Mom
Princess Margaret
Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes (from TLC)
Kevin Smith (Played 'Ares' on Xena and Hercules)
Glenn Quinn (played 'Mark' on Rosanne)
John Entwhistle
Ann Landers
Linda Boreman, better known as Linda Lovelace
Dudley Moore
Milton Berle
Waylon Jennings
Dave Thomas (Wendy's)
James Coburn
Jam Master Jay (Run DMC)
Bruce Paltrow (Gwyneth's father)
Aaliyah
Layne Staley (Alice in Chains)
Robert Urich
Lawrence Tierney (Reservoir Dogs)

It feels like there are more though...lol...but man, so many big names died this year, many of them so young....very sad.

[gigi]

Wow, John Gotti died this year too...I didn't know that :P

[slavdogg]

- Major comeback of free trial sign ups
- MILF craze
- Big Cock Sites
- crossbilling and billers no longer get bashed
- Beasty Sites kicked out of US
- gay sites gone more niched


The worse idea for a porn site this year and probably ever
- bum fights and porn

[Mike AI]

Slav so you are saying 2003 will be the Milfs who crave Big Cocks?

I think the crossbilling is different when done through processors and is fairely upfront compaired to some of the other ploys others have used in the past.

As long as their is ful lfiscloser and not hidden in the small print, I think it is cool... and obvioulsy VISA does as well.

[Hooper]

Feel free to go ahead and e-mail me if you know what the next "big thing" is :-)

i promise i wont copy it or tell anybody

hooper AT reallyhonestinventioncorp.com

;-)

[slavdogg]

Milke from where i'm sitting demand for Milfs is not slowing down just yet, but conversions have fallen off a little from its peaks.

>> Milfs who crave Big Cocks?
haha that could be an interesting niche


and yes ful lfiscloser is good )

it only helps the sign ups, not hurts them.

[RawAlex]

2002 big story? The un-social aspects of the adult business - hundreds of webmaster resources and chat boards, everyone niche-ing themselves down to their little corners of the world and not paying attention to anyone else.

Maybe also the start of the squeeze... income is down for almost everyone, and the lower rungs of the ladder are now under water. Those without a snorkel are going to sleep with the fishes soon enough.

2003? Well, with mainstream overdosing on consoles, I expect to see more and more "anti-console" things happen. More and more traffic coming from paid listing and less and less traffic for normal SE listings.

Google dropping a bit as Yahoo slides over to Inktomi, perhaps.

The end of DMOZ as it was known.

Watch the TV... you will see what is next in porn (hint, Survivor didn't draw all that well on it's final night for Thailand... some forms of reality are already burning out... Anyone want to try to write a 30 minute porn situation comedy?)

Alex

[Mutt]

Do you think there isn't enough MILF content out there Slav?

i'm probably going to license content soon and it might be a niche that isn't as saturated as many of the others. To me a MILF is 30 to 45, on MILFHunter they have some women who are closer to 20 than 30.

[*KK*]

Personally moving was a low light, moving back was a highlight lol

The Visa situation is a big thing, the fact that IBill did not make good on its' contracts with webmasters over Web900 is a big thing... some of the more well known sponsors drawing back from the business, almost entirely, not sure how to categorize that...

What Alex mentioned -- it was bound to happen sooner or later, Lord knows we ain't been one big happy family in years... at least 2+ that I can think of... but as the business matures, that's just the way it is. You don't see Carla Fiorini and Michael Dell swapping stories over lunch by themselves... you don't see Ford and GM sharing design secrets... it's not necessarily a bad thing, since as groups segregate they tend to puddle together based on their business practices. IF Visa is looking for a certain subset of people, I dont see them having too much trouble finding them all holding hands...

[sextoyking]

Good posts.

I think 2003 will be near the same as 2002, except I see alot more companies either closing down, merging, etc.

I don't expect the economy to get much better till about 4th quarter 2003 if even that.

right about the big cock sites, we have been doing quite a few of those designs for clients, also alot of gay. Reality seems to have slowed down alot, but ppl are still making good coin out there.

hopefully visa and it's new program to use your card with a password online will help everyone fight and protect themselves against chargebacks.

