Thought Leaders on Adult Entertainment – Todd Glider

An interview with BaDoink‘s Todd Glider

If you are well-versed in the honorable art of porn-jutsu… and adult entertainment is sort of like your thing, chances are, you already know BaDoink.

For those who have not yet had the pleasure of discovering this lustful gem: BaDoink is an avant-garde company in the erotic content industry, that takes pleasure in pioneering daring new sexual technologies. Apart from a gigantic library of classic 2D content, they are now producing a vast, ever expanding, the collection of Adult VR movies.

They are at the forefront of innovative pleasure design. But it doesn’t just stop at hardening it’s members’ members and moistening juice boxes all over the planet. BaDoink aims to educate and instill confidence in men and women’s sexual sense of self.

Reason enough for us to approach their visionary leader, Todd Glider, for an interview.

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself, and how you got into the industry?

I hail from the United States and got my start in this industry in 1998. I was living in Los Angeles at the time and was initially hired by one of the first adult (i.e. porn) Internet companies in the world to write erotic copy for their web properties. This was early on, so content was primarily photographic, and the corresponding copy was a necessity. I eventually took the position of Creative Director, and the company itself was acquired by a publicly traded company in the US focused on TV and satellite distribution of adult content.

2. Can you tell us something about BaDoink?

BaDoink.com (we call it BaDoink VIP now) was launched more than 10 years ago as a subscription-based website. Its focus was more on the delivery of content than the production of content. The site had thousands of videos, of course, but all of our R&D was put into tech. We created the BaDoink Ultra App, a companion software for a desktop that allowed subscribers to access all the content of the site via the app, avoiding the web entirely.

And it had a number of features which were pretty cutting-edge at the time. For example, a DVD burner for creating compilations, a media encoder for converting files to different formats, a download manager, and even a DLNA media server, allowing one to stream any video to any network-aware device in the home. The site was successful, but its greatest success came later when the smartphone market opened up. BaDoink was among the first sites in adult to be optimized for smartphone, and we optimized it well. The results were mammoth growth for the brand and the company.

3. Can you tell us something about BaDoinkVR?

BaDoinkVR is a subscription-based website offering exclusive virtual reality content. We produce all the content, as well as the player software needed to watch virtual reality content on smartphone or desktop. The site launched in July 2015 and has been growing quite impressively ever since. We were among the first virtual reality porn sites to go live, and the first to offer free Google Cardboard with every subscription. At the minimum, we add 1 new video every week—often more.

4. Are you satisfied with the state of the Sex-Tech industry as of 2016?

Well, to me, Sex-Tech IS the industry. Sex-Tech, it’s a more modern, more accurate name for the “Porn Industry.” If your trade is adult entertainment, technology is a huge part of your business (by that I mean software and web development, traffic optimization, design and UX). Any successful company, any new company making a go of it must see tech as key to their survival and longevity.

Gone are the days when studios could just be studios—produce great content and tacitly rely upon third parties for distribution. And I would argue that, in the case of all successful companies in the space, the ‘tech’ comes before the ‘sex’ by a great margin. That was an awfully long preface to addressing your question. I am satisfied with the state of the industry. There are a number of reasons to be upbeat. The tech itself, be it virtual reality or teledildonics, is exciting.

I can’t speak with much authority on the latter, but where virtual reality is concerned, Sex-Tech is leading much of the innovation. Sex-Tech is the only industry with a VR business model. Another reason to be optimistic: the media has really embraced Sex-Tech in a way that it never has in the past. It’s covered by mainstream presses in an unprecedented manner. This subject, previously taboo, is now part of the pop-cultural conversation.

In addition, there’s the changes we’re seeing on the popular free porn sites. Those sites that forced the industry to rapidly grow up, or, taking a more pejorative tack, brought the industry to its knees, are doing a better job of working with studios than ever before. So, again, plenty of reason, to be optimistic.

5. In your opinion, what kind of challenges does Sex-Tech face, inside and outside the industry?

The industry itself is made up of literally thousands of small companies around the world. Add to that the fact that so many of these companies are scratching and clawing to grow, to survive, it makes it difficult to build consensus, to bring everyone under one umbrella—for example, for the purpose of lobbying, and affecting legislative change. As well, as refreshing as it is that the mainstream media is fascinated by us, and talking about us, Venture Capitalists and Silicon Valley tech companies continue being very hands-off, pretending we don’t exist.

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