Before tube sites appeared, where people uploaded pirated porn for other users to stream, they used to purchase DVDs or subscriptions to watch the content they preferred.
The emergence of such sites marked a change in how people develop and consume porn. Fifteen years later, sites such as Xvideos remain the most visited websites, more than Amazon and Netflix, according to a report made by Extra. i.e., analysis. It shows that Xvideos receives an average of over 3 billion monthly visitors. Xvideos undoubtedly has contributed to the change in the porn industry, allowing viewers to access and watch porn easily. But what is the history of Xvideos?
What is Xvideos?
XVideos is an adult website that contains pornographic videos. Many people like it because it has an attractive easy-going layout and is easy to navigate without too many pop-ups. Additionally, one can choose from several languages they’d love to use. Since its inception, it has been one of the busiest porn sites globally, ranked 8th in the world.
Apart from easy use, the site has much erotic content that one can view by country. It provides users with different sexual fantasy options and sex games. It has a free membership version, which means you can get content without paying. However, it also has a red tab with private videos and requires users to register as members. For this, you can easily register by using an email address.
History of Xvideos
XVideos is a popular pornographic video-sharing and viewing site established by the owner Stephen Michael Pacaud in Paris. It is now registered under WGCZ Holding, a Czech-based company that owns Bang Bros, Penthouse magazine, DDF Network, Eurogames, and Private Media Group. It has a controlling interest in content produced under the Legal Porno brand.
Over the years, Xvideos increased in viewership garnering over 100 billion views each month. The owner of MindGeek, Fabian Thylmann, tried to purchase this site, but the owner turned down the $120 million offer. Later, the company tried forcing content providers to avoid deleting uploaded videos or risk losing their channel and content.
Censorship of Xvideos
This popular erotic video streaming site is banned or blocked in various places worldwide. The government has continued to censor several adult websites as part of a crackdown on piracy and sex trafficking rackets. Therefore, different countries have continued to upgrade their laws or block technology that allows them to secure these sites massively. In some countries, the age restriction is 18 or 21 years, while it is entirely illegal in other countries. Some countries like Australia, India, and Russia partially legalize it, but it is a criminal offense punishable by law in the Middle East. Various websites need special permission from the government to operate in other countries. However, people have achieved a walk-around and managed to access such sites. Countries that have succeeded in censoring Xvideos include:
France
France issued a ban on the website, stating that it would allow it to operate only if it allowed its users to say that they were over 18 years of age. However, the court of appeal rejected the ban in May of the same year.
Algeria
The government banned Xvideos without any reason. However, the public can easily access it through IP address spoofing.
Philippines
President Rodrigo Duterte banned Xvideos under the Anti-Child Pornography Law as part of Republic Act 9775.
Vietnam
ISPs have continued to block any access to sites such as XVideos secretly. They, however, denied being involved in the censorship, and the public assumed it was part of a secret government move. Despite this, users can still use a VPN to access it.
China
The Chinese banned 60,000 pornographic sites.
India
XVideos was among the list of 857 porn sites that the Indian government censored. Most Indian Internet Service Providers also blocked access to XVideos and similar sites.
Malaysia
The Malaysian government banned Xvideos for breaking the rules of the Communications and Multimedia Act, which prevents ‘obscene’ content from being shared online.
Russia
The Russian government blocked XVideos after several threats.
Bangladesh
XVideos was among 20,000 porn sites blocked by the Bangladesh government in a bid to fight the porn industry.
Venezuela
CANTV, a telecommunication and internet services company, blocked the website without issuing any statement.
Lebanon
Following the directives from the country’s Minister of Telecommunication, XVideos was among six pornographic sites ordered to be closed.
When did it all begin?
According to Netzpolitik Organization, what later became one of the biggest porn empires was a website known as XNXX.com. It started as a site that offered its users alluring promises, such as the latest hardcore photos daily. Stephane Pacaud owned XNXX.com when, as evidenced by the domain archive. The site still functions and can be seen as an older sibling to Xvideos. The two have been closely linked for a long time.
