AMA - Steven Grooby (Ask Me Anything)

[Post Op Preferred]

any possiblity of a Grooby take on the newhalf femboi cosplaying genre? sans the pixillation, preferably, but preferably with japanese models

[GroobySteven]

any possiblity of a Grooby take on the newhalf femboi cosplaying genre? sans the pixillation, preferably, but preferably with japanese models

Very unlikely with Japanese models unless a producer came to us from there. I find the Japanese extremely difficult to work with, their systems are very different to ours.

[rodinuk]

The fresh legislation tabled in the US Congress known as SISEA is even more draconian than SESTA/FOSTA. Your thoughts on it?

[GroobySteven]

The fresh legislation tabled in the US Congress known as SISEA is even more draconian than SESTA/FOSTA. Your thoughts on it?

It shouldn't affect us as we made a lot of changes on the sites because of SESTA but I haven't looked into this in any great depth. We've a number of other legal issues to deal with before then, including the adult verification which seems to be going to happen in parts of Europe and followed worldwide. Personally, I believe in some sort of wall before you see explicit images (like the ones on this site!!!) and I think that's the way the internet has to go. On a business side of things, the spotlight on the tube sites and their wilful ignorance in removing content when asked is going to have a positive affect for companies like ours who stay within the law. For far too long have they leeched off the producers, and while I have and do make money off some of the tube sites, it's nothing compared to what they've cost us over the years. I see what is going on now as a catalyst for change and I've told people for years, to make the best of it now, as the free porn will change on the internet in the not distant future (the future is now).

The danger is, the US is never one to see the grey areas in politics like Europe does, and so divisive that there is a real danger of freedoms being trampled and porn being forced into legalisation making it harder for legit companies to operate. With the 'woke' left claiming that it's all sex-trafficking and abusive, and the religious right using sex-trafficking as the springboard for their own twisted dogmas - neither are listening to the women and men who work in adult entertainment or the millions of people who watch it.

[holzz]

do you listen to podcasts on the porn industry? have you listened to TTBoy or Holly Randall?

[GroobySteven]

do you listen to podcasts on the porn industry? have you listened to TTBoy or Holly Randall?

No. I've no interest in what either of them have to say really, and if I had a question for one of their guests then I'd just contact them privately.
I've my own 'peer' group which includes the owners or CEOs of almost every big pay site or group of sites and we talk on the business side of things on Slack and have a monthly meetup online. This is invaluable knowledge for me as they are the smartest people in the industry that I know.
For fans/supporters, I use this site, groobyforum and social media to get the temperature of things from a viewers perspective, but more often want to get feedback from the actual members as so many on social media, have never even paid for or joined a site.
I also read the Xbiz news daily. So I'm pretty much on top of everything going on from legal changes, to marketing, to any challenges that may be coming up ... as well as what affects our company specifically and not just the overall adult media.

[serial138]

It shouldn't affect us as we made a lot of changes on the sites because of SESTA but I haven't looked into this in any great depth. We've a number of other legal issues to deal with before then, including the adult verification which seems to be going to happen in parts of Europe and followed worldwide. Personally, I believe in some sort of wall before you see explicit images (like the ones on this site!!!) and I think that's the way the internet has to go. On a business side of things, the spotlight on the tube sites and their wilful ignorance in removing content when asked is going to have a positive affect for companies like ours who stay within the law. For far too long have they leeched off the producers, and while I have and do make money off some of the tube sites, it's nothing compared to what they've cost us over the years. I see what is going on now as a catalyst for change and I've told people for years, to make the best of it now, as the free porn will change on the internet in the not distant future (the future is now).

The danger is, the US is never one to see the grey areas in politics like Europe does, and so divisive that there is a real danger of freedoms being trampled and porn being forced into legalisation making it harder for legit companies to operate. With the 'woke' left claiming that it's all sex-trafficking and abusive, and the religious right using sex-trafficking as the springboard for their own twisted dogmas - neither are listening to the women and men who work in adult entertainment or the millions of people who watch it.

I'm still lost on how tube sites make money. If they don't have subscribers and everything is free, is marketing money really that valuable? Are there actually that many people buying shitting sex products to make their dick bigger or semen thicker? Or paying to play some terrible game that promises to make them cum in 2 minutes?!?

[Fitzcarraldo]

I'm still lost on how tube sites make money. If they don't have subscribers and everything is free, is marketing money really that valuable? Are there actually that many people buying shitting sex products to make their dick bigger or semen thicker? Or paying to play some terrible game that promises to make them cum in 2 minutes?!?

As long as advertisers pay to advertise on their sites, they make money. I'm lost on how the advertisers make money.

[GroobySteven]

I'm still lost on how tube sites make money. If they don't have subscribers and everything is free, is marketing money really that valuable? Are there actually that many people buying shitting sex products to make their dick bigger or semen thicker? Or paying to play some terrible game that promises to make them cum in 2 minutes?!?

There are a number of ways. Xhamster and Pornhub both have a premium service (Pornhubs now disabled) in which they charge a fee to view the content without ads. When (like these two tubes) they share that income with the production houses, then it's actually a nice bit gravy for us all. We upload some older full length scenes from 2-4 years ago, and get a check each month.

The main income is from advertising. Anyone (yes you can do it!) can signup to get affiliate accounts to promote adult sites (eg, Groobybucks.com). The problem is, that for companies like ours who don't discount, or bang cards (see below) we only offer 50% of the sale, so a $35 sale, they get about $15 from (minus banking fees). So they end up promoting companies like Mindgeek or Gamma who pay them $40+ a sale. We promote them also, as they offer big discounts, and it's worth people joining - and we get paid. The reason they pay so much, is they both have so many sites to offer, they feel they can convert that customer into other sites, over months and years so their income is substantially more. They can offer cheap memberships for new buyers, as they will get them down the line (a different business model to Grooby who rarely discount, and when we do, we only do direct to customers and not via an affiliate).

However, the consumer going to a free porn site, doesn't convert very well. So while our usual conversions rates are under 1:150 (for every 150 people who come to the front door, 1 joins) when the traffic comes from a tube site it's more like 1:3000, so the tube sites don't make great money from us. The best money for them is dating, cam sites and pills. Both dating and cams have no production costs, and don't cost a lot to run - but take big sales. They also can't be pirated. Pills have a huge mark up and the companies who run them, often 'bang cards'. So what does 'banging cards' mean? When you join most adult sites, you will almost always see a pre-checked box offering a second site at a discount. We do that - and it's common internet marketing (not only adult, but cable subscriptions, travel companies, etc.). We are pretty upfront, and if there is a complaint as someone forgot to uncheck, we'll take care of them. The pill sites (or less legit sites) will offer a pre-checked 'free' site, or $1 site. Only after 3 days it rebills at $49.99. This doesn't show on the billing for the site, as the sneaky fuckers use a different processor. When you want to cancel, they make it as hard as possible. They can also 'bang' your card by adding purchases on it. So your tube site link to pills, may look like you are spending $30 but you get billed $150, and then the same the next month. So they pay the tube sites, for those links/banners as they can afford to pay $50-$100 a sale.

The losers are the producers who get their content stolen.

You are seeing a lot less pirated content now. Even tho our stuff can still be found, almost none of it is new, and we've software to track this. We've sued a lot of people over the past few years and won most, so got some income back that way. The days of the tube sites are very numbered, and I don't expect free porn to be around like it has been within the coming years, given the political profile it's had recently.

[Machamagal]

Can I get a job? I’m a male from London 🙂