User:Humanlike174/sandbox/MindGeek

MindGeek is a global IT company active in content delivery, streaming media and online advertising, the company is a privately held conglomerate which is headquartered in Luxembourg City with offices in Dublin, Hamburg, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal and Nicosia. Its operations are primarily related to Internet pornography, but also include other online properties such as the comedy video website videobash.com and celebrity gossip site celebs.com. MindGeek was previously known as Manwin, which was founded by the German computer programmer and businessman Fabian Thylmann. In 2013, Fabian Thylmann who was managing partner of Manwin sold his stake in the company to the senior management team, and shortly after that the company name was changed to Mindgeek.

Adult industry
In 2013, the adult industry news website XBIZ described MindGeek as the world's largest operator of adult entertainment, 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". The Internet pornography review site TheBestPorn.com lists 164 pornographic membership sites that are owned or represented by MindGeek.

Pornhub Network
The "Pornhub NETWORK", is a network of web 2.0 websites accessible through Mindgeek's PornMD search engine. Mindgeek either own or operate all of the websites in the Pornhub NETWORK, which include ExtremeTube, GayTube, KeezMovies, Peeperz, PornIQ (launched by Pornhub), PornMD, Pornhub, RedTube, SpankWire, Tube8, XTube, and YouPorn.

According to TrafficEstimate.com, Redtube.com generates over 90 million visits per month, and YouPorn.com generates almost 80 million visits per month (based on the data for 30 days up to mid November 2014. Data for Pornhub.com was not available). YouPorn claim that their partner program has 400 content providers who participate, and Pornhub.com scores at Alexa Global Rank 72 (as of 19 December 2014).

Amateur Pornography
Mindgeek own the amateur pornographic video sharing websites Mofos, MyDirtyHobby, Sextube, and Webcams.

Pornographic Movie Studios
MindGeek own the pornographic movie studios Babes.com Brazzers, Digital Playground, Reality Kings, Twistys, and Men.com. Mindgeek also manage the websites of Wicked Pictures, and oversee Playboy's online and television operations, and they established 3DXSTAR in partnership with Funky Monkey Productions.

Pornography for Mobile Devices
MindGeek is one of the leaders in mobile-phone pornography in North America, handling millions of visits each day, they were awarded the "Future Mobile Award for Mobile Adult Services" by Juniper Research in 2012.

Criticism
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.

History
MindGeek was known as Manwin until a change of name in October 2013, shortly after Fabian Thylmann, managing partner of Manwin sold his stake to the senior management of the company, which was also completed in October 2013.

In the late 1990s Fabian created Nats (Next-generation affiliate tracking software) which was used for marketing pornography across different websites. In 2006, Fabian sold his shares in the company that controlled NATS and used the proceeds to purchase the Privat Amateure website.

Between 2006 and 2010, Fabian bought three more web sites; MyDirtyHobby, Webcams and Xtube. The domain name manwin.com was first registered in August 2007.

In March 2010, Fabian bought the company Mansef which owned the web sites Brazzers, MOFOS and Pornhub, and changed the name of the company to Manwin.

Timeline of Acquisitions, Growth and Partnerships

 * September 2010
 * Manwin acquired EuroRevenue, which owned various niche pornography sites.


 * December 2010
 * Manwin entered into a partnership with Wicked Pictures to manage Wicked Pictures' paysites.


 * May 2011
 * Manwin acquired the popular pornographic video sharing website YouPorn.


 * June 2011
 * Manwin bought all adult related assets of Carsed Marketing Incorporated, including Twistys, Twistys Cash Affiliate Program, GayTube, SexTube and TrannyTube.


 * June 2011
 * Manwin created 3DXSTAR in a partnership with Funky Monkey Productions.


 * November 2011
 * Manwin became an operating partner of Playboy, managing the brand's online and entertainment business Playboy Plus Entertainment, which operates a number of television channels and online services based in the UK and Benelux.


 * January 2012
 * Manwin signed a deal to acquire the assets of the American pornographic movie studio Digital Playground.


 * April 2012
 * Manwin and Miami-based RK Netmedia Inc. filed a merger notification jointly authorized by Manwin and Reality Kings with the Austrian Federal Competition Authority. In September 2012, Manwin completed the acquisition. Company documents show that following the deal in the autumn, RK Holdings gave a Dublin company, Manwin Content RK, the right to use thousands of its pornography movies.


 * June 2012
 * Manwin Launched Babes.com for its "glamcore" network.


 * July 2013
 * Manwin filed a merger notification to acquire RedTube.com. During the summer of 2013, Manwin / Mindgeek acquired all of RedTube properties from Hong Kong-based Bright Imperial Ltd. for an undisclosed sum. The domain name RedTube8.xxx was also transferred to MindGeek in December 2013 in a trademark dispute.


 * December 2014
 * MindGeek announced they had signed a deal to manage the online assets of Really Useful Ltd., some of which include the websites BDSM.xxx, Casting.xxx, Czech.xxx, DaneJones.com, FakeAgent.com, FakeTaxi.com, Lesbea.com, MassageRooms.com, Mature.xxx, Mom.xxx, Orgasms.xxx, PublicAgent.com, PublicSex.xxx, Teen.xxx, and Tubes.xxx.

Legal Proceedings
Manwin filed an antitrust lawsuit in California in November 2011 against ICANN and ICM Registry over the introduction of the .xxx TLD. 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, 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."

In May 2013 Manwin agreed to settle the antitrust lawsuit it brought against ICM Registry over the cost of .xxx web domain names. The settlement will result in discounted wholesale prices of $7.85 a year for .xxx names during May 2013, and similar offers the future. ICM Registry is owned by British former fax-machine mogul Stuart Lawley. The settlement provides that ICM will not pay any money directly to MindGeek.