Kink.com

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Kink.com
URL kink.com
Commercial? Yes
Type of site pornography (BDSM related fetishes)
Registration Yes
Available language(s) English
Owner Peter Acworth
Created by Peter Acworth
Launched 2007-08-14

Kink.com is a San Francisco-based internet pornography company that runs a group of websites devoted to BDSM and related fetishes.

Contents

[edit] History

Kink.com was started by UK-native Peter Acworth in 1997 while he was a PhD student in finance at Columbia University. After reading a story in a British tabloid about a fireman who made a 250 thousand pounds in a short period by starting an internet pornography site, Acworth decided to start a porn site of his own. Since Acworth had what he described as a lifelong interest in bondage, he oriented the site toward BDSM porn.[1]

The site was called Hogtied.com and initially featured content that was licensed from other primary producers. The site was successful, and the site was soon grossing several thousand dollars per day. Acworth soon left his graduate studies to work on the site full time.[1]

In 1998, Acworth moved the company from New York City to San Francisco.[1] Finding that sales were leveling off because other sites were using the same content, Acworth began producing his own content, initially featuring himself with various models who he found through Craigslist or through his photographer friends.[1][2]

The company reports that its revenue in 2006 was $20 million, based mainly on users who pay a monthly subscription fee to access the main part of the site.[citation needed] Several websites under the Kink.com umbrella (such as Waterbondage.Com, UltimateSurrender.Com, and more recently DeviceBondage.Com) feature talent that relocated following the demise of Insex as a result of US government pressure in 2005, but offer more of a focus on consensuality than Insex was known for.

[edit] Kink.com's Websites

Behind Kink [1] Behind the scenes documentaries and forums.

Device Bondage [2]

Free Hardcore [3] Free promotional videos and pictures of all of Kink.com's most recent work.

Fucking Machines [4]

Hogtied [5]

Kink on Demand [6]

Men In Pain [7]

Sex and Submission [8]

The Training of O [9]

TS Seduction [10] Men have sex with transexuals

Ultimate Surrender [11] Three rounds of fit women battling in progressing states of undress

Water Bondage [12]

Whipped Ass [13]

Wired Pussy [14]

[edit] Kink.com purchase of San Francisco Armory

In late 2006, Kink.com purchased the San Francisco Armory for $14.5 million, for use as a production studio. A group known as the Mission Armory Community Collective formed to oppose Kink.com's use of the building and in early February 2007 held a public protest in front of The Armory.[1][3] San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom also expressed concern over the Kink.com purchase, and scheduled a special meeting of the San Francisco Planning Commission in March 2007 to review the company's use of the building.[1] This public meeting was well-attended by both supporters and detractors of the Kink.com purchase. The Planning Commission for its part ruled that Kink.com was not in violation of any law or zoning requirement.[4][5][6]

[edit] Criticism

Some residents of the Mission District were disturbed by Kink.com's purchase of the San Francisco Armory, feeling that a pornography studio should not be located in the middle of a residential neighborhood near schools or that the site should have been used for low-income housing or other community-oriented uses.[7][6][3] At one point, there were plans to destroy part of the structure to accommodate condominium development. Ironically, the condo plan's changing of the integrity of the building created supporters who welcomed Kink.com's use of The Armory as a way of revitalizing the structure and bringing back business to the area without altering the appearance of the historic building, as well as being in keeping with San Francisco's tradition of accommodating sexual minorities.[7]

Although Kink.com has stated that its activities would be invisible to the surrounding neighborhood, and is actively soliciting sub-tenants for unused commercial space, La Casa de las Madres, a neighboring women's shelter, announced in late March 2007 that they would be leaving the location because of Kink.com's presence.[8]

Anti-pornography activist Melissa Farley has compared the images produced by Kink.com to images of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, and testified against Kink.com's purchase of The Armory in a March 2007 meeting of the San Francisco Planning Commission.[7][9] Proponents of Kink.Com usually dismiss such comparisons by pointing out that Kink.Com employs the use of a safeword which gives the model complete control over the scenes (and, secondarily, that the model wants to be in the situation), whereas the typical Abu Ghraib inmate had no control whatsoever and most definitely did not want to be in prison.

[edit] Past & Present Performers

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[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "A Disciplined Business" by Jon Mooallem, The New York Times Magazine, April 29, 2007.
  2. ^ "The New Pornographers" by Robin Rinaldi, 7x7, August 01, 2006.
  3. ^ a b "Kink hearing: The pornographer's purchase of the Armory faces more roadblocks" by Deborah Giattina, San Francisco Bay Guardian, March 7, 2007.
  4. ^ "Planning Commission hears Kink.com case" by Liz Highleyman, Bay Area Reporter, March 15, 2007.
  5. ^ Ex-armory turns into porn site. San Francisco Chronicle (2007-01-13).
  6. ^ a b No welcome mat for adult film studio" by Marisa Lagos, San Francisco Chronicle, January 26, 2007
  7. ^ a b c "San Francisco Planning Commission - Special Public Hearing", SFGTV, March 8, 2007. (link to streaming Windows Media video and downloadable MP3 audio)
  8. ^ "Service organization flees from kinky Mission neighbor" by Sarah Duxbury, San Francisco Business Times, March 23, 2007.
  9. ^ "Kink.Com in San Francisco: Women and Gay Men's Abu Ghraib" by Melissa Farley, Traffick Jamming (blog), February 8, 2007.

[edit] External links