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XVideos
Registration page / main entry
Type of site
Pornographic video sharing
Available inEnglish, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Afrikaans and others
HeadquartersPrague,
Czech Republic
Country of originFrance[1]
OwnerWGCZ Holding[2][3]
Founder(s)
  • Stephane Michael Pacaud
URLwww.xvideos.com
AdvertisingYes
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
Launched1 March 2007; 17 years ago (2007-03-01)
Current statusOnline
Written inHTML, JavaScript, PHP

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 November 2022, it is the most visited pornographic website and the 11th most visited website in the world.[5]

WGCZ Holding also owns Bang Bros, DDF Network, Penthouse magazine, Private Media Group, 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, 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, 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, is the tenth most visited website overall and the second most visited website in the adult category.[14] Both XVideos and XNXX were also the world's most visited websites for virtual reality videos in 2021.[15]

Censorship

See also: Internet censorship

Algeria

In 2019, the Algerian government banned XVideos for no stated reason, but the website remains accessible to the public via IP address spoofing.[citation needed]

Bangladesh

On 19 February 2019, the Bangladeshi government blocked access to the site along with 20,000 other pornographic sites as a part of their anti-porn war.[16]

China

In December 2009, the Chinese authorities banned 60,000 pornographic websites.[17]

France

On 20 January 2022, France announced that it will be banning all pornographic websites unless they ensured their users were over 18 years of age.[18] The appeal court rejected this ban in May 2022.[19]

India

Further information: Internet censorship in India

In 2015, the company was censored by the Indian government on a list of 857 pornographic websites, which also included non-pornographic websites such as CollegeHumor.[20][21] In 2018, major Indian internet service providers also blocked access to XVideos and other porn sites.[22]

Iran

Further information: Internet censorship in Iran

Pornographic sites are forbidden in Iran and capital punishment has been sued for programmer of such sites in 2012[23].

Lebanon

In 2014, Lebanon's Minister of Telecommunications ordered internet service providers to block six pornographic websites including XVideos.[24] Some internet providers did not oblige, while others like Mobi DSL did.

Malaysia

In 2015, the Malaysian government banned XVideos for violating the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, which bans "obscene content" from being digitally distributed.[25]

Philippines

On 14 January 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte blocked XVideos as a part of Republic Act 9775, or the Anti-Child Pornography Law.[26]

Russia

After some threats,[27] on 17 May 2022, Russia blocked XVideos and other sites.

Venezuela

On 14 June 2018, the telecommunications and internet services company CANTV blocked access to the website without giving any statement in this regard.[28]

Vietnam

Since November 2019, ISPs in Vietnam have silently blocked access to every major pornographic website, including XVideos. Most ISPs declined to comment, some denying blocking the sites. Most users assumed that the situation was a result of a secret government mandate; regardless, the websites are still accessible through the use of a VPN.[29]

See also

References

  1. ^ "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.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ "xvideos.com whois lookup". who.is. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ a b "xvideos.com Traffic Statistics". SimilarWeb. April 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-12-22. Retrieved 2021-08-08.
  6. ^ 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.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ a b c "Naked capitalism". The Economist. September 26, 2015. Archived from the original on February 12, 2018. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ "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.
  12. ^ "Online porn websites promote 'sexually violent' videos". BBC News. 5 April 2021. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  13. ^ Kristof, Nicholas (16 April 2021). "Why Do We Let Corporations Profit From Rape Vidoes?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2021-04-16.
  14. ^ "xnxx.com Traffic Statistics". SimilarWeb. August 2021. Archived from the original on 2022-03-07. Retrieved 2021-08-08.
  15. ^ "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.
  16. ^ "Bangladesh blocks 20,000 websites in anti-porn 'war'". Al Jazeera. 2019-02-19. Archived from the original on 2019-12-08. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
  17. ^ "60,000 websites closed in China porn crackdown". China Daily. Archived from the original on 2023-01-20. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
  18. ^ DJKamalMustafaOnline (2021-12-28). "Under new French rules, Porn websites will be blocked - EMEA Tribune, Breaking News, World News, Latest News, Top Headlines". Archived from the original on 2022-01-20. Retrieved 2022-01-20.
  19. ^ NextImpact.com (2022-05-19). "La cour d'appel confirme le rejet de la demande de blocage des sites porno par les Fournisseurs d'Accès Internet". Archived from the original on 2022-05-31. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  20. ^ "Xvideos.com has the most subtle but brilliant response to govt's #Pornban". Firstpost. 2015-08-04. Archived from the original on 2018-07-15. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  21. ^ Akolawala, Tasneem. "Xvideos, College Humor lash out at Indian government after porn ban | Latest Tech News, Video & Photo Reviews at BGR India". BGR India. Archived from the original on 2017-08-30. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  22. ^ Jaitly, Rohan (2018-10-26). "Reliance Jio blocks porn websites in India after DOT orders closure of 827 adult websites: Report | Tech News". TimesNowNews.com. Archived from the original on 2022-04-07. Retrieved 2019-01-20.
  23. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/18/iran-death-sentence-porn-programmer
  24. ^ "Lebanon Blocks Six Porn Sites, Sparks Fears of Further Censorship". SMEX: Channeling Advocacy. 2014-09-11. Archived from the original on 2022-02-12. Retrieved 2019-10-10.
  25. ^ IBTimes. "Malaysia porn ban: xVideo, PornHub among websites blocked for 'obscene content'". International Business Times, India Edition. Archived from the original on 2018-07-15. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  26. ^ "Popular porn sites blocked in Philippines". BBC. 2017-01-06. Archived from the original on 2019-03-30. Retrieved 2018-08-04.
  27. ^ "Russia proposes state control over access to porn websites". 21 June 2021. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  28. ^ "Cantv bloqueó acceso a tres páginas pornográficas en Venezuela". el-nacional.com (in Spanish). 16 June 2018. Archived from the original on 25 October 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2018.
  29. ^ Trí, Dân (2019-11-19). "Các nhà mạng Việt Nam "âm thầm" chặn web đen" [Vietnamese carriers "silently" block the dark web]. Báo điện tử Dân Trí (in Vietnamese). Archived from the original on 2022-02-12. Retrieved 2021-10-03.
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