XVideos, stylized as XVIDEOS, is a pornographic video sharing and viewing website. Founded in Paris in 2007, the website is now registered to the Czech company WGCZ Holding.[2][4] As of August 2024[update], it is the 25th-most-visited website in the world and the second most-visited adult website after Pornhub.[5]
 | |
Type of site | Pornographic video sharing |
|---|---|
| Available in | English, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Afrikaans and others |
| Headquarters | Prague, Czech Republic |
| Country of origin | France[1] |
| Owner | WGCZ Holding[2][3] |
| Founder(s) |
|
| URL | www.xvideos.com |
| Advertising | Yes |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | 1 March 2007 |
| Current status | Online |
| Written in | HTML, JavaScript, PHP |
WGCZ Holding also owns Bang Bros, Penthouse magazine, Private Media Group, DDF Network and Erogames and has a controlling interest in the productions gathered under the Legal Porno brand.[4][6][7]
History
XVideos was founded in Paris in 2007 by the French owner Stephane Michael Pacaud. XVideos serves as a pornographic media aggregator, a type of website which gives access to adult content in a similar manner as YouTube does for general content.[8][9] Video clips from professional videos are mixed with amateur and other types of content.[8][9] By 2012, XVideos was the largest porn website in the world, with over 100 billion page views per month.[10]
Fabian Thylmann, the owner of MindGeek (now Aylo), attempted to purchase XVideos in 2012 in order to create a monopoly of pornographic tube sites. The French owner of XVideos turned down a reported offer of more than US$120 million by saying, "Sorry, I have to go and play Diablo II."[9]
In 2014, XVideos controversially attempted to force content providers to either pledge to renounce the right to delete videos from their accounts or to shut down their accounts immediately.[11][12][13]
Web traffic and ranking
As of August 2021[update], XVideos was the most-visited porn website and the seventh-most-visited website in the world, as ranked by Similarweb.[5]
XNXX, another site owned by WGCZ Holding, was the tenth-most-visited website overall and the second-most-visited website in the adult category by 2021,[14] although competitor Pornhub was ranked one slot above XNXX by 2024. Both XVideos and XNXX were also the world's most-visited websites for virtual reality videos in 2021.[15]
See also
References
- ^ "Les sites internet les plus visités au monde" [The most visited websites in the world]. fr.statista.com (in French). Claire Jenik. November 2019. Archived from the original on October 18, 2019. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
- ^ a b Woods, Ben (February 2016). "The (almost) invisible men and women behind the world's largest porn sites". thenextweb.com. Amsterdam: The Next Web B.V. Archived from the original on December 30, 2017. Retrieved October 30, 2016.
- ^ "xvideos.com whois lookup". who.is. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
- ^ a b "'BangBros' Owner Buys Penthouse Biz For $11.2 Million". The Blast. 5 June 2018. Archived from the original on 3 July 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
- ^ a b "xvideos.com Traffic Statistics". SimilarWeb. April 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-12-22. Retrieved 2021-08-08.
- ^ Mark Kernes (5 June 2018). "Penthouse Bankruptcy Auction Results in New Ownership". avn.com. Archived from the original on 3 July 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
- ^ Gustavo Turner (2 January 2020). "Private Media Group Acquired by XVideos Parent Company WGCZ". XBIZ. Archived from the original on 16 December 2020. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
- ^ a b Tsika, Noah (October 3, 2016). Pink 2.0: Encoding Queer on the Internet. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. pp. 61–62. ISBN 978-0253023230. Archived from the original on January 24, 2023. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
- ^ a b c "Naked capitalism". The Economist. September 26, 2015. Archived from the original on February 12, 2018. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
- ^ Yagielowicz, Stephen (April 4, 2012). "Report: The Internet Really Is for Porn". XBIZ. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
- ^ "XVideos.com Tube Site Accused of Strong-Arming Uploaders". AVN. August 13, 2014. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
- ^ "Online porn websites promote 'sexually violent' videos". BBC News. 5 April 2021. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
- ^ Kristof, Nicholas (16 April 2021). "Why Do We Let Corporations Profit From Rape Videos?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2021-04-16.
- ^ "xnxx.com Traffic Statistics". SimilarWeb. August 2021. Archived from the original on 2022-03-07. Retrieved 2021-08-08.
- ^ "These are some of the most popular virtual reality (VR) porn websites in 2022 - News Asia Today". 2021-10-15. Archived from the original on 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2022-01-20.