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-   -   Zivity - An adult social net gets $1 million in funding from investors. Web 2.0 (https://gfy.com/showthread.php?t=762071)

Pornwolf 08-20-2007 07:49 PM
Zivity - An adult social net gets $1 million in funding from investors. Web 2.0
 
A while back I said that we in adult were missing the boat. A lot of insanely large (and usually stupid) Web 2.0 deals are happening and we aren't getting any of the money that's floating around.

Well, here's one company that's getting in on the action:

Quote:
Zivity, a social network that aims to occupy the intersection of Playboy, MySpace and American Idol, has raised a $1 million first round financing from private investors. The San Francisco-based company, currently in private beta, seeks to match professional photographers and models willing to pose for risque pictures. While that's nothing new, Zivity claims to be the only social net that lets its members distribute royalties. Zivity members decide what photos are published on the site by casting votes for models and photographers. Aside from determining who and what gets posted, the votes will also decide who gets paid and how much.

The site was co-founded by Scott Banister, who previously started IronPort Systems, an anti-spam company acquired earlier this year by Cisco for $830 million. The company also says that Banister helped create the bid-for-placement model used today by Google Adwords and co-inventor of the e-mail payment system used on eBay. Release
First round funding is usually the smallest of the official rounds. If they got $1mil now they can expect around $7mil for the second round 6 months to a year later if they get some traction in the marketplace. Some companies can even go for a third if the idea really takes off. Usually, they end up selling to a larger company before the third round though.

I'm not saying that this idea is a great one and I'm not saying they will get the types of numbers I mentioned for a second round... I haven't studied it enough to really give an opinion. But I do know that this is the first one to combine adult with Web 2.0 sensibilities that has gotten a seven figure first round and went public with that info.

Shooters, what do you think about this deal and the site?

Can you see any more companies on the horizon? Not necessarily like this business model but that can garner this kind of initial investment?

Young 08-20-2007 07:50 PM
Zivity? So I'm assuming we are running out of domain names?

munki 08-20-2007 07:51 PM
Great for them... kudos

fuzzylogic 08-20-2007 07:54 PM
thx for the news

4Pics 08-20-2007 07:57 PM
If he sold for $830mil, why would he need 1mil of other peoples money to start it.

tical 08-20-2007 07:58 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by 4Pics (Post 12961729)
If he sold for $830mil, why would he need 1mil of other peoples money to start it.
why use ur own money :thumbsup

Pipecrew 08-20-2007 07:59 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by 4Pics (Post 12961729)
If he sold for $830mil, why would he need 1mil of other peoples money to start it.
thats what i was wondering.

Pornwolf 08-20-2007 08:03 PM
Those are valid points and I can't figure it out either.

None of the management makes sense to me. Why are they doing this?

Take a look at them http://zivity.com/about

NONE of them are from the adult industry.

Doctor Dre 08-20-2007 08:05 PM
Maybe he financed it himself and he's just sending out press releases to get some attention...

Serge Litehead 08-20-2007 08:16 PM
this one mil makes a good pr though

Pornwolf 08-20-2007 08:19 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by holograph (Post 12961800)
this one mil makes a good pr though
Absolutely.

But, It's kinda like Marc Andreesen. He has a shitload of money... hundreds of millions from Netscape and his recent 1.6 billion Opsware sale.

Yet, he still takes comparitively small investments for his newer companies like Ning.


Go figure. Other people's money is the way some of these guys like to go.

Brujah 08-30-2007 04:42 AM
Bump. I like the royalty distribution concept. Anyone get invites to this yet?

zyorker 12-31-2007 06:42 AM
Update on Zivity on Techcrunch:
Quote:
Zivity is definitely one of the most controversial startups of 2007. It?s the first (as far as we know) adult site to have received Silicon Valley backing, including an announced $1 million angel round. And they certainly livened things up at the TechCrunch40 conference a few months ago. They went last, and their democontained enough nudity to make much of the crowd shift uneasily in their chairs.

But that isn?t the end of the controversy. The site, which we first covered in August, allows models to upload photos to the site and gain followers. As people vote for models, real dollars flow to the model and photographers who were involved in the shoot. And one of those models is co-founder Cyan Banister. She?s uploaded one set of photos for the beta period, without nudity. Next week, she says she?ll add another set that includes topless photos, and may go completely nude in the future.

Banister says that a few years ago she would not have even considered taking her clothes off for a camera. But she isn?t new to getting attention for her looks. In 2000, when she was just 22, she won the ?Sexiest Geek Alive? award. When starting Zivity, though, she knew she had to, as she puts it, ?eat her own dog food.? For most founders that just means actually using their own product. But for Cyan, it also means taking off her clothes and modeling for Zivity.

FredIsMe 12-31-2007 07:36 AM
That's great news.

pip 12-31-2007 12:47 PM
So its bascially a stock image site for adult?

G-Rotica 12-31-2007 12:51 PM
You realize with Web 2.0 comes dot com bubble burst 2.0

TTiger 12-31-2007 01:20 PM
im reading and have some difficulty to understand how this site work..:(

Evil E 12-31-2007 04:06 PM
I see nothing 2.0 on their website... THE SITE DOESN'T EVEN EXIST YET.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Zivity
Thanks for your interest in Zivity. We're happy to add you to
the email announcement list for our beta launch.

Thanks for the spam. I wanted TO TRY your website that is NOT online yet.

Evil E 12-31-2007 04:09 PM
Anyways, nice marketing ... that 1 million funding is probably just that... marketing. Hopefully this site will have suicidegirls die.

papill0n 12-31-2007 04:13 PM
I predict huge growth in adult social networking sites.

Scootermuze 12-31-2007 04:57 PM
I can already see a major problem...

If a voting/rating system is what determines who gets paid, it will be a total train wreck... Endless rigged votes.. people being paid to vote for their buddies.. yada yada...

I've not seen a rating/voting system yet that didn't become a site's biggest problem.. especially when money is involved...

tony286 12-31-2007 04:58 PM
Now paying 10 bucks a month allows you vote, so if you dont pay do you get to look and not vote? IF thats the case I see very few voters.

Drake 12-31-2007 07:13 PM
Yeah, I'm lost on how the site actually works. Sounds complicated but maybe in practise it's a piece of cake.


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