2003 should be interesting, war is coming, hopefully we don't see any Ashcroft V Porn online wars..

happy holidays

[Vick]

2002 gave us -
Haircuts
Consolidations
Sluggish and or stagnant sales for many
Lack of innovation (I'm guilty)
More bulk emailing campaigns
Visa's ever changing regs
Emphasis on Custom Content
Ibill resembling a plane wreck - hope they can land without too much more damage
Explosion of resource boards
The Sweet's Saga
30 minute trial memberships
Hustler & Webquest success
Bandwidth getting even less expensive
The business not getting as ugly as I predicted ..... yet


For 2003
More consolidations
More Custom Content including all the reality style sites
More Bulk Mailing
More business practices that at one time were deemed sketchy by some becoming acceptable
More broadband connections meaning more users can access video
Pop up killers coming in vogue
Playboy getting their feet wet in the "dirty" part of the adult internet while in search of profits
The continued decline of traffic from traditional website based sources
More sites to have the "amateur" look
Sex will continue to sell and the pie will take new shapes


Am sure there's much more. It will come to me ... and you

[Nickatilynx]

More Bulk Mailing
More business practices that at one time were deemed sketchy by some becoming acceptable

MUHAHAHA

2003....so 3...3+3 is 6...and if you have 3 sixes...,...

MUHAHAHAHA



I do agree with all of that.

But fortunately for me, you are all playing catch up

[Hooper]

---
Pop up killers coming in vogue
---

:grrr:

[voodooman]

Low point???

I STILL havent got laid.

[SykkBoy]

Lowpoint: SykkBoy's generosity and good oldboy from Wyoming nice guy schtick got the better of him and he got embezzled to the tune of $25K
Highpoint: the embezzlee got capped
LowPoint: SykkBoy didn't do it
Highpoint: SykkBoy now has one decent friend in the FBI
Lowpoint: The friend wants to leave the FBI to be in the porn business and refuses to believe there's no money in it ;)

As I predicted, 2002 became the year of the lawyer and 2003 will continue the trend and it will get nastier.

In 2002, some players went away and others emerged, same will happen in 2003.

4th quarter of 2003 will probably see investors a little more (although still begrudgingly) open to investing in porn companies.

2002 was definitely the year of reality porn and for the better. Finally sites that even adult webmasters will join ;)
End of 2002: content once again became king, 2003 good photographers will be snapped up to become fully paid staff members of the major companies and will be more valuable and probably better compensated than board whores.

uberlowpoint of 2002: SykkBoy didn't win the fucking Powerball Wednesday and thus keeps on his string of shitty Christmases and his closer conversion to becoming Jewish...(his was a close tie with SykkBoy getting 7 poundsworth of synthetic hair sewn into his own luxurious mop and then eventually cutting it all off)

Resolutions for 2003:
No more Mr. Nice Guy
Bulking? who gives a fuck, gimme your list, fucker!
Since I actually joined the Al Tracy gym, will actually attend and learn the art of breaking limbs.
Put a twist so twisted on reality porn, that the friend in the FBI may be called upon more than once to help ease any problems with the content ;)
Finally break down and buy a new computer
Give Zoe a pay raise

[*KK*]

wow sykk, you been doing some serious thinking... ;-}}}

[SykkBoy]

Originally posted by SykkBoy@Dec 27 2002, 02:32 AM

Highpoint: the embezzlee got capped
LowPoint: SykkBoy didn't do it

er, fuck, I mean the embezzler got capped, the embezzlee just got fucked ))

KK, nah, I tried thinking once...once....

[Evil Chris]

2002 makes me think of this stuff....

- new Visa (and Mastercard) regulations
- Bumfights fiasco
- ACACIA
- reality sites making more money than ever
- demise of the mega sites
- an increase in the amount of webmaster chat boards
- more people getting fired and/or moving around
- Oprano and Netpond give in and go threaded :P
- pics of Serge and Meat arm in arm at the Florida show!