Those who visited Xvideos were redirected to XNXX.com through a link. In the same year, the domain archives displayed for the first time the name Stephen Pacaud as the owner of Xvideos. Later the site had the same features as today with the slogan ‘Bigger and Better than the rest.’ It has experienced fast growth. Over the years, it has had 13000 videos which grew to 90,000 in recent years. It attained the one million mark and currently has over 10 million videos. It lists the number of videos on its homepage, which allows you to trace the site’s growth through the internet archive. Online sources state that Pacaud avoids the media and refuses to talk about any inquiries about the company.
Gave birth to Xvideos by obtaining images from porn magazines
According to bdnews24.com, Pacaud started the business that later gave birth to Xvideos by obtaining images from porn magazines and uploading them on his website. His company was called WGCZ Holdings but was later renamed WebGroup Czech Republic. After its establishment, the website has undergone several changes in logotypes. But basically, its general look has been the same due to colors and the logo design, which has a red ‘X’ and white ‘Videos’ on its background. It has received several changes in its typeface; sometimes, it has a 3D and serif type lets. You could also notice bolder or thinner designs with more or less breathing space between them. At some point, you could see a white background and black lettering on the word ‘Videos.’ However, the letter ‘X’ has been in existence. Its logo displays the project’s name in sans serif type with perfect proportions. It is clear because of its clean and simple font.
How did Xvideos grow?
Xvideos’ growth is attributed to a considerable investment. The company has been promoting each other and performing everything possible to attract people to the platform. Various sources describe the industry as that tough competition between giants with an insatiable appetite. If you want to watch porn but are unsure where to start, you can search ‘porno.com,’ which links to Xvideos.
The company must have spent a lot of money establishing such a link. ‘Porno.com’ was sold for $8,888,888, becoming one of the most expensive domain sales in history. The media allegedly reported the buyer to be based in Prague, Czech Republic. However, XVideos did not respond to questions from Netzpolitik on whether Stephane Pacaud was the buyer. A few years later, the platform earned more money when its competitor, Penthouse, was declared bankrupt and listed for sale. It then became part of XVideos.
Does the company have a lawyer?
The company owning Xvideos has a lawyer representing copyright and media law. Daniel Kotz, a German lawyer representing this world’s largest porn website, is based in Dusseldorf. He is recognized in the company as the designated Copyright agent. This means that he is responsible in case anyone requests their video to be deleted. The company hired Kotz, and as a lawyer, his work is to offer legal tips to potential clients and other interested parties.
Attempts to fight fake Xvideos sites
Xvideos, through its parent company WGCZ, in an attempt to do away with cybersquatting, brought down a fake site, ‘XVideos.es.’ that runs using the Spanish language. The Czech-based company succeeded in its litigation against the clone site developed to attract porn site users. A ruling was made that led to the transfer of the site to WGCZ. An argument made by the council at that time claimed that the respondent (XVideos.es) had a domain fraudulently acquired.
Xvideos parent company sued
Xvideos has been facing various challenges, among them being litigation. Its competitor MindGeek filed a lawsuit against WCGZ with claims that it had its thousands of videos illegally hosted on the Xvideos site and had been viewed more than 100 million times. MindGeek claimed the company did not respond to their DMCA requests to delete the videos and demanded a compensation of $150,000 for every video posted on the Xvideos website.
Xvideos has been accused of allowing the streaming of content that involves sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of minors. According to Prague Morning, a news site in the Czech, such content is found on the porn site because users receive little to no restrictions while uploading it. One famous case against this company was a lawsuit by The National Center On Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), which accused Xvideos of making profits from sex trafficking, receiving and airing child pornography, and failing to report material that displayed sexual exploitation of children.
Videos were uploaded
A case of a 14-year-old identified as Jane Doe, a victim of sex trafficking and also others abused by the company. Jane used the fake name to protect her identity; the body that helped file the case said that she represents several victims who, as children, had their sexual abuse photos published and used for profit reasons by the company. This proceeding happened in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. The case mentioned Xvideos’ founding company WebGroup Czech Republic and associated holdings and businesses.
