Originally Posted by Far-L

Yeah, brainfart on the name of the premium site but the point is that they function off their own freemium traffic model, don't rely on tubes to grow their audience, and have a very loyal brand following.

You and I both agree that the tube traffic value is declining so continuing to chase that dollar will only prove more and more futile. If you have (x) number of sites that rely on that traffic then what next?

imho, Shap came out with a Penthouse style brand that successfully used online when Penthouse stumbled online, even though arguably Penthouse had a tremendous head start. His genius was to sell at the top too, but could he pull that off again given today's market? Maybe, but only because he is smart and adaptive, not because he tries to do what he did then.

JT, same thing, he had a massive advantage to seeing what worked on Youporn and he capitalized by creating content that took advantage of that inside knowledge, and he sold out too at the right time. He also created an identifiable brand. Brazzers, the same, Fabian knew exactly what kind of site would sell because he saw all the NATS stats and Brazzers created content that fit the bill.

Still, the user behavior has changed since then so all of them would have to re-think and adapt as well if they came into the market today. They are all very intelligent so I am sure they would figure it out but look at all the programs that died out because they couldn't figure out the flux and got flummoxed trying, crushed by the weight of their hubris...