What I see in 2003:

- dialers in trouble (again)
- processing becoming MORE difficult
- TGP traffic will remain strong
- mailers will DIE. die die die....
- spam suits will be costly (see above)

[ulfie]

TGP traffic has finally turned into such crap that even the best tgp'ers are looking for jobs. I know at least 3 people that made their living doing nothing but tgp submitting now not making enough money to pay their bills and had to get real jobs to make ends meet. These were people making over 100k/yr that were happy with it that now have ratios of 1:5000. A feel a big shakeout is finally going to happen in 2003 in that area which should be good for everyone except the people at the bottom.

Epoch's turnaround is definately a huge victory story. A couple years ago I wouldn't promote anyone that used them as a processor. Now, I prefer them. I remember sitting in Miami last year at cybernet expo and listening to Clay speak about how they were turning things around and thinking, "yeah, right." I was definately wrong about them and I'm glad I was.

[Mike AI]

Top news story for National Geographic is a hoax!!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/20..._toptenaol.html

[KBpimps]

Wow, I can't believe I get to recap another year....

How is this?

-Gary Kremen -SEX.COM victory, and his relaunching of sex.com
-Serge unmasks CONFUCY
-Acacia sends C&D's
-Max Hardcore and Steve Sweet along with Mikey from CD Babes find out what it's like to be probed themselves....
-The year of the sucky TRADESHOW- everyone has had one or is starting one.
-RADIO SHOWS- EVERYONE WANTS ONE OR IS STARTING ONE.
-Joe Elkind kicked out of CEN, and the emotional upheaval that soon follows.
-Danni Ashe still doesn't do dick with anyone :-))
-VISA regulations
-Dave Holio becomes COO of Cybererotica
-Marc De offers health insurance to webmasters
-Mike Rick dies falling off cliff while birdwatching
-Madd Russian RIP dies in car crash in PHX
-Aria Giovanni becomes the IT girl of the web
-Reality Porn becomes saturated ...but not until great sites are discovered like netvideogirls.com and the OX cash's of the world
-Online Pharmacies selling everything from Anthrax shit to Viagra
-SPAM
-MORE SPAM
-KB has only two jobs this year

[LadyLaw]

-KB has only two jobs this year
******************************

KB sweetheart, that IS news!

[Nickatilynx]

-KB has only two jobs this year

There is still 4 days to go

[Mike AI]

KB you are brilliant - I did forget one of the top stories of 2002!

Serge exposing Confucy. For years she antagonized everyone safe in her cocoon of anonimity.... but then she went to far, and Serge made it is #1 task to find out who she was and expose her!

She still posts on boads and snipes, but her venom is not nearly as toxic, since everyone now knows it comes from an old, bitter, stalker.

[gigi]

From Vick: Hustler & Webquest success

I couldn't just let that one slide...hehe That means alot Vick, Thank you! We have worked very hard this year, and I think it shows. But (and this is going to sound sooo...tacky but, it's true) we really aren't anything without our affiliates. They are what keep us going.

It's amazing to read through some of the changes you guys have wrote here...so much has happened in the span of one year. It really verfies the fact that Internet Commerce is ever-changing and VERY fast moving.





Last edited by gigi at Dec 27 2002, 03:29 PM

[KBpimps]

Nick "There is still 4 days to go "

Mike Brilliant know but I do have a near photographic memory.
Bumfights was definitely a big story as well Evil.

Voice Media Finalizes Sale of Web Properties To Offshore company.
people that liked Brad Shaw now hate brad shaw and people who hated Brad Shaw still hate Brad Shaw

[Mutt]

people that liked Brad Shaw now hate brad shaw and people who hated Brad Shaw still hate Brad Shaw

PEARL HALL OF FAME!

[*KK*]

People actually care enough about Brad Shaw to hate him? C'mon now

[SykkBoy]

Originally posted by KBpimps@Dec 27 2002, 03:47 PM
people that liked Brad Shaw now hate brad shaw and people who hated Brad Shaw still hate Brad Shaw

Don't confuse pity with hate

[*KK*]

Ahahahahah

[Mike AI]

Gigi the way Cashquest rolled out Flynt Digital sites was amazing and will be the future roadmaps for others to follow.