While she was a child, Jane Doe faced trafficking and was sold for sex. These sexual acts were recorded and uploaded on the Xvideos website. Four videos involving the trafficking were identified on the site. Journalists Jakub Zelenka and Lukas Prchal wrote that WCGZ’s website had videos of children and violence. They attributed this to the fact that anyone can upload such videos with minimal restriction so long as one has an email. The two journalists found out that the criminal police and the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Czech Republic were investigating the server run by the WGCZ company.
They stated that the police probed that the site had illegal content while Visa and Mastercard looked into their relationship with this company. NCOSE Law Center’s Senior Legal Counsel commended Jane for being courageous in filing the lawsuit. They commented that it not only committed a crime by holding child sexual abuse content but also gained profit from her videos and images. They claimed that the perpetrators would be charged in a court of law and victims like Jane Doe must receive justice. However, Netzpolitik reports that Xvideos branded NCOSE as ‘anti-porn extremists’ and Jane Doe a victim of exploitation.
The Czech Casting
The Czech Casting is among the several professional porn studios that have an experience with Xvideos. The videos produced by the Netbook company got millions of views. The employees of the Netbook company are being probed by the public prosecutor’s office in Prague with the accusation that they coerced women into participating in pornographic content production against their will. This case came before a scandal that had permeated the Czech media, where the police had closed the door of an office in Vikovoce, Prague; they then carried out computers from the Netlook offices. This s after several women reported that they had been called for model castings. However, they were given contracts for porn production and forced to have sex with camera operators. They were threatened with high contractual penalties if they didn’t comply. However, the company denied this accusation claiming that the women willingly participated. Xvideos has continued to show the videos of this casting, but when called upon to explain why they said they are innocent until found guilty.
Voluntary verification
Initially, it was easy to use to distribute content on Xvideos. One had to register with an email address. But the site later changed this process. When you visit their info page, they state that one can easily upload if they have an account. But when you try, you need to go through verification if you are in Germany. This makes it difficult to upload non-consensual content. However, it still allows uploads for some accounts.
The ‘Download’ button is clear, but the hidden ‘Report’ button is not.
In the past, Xvideos made it possible and easy to report content on its platform. A user who tried to report content was required to give out their name, phone number, email, and postal address. They also needed to narrate in legal terms what was wrong with the video and leave a digital space. They would then mark the box with an “I swear under penalty of perjury that the information in this notification is accurate.”
Presently, it is still not easy to find a reporting form. You have to go through various processes through tiny links and fonts. You will also see the ‘Report’ button in each video, which is concealed in a not-easily-noticeable symbol you need to click. Conversely, the ‘Download’ button is visible, a design that is a decision to influence the behavior of users.
Where is the company today?
Currently, the headquarters of Xvideos sits in Prague, Germany. To trace this office, you must pass through Old Town past Wenceslas Square towards the National Museum. You will see an impressive building with gold-decorated domes. Adjacent to the building is the headquarters of Xvideos. A driveway leads to a backyard, and along the facilities there, next to a strip club, you will see various plaques, and among them reads WGCZ Holding. The abbreviation stands for Web Group Czech, a hidden name that is an ordinary company with an enormous empire. Stephane, according to Netzpolitik, has 93 percent of shares, according to an annual report. This is quite impressive growth.
In Conclusion
Xvideos started as a simple website that allows users to stream pornographic content. It was ranked the most visited website, more than Netflix and Amazon, with over three billion users per month. It has undergone several upgrades since its inception; Its massive growth has been attributed to huge investments and the company’s attempts to try everything possible to uplift itself.
Despite the success that Xvideos has experienced, it has faced setbacks such as the anti-porn war, litigations, and accusations of doing little to curb sexual violence, with its major challenge being regulation laws. It has to enable anyone who complains about videos or images to present their complaints easily. It also has to comply with a country’s existing laws, and users worldwide have continued to access it. Currently, Xvideos allows its users to access and download content freely. Its German lawyer based in Dusseldorf has been handy in helping this company in all legal matters.
