I have also thought about this as well as many other people I guess: A porn site or Netflix-like company but run by techie people, not industry insiders, a Google-like no-nonsense approach if you will. Apart from the investor killer aspect (as well as the social stigma: e.g. how many women can accept that their fiancee/husband are the owner of a porn startup) that most people point out there are other problems:
1. Customers are indiscriminate: There are many well photographed sites but how many of your prospective customers are willing to shell out monthly fees when bad quality content also "does the trick".
2. Service providers may be jumpy. You might have difficulty using some of the channels that are common to early startups, e.g. Amazon's S3 once prohibited "obscene" content; they now have:
11.6.3. ensuring that any materials posted on your site or within your Application are not illegal and do not promote illegal activities, including without limitation any activities that might be libelous or defamatory or otherwise malicious, illegal or harmful to any person or entity, or discriminatory based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age;
What if someone at Amazon decides that some of your content falls into this category and yanks it off. Remember how quickly Apple booted off iPhone apps with such content.
I think the best way to go about this is: (1) Go after a niche area to reduce the huge amount of competition, e.g. "porn for women" and (2) partner with a content provider so you don't get into the intricacies of producing content. I thought the Fyre Box (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2008-01-10-po... had an excellent idea (streaming movies with detailed search functionality) but they have disappeared.
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I have also thought about this as well as many other people I guess: A porn site or Netflix-like company but run by techie people, not industry insiders, a Google-like no-nonsense approach if you will. Apart from the investor killer aspect (as well as the social stigma: e.g. how many women can accept that their fiancee/husband are the owner of a porn startup) that most people point out there are other problems: 1. Customers are indiscriminate: There are many well photographed sites but how many of your prospective customers are willing to shell out monthly fees when bad quality content also "does the trick". 2. Service providers may be jumpy. You might have difficulty using some of the channels that are common to early startups, e.g. Amazon's S3 once prohibited "obscene" content; they now have:
11.6.3. ensuring that any materials posted on your site or within your Application are not illegal and do not promote illegal activities, including without limitation any activities that might be libelous or defamatory or otherwise malicious, illegal or harmful to any person or entity, or discriminatory based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, or age;
What if someone at Amazon decides that some of your content falls into this category and yanks it off. Remember how quickly Apple booted off iPhone apps with such content.
I think the best way to go about this is: (1) Go after a niche area to reduce the huge amount of competition, e.g. "porn for women" and (2) partner with a content provider so you don't get into the intricacies of producing content. I thought the Fyre Box (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2008-01-10-po... had an excellent idea (streaming movies with detailed search functionality) but they have disappeared.