Alex Barker, a Financial Times journalist covering media, and Patricia Nilsson, an FT business reporter, present findings from their six-month investigation into the pornography industry's financial structures. Their research culminated in The Kink Machine The Hidden Business of Adult Entertainment, an audiobook examining how money flows through adult entertainment.

The investigation reveals a power structure involving billionaires, tech companies, and major finance firms controlling an industry with enormous cultural influence. The reporters interviewed porn performers, industry executives, bankers, and tech pioneers to understand who truly controls online pornography.

The story centers on the transformation of porn from a DVD-based studio system to free tube sites like Pornhub, XTube, and UPorn around 2009. This shift destroyed traditional business models while creating new forms of corporate control, with performers like Stoya bearing the consequences of an industry where basic ownership information remains deliberately obscured.

The Rise and Fall of Studio-Era Pornography

Porn performer Stoya began her career in 2007 during the final years of the traditional studio system, when companies like Digital Playground maintained contract stars and produced expensive features like Pirates 2, which cost millions and featured elaborate sets including a specially-built pirate ship.

The transition to free online content around 2009 demolished the DVD business model: 'People were no longer buying DVDs. They'd moved to watching porn online, for free, on what were called tube sites' - Patricia

Stoya's viral video 'Stoya Kills the Bear' demonstrated how tube sites could create stars through pirated content, initially providing positive publicity before the negative consequences emerged.

XTube's Explosive Growth and Legal Battles

Curtis Potek, a former strip club DJ, accidentally became the face of XTube after answering a support desk ad, dealing with constant legal threats: 'I got very used to hearing the words, I'm going to sue you. I was like the subpoena king of the universe' - Curtis

XTube experienced meteoric growth, going 'from 200,000 users to over half a million users in about a week' once word-of-mouth marketing took effect in the gay porn niche.

The tube site faced serious legal consequences, nearly folding after paying $500,000 to a porn producer for hosting pirated videos, while competitors like UPorn received death threats including 'a bullet in the post' with 'UPorn etched into the side.'

XTube's mysterious Chinese financier 'Mr. X' and other owners deliberately stayed hidden, leaving Curtis as the public face: 'Because they were older and smarter than I was' - Curtis

The Manwin Consolidation and Industry Takeover

German software engineer Fabian Tillman purchased XTube for $35 million, with Curtis recognizing this as part of 'basically the takeover of the adult industry.'

Manwin (later MindGeek) consolidated power by owning both free tube sites like Pornhub and premium studios like Digital Playground, creating what Stoya called 'a porn conglomerate.'

The company's aggressive expansion included acquiring 'digital rights to Playboy' and other major brands, fundamentally reshaping industry ownership structures.

Impact on Performers and Content Creators

Tube sites created 'an immense sense of entitlement' among consumers and made it 'much more difficult to get them to pay for pornographic work' when unlimited free content became available - Stoya

Performers faced personal attacks through user-generated descriptions of pirated content: 'I am simultaneously too fat and concerningly anorexic' - Stoya describing typical comments

The average tube site visit lasts only 8 minutes, making it nearly impossible to convert viewers to paying customers for full-length content.

Stoya criticized the fundamental unfairness of the system: 'I can't post a snapshot without a tabloid reporting on it... I am so exposed. And the people who really own these tube sites get to be reclusive and not publicly held to account.'