Another prediction in 2003 - Cashquest will be running more sites for more companies... I keep on trying to get Ken to run HiRise for me....

[Winetalk.com]

Originally posted by Mike AI@Dec 27 2002, 06:56 PM
Gigi the way Cashquest rolled out Flynt Digital sites was amazing and will be the future roadmaps for others to follow.

Another prediction in 2003 - Cashquest will be running more sites for more companies... I keep on trying to get Ken to run HiRise for me....

Mike, let them run Oprano, we'll just attend PHB3
;-)))

[photogregg]

Haha Mutt...if you want your MIlf's in the 40 year old range, you'll have to come up with the new name: GILF: Grandmothers I love fucking!!!

As for the MILF craving huge cocks...heck I have a hell-uv-a time finding any cock that will get "hard" for film, let alone a huge one Good luck on that niche.

Still haven't seen a successful production of every guys fantasy turned into a reality site: 2 wild women pick up guys and fuck them silly....hummm, have the wild women...

See everyone in Vegas...my first convention where I can just party and not worry about hustling up biz.

[slavdogg]

photogregg, have you seen bitchmobile.com ?

[Mike AI]

Photogregg what are you paying male talent? What about guys who are hung like fleas? ( But can keep it up? )

:P

[photogregg]

haha,
love threads that get changed into wild stuff

Seen Bitchmobile...doesn't seem like the male fantasy to me because the girls treat the guys like shit. Pick em up, fuck em silly, then smile and go off and get the next one...get members wishing they were that guy.

MikeAI: we get the hung like fleas (pencil dicks) that can keep it up, and shoot with them for various customers... Guys we pay $200 per scene, and some average sized we use again and again if they can perform. Our superstar for MilfSeeker (24 episodes so far) gets $400 per scene.

If you and Katie want to fuck in the back of a moving vehicle down I-95 we'll shoot you for our new TopBucks site we're doing: BackSeatBangers.com Don't worry about your dick, she's cute Pay is $400 for 30 minute scene.

[Nickatilynx]

we get the hung like fleas (pencil dicks)

We prefer the more politically correct "genitally challenged" , gregg

[Evil Chris]

Originally posted by KBpimps@Dec 27 2002, 02:02 PM
Wow, I can't believe I get to recap another year....

How is this?

-Gary Kremen -SEX.COM victory, and his relaunching of sex.com
-Serge unmasks CONFUCY
-Acacia sends C&D's
-Max Hardcore and Steve Sweet along with Mikey from CD Babes find out what it's like to be probed themselves....
-The year of the sucky TRADESHOW- everyone has had one or is starting one.
-RADIO SHOWS- EVERYONE WANTS ONE OR IS STARTING ONE.
-Joe Elkind kicked out of CEN, and the emotional upheaval that soon follows.
-Danni Ashe still doesn't do dick with anyone :-))
-VISA regulations
-Dave Holio becomes COO of Cybererotica
-Marc De offers health insurance to webmasters
-Mike Rick dies falling off cliff while birdwatching
-Madd Russian RIP dies in car crash in PHX
-Aria Giovanni becomes the IT girl of the web
-Reality Porn becomes saturated ...but not until great sites are discovered like netvideogirls.com and the OX cash's of the world
-Online Pharmacies selling everything from Anthrax shit to Viagra
-SPAM
-MORE SPAM
-KB has only two jobs this year

KB..... none of your points affected my portfolio this year. :P
So that means.... one of us didn't accomplish much in 2002.
LOL...

[Mike AI]

HEHE PhotoGregg, I think you are missing my point....

I wanted to be part of that 2 girl fantasy thing.... Katie is on her own, I am no suit-case pimp! :P

EC - Anytime frame college fuck fest is going to start paying per signup?

[Mike AI]

A few other big stories....

The Snipers. For a few months this was a huge story terrifying 2 states...

The miners being rescued in Penn was big too.

[Winetalk.com]

I say Mainstream going pop-up on every site was a big internet thing of 2002

[slavdogg]

Mike, how did you forget The Osbornes and your favorite show Anna Nicole hitting it BIG in 2k2