It's obvious as soon as one walks into their spacious San Fernando Valley office that, adult or mainstream, VS Media is a first-class operation. From the high-end computer equipment, professional-looking staff, and the fun-but-still-conservative vibe, even the most skeptical person could see that VS Media is a serious business that's in it for the long haul - even if the business in question boils down to helping Internet surfers get videos, pictures, and live feeds of naked ladies.
"We always stay focused on what we do and true to our core business," explains VS Media