Aylo is a Canadian multinational pornographic conglomerate owned by Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners. It is primarily involved in internet pornography, operating a number of video sharing websites (including platforms such as Pornhub, RedTube, Tube8, and YouPorn), and pornographic film studios such as Brazzers, Digital Playground, Men.com, Reality Kings, Sean Cody, and WhyNotBi.com, among others.[6] Aylo's headquarters are located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, but the company's corporate structure is divided among entities domiciled in a number of other countries (including tax havens such as Curaçao and Luxembourg).
The company is one of the largest distributors of online pornography, to the extent that it has been accused of having a monopoly position (with 3 out of the 10 most popular online pornography sites being owned by the company).[7][8][9][10] In 2013, a spokesperson for the company stated that its properties were among the top five users of internet bandwidth in the world.[11]
The company has been subject to a number of lawsuits and filed litigation against its competitors. They were sued in California for hosting non-consensual pornography produced by GirlsDoPorn, which coerced women into appearing in their videos under false pretenses. In January 2021, a class action lawsuit making similar claims was launched in Montreal for anyone who had pornography photos and videos, some of which may have been taken when they were underage, shared on its websites without their consent, since 2007.[12] The lawsuit stated that the company knowingly did not "investigate or question its business partner regarding the mounting evidence of sex trafficking".[13] In February 2021, a U.S.-based civil class action lawsuit was launched against the company on behalf of child sex trafficking victims whose child sexual abuse material was uploaded to Pornhub.[14][15] On 21 December 2023, Aylo agreed to pay a fine of $1.8million plus additional compensation to GirlsDoPorn victims, and to have an independent party assess their content moderation processes for three years.[16][17]
History
Origin and merger
In the late 1990s, German Fabian Thylmann created NATS (Next-Generation Affiliate Tracking Software), which was used for marketing pornography across different websites.[18] Mansef was funded by Concordia University graduates Stephane Manos and Ouissam Youssef (Mansef a portmanteau of the two's surnames) in 2004 as the holding company for various "thumbnail gallery post" websites and an affiliate network. It later launched Brazzers and a porn production company among various other pay sites.[19][20]
In 2006, Thylmann sold his shares in the company that controlled NATS and used the proceeds to purchase the Privat Amateure website.[21]
Corporate structure
Aylo operates under a complex structure of multiple companies in countries such as the British Virgin Islands, Canada, Curaçao, Cyprus, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mauritius, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[61][62] Its structure has been described as mostly a way to avoid corporate tax by a de facto Canadian company;[62][40][63] with billing companies in Ireland,[64] subsidiaries in Curaçao and holding ones in Cyprus and Luxembourg, all countries that have been identified as tax havens or having lax tax regulations. Canada also has special tax treaties with Luxembourg, the legal headquarters of Aylo, where a Canadian subsidiary is exempt from taxes paid on royalties to its Luxembourg parent.
Adult industry
In 2013, the adult industry news website XBIZ described MindGeek as "the largest adult entertainment operator globally",[46][65] and a spokesperson from Manwin, who spoke to the Irish Independent newspaper in 2013, stated that they are "one of the top five bandwidth consumption companies in the world".[66] The Internet pornography review site TheBestPorn.com lists 164 pornographic membership sites that are owned or represented by MindGeek.[67]
It has been reported that MindGeek's dominance in online pornography may have negative results because of the monopolistic powers they have from owning both production and distribution avenues.[6]
Pornhub Network
Advertising
Aylo owns TrafficJunky, an online advertising network that operates across its properties.[105] The vice president of Pornhub, Corey Price commented in December 2014 that Pornhub wants to make watching porn "something that's acceptable to talk about",[78] which would be likely to benefit Pornhub, since according to Price "it's still taboo [to advertise on X-rated sites like Pornhub]".[78] In October 2013, the media and marketing publication Digiday reported that Pornhub has already shown advertisements for various mainstream products on the Pornhub web site, including advertisements for movies, musical acts, anti-virus software, and a food delivery service, although most advertisements were still adult-related.[106]
In mid-March 2023, it was reported that the Russian private military company Wagner Group had purchased recruitment advertising on the network, which was later pulled by Pornhub due to its political nature.[107]
Age controls and child protection
Many US states have passed legislation requiring pornographic websites to verify that their users are aged over 18, or else be vulnerable to civil lawsuits. In response Aylo has ceased operating in those states, saying that it cannot comply with the laws without violating its users' privacy.[114]
ASACP
Aylo has been a Platinum Sponsor of the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) since 2011.[115] ASACP is an American non-profit organization that fights against child pornography and aims to enhance the effectiveness of parental content filtering technology through the provision of the RTA ("Restricted to Adults") label, which can be implemented by webmasters of adult sites.[116]
Age verification in the UK
In March 2014 the UK video-on-demand co-regulator
Lawsuits
Antitrust
Manwin Licensing and Digital Playground filed an antitrust lawsuit in California in November 2011, against ICANN and ICM Registry over the introduction of the .xxx TLD.[127] Amongst their allegations, Manwin claimed that in introducing the new suffix, ICANN and ICM registry had exploited the market by making domain registrations expensive with no price caps in place, and created a need for defensive domain registrations with no provision for companies to block typos of their trademarks. Manwin announced that it would not allow its content to be used on any sites with the suffix, with Fabian Thylmann, who was then managing partner of Manwin saying: "We oppose the .XXX domain and all it stands for. It is my opinion that .XXX domain is an anticompetitive business practice that works a disservice to all companies that do business on the Internet."[128]
In September 2012, ICM filed a counterclaim for $120 million against Manwin Licensing International. Part of the 24-page long claim alleged: "Manwin, Digital Playground, and their related companies, affiliates, brands, and certain third-party affiliates have conspired to boycott the .XXX TLD and have coerced and/or encouraged the boycott of .XXX websites by third parties."[129]
See also
- Pornography in Canada
- WGCZ Holding
Further reading
External links
References
- Manwin Canada: A Leader in Web Design, IT, Web Development & SEO! ca.manwin.com, retrieved 23 December 2014^
- Patricia Nilsson. MindGeek: the secretive owner of Pornhub and RedTube www.ft.com, 2020-12-17, retrieved 2020-12-17^
- Bureau de décision et de révision lautorite.qc.ca, Autorité des marchés financiers, 19 May 2016, retrieved 16 April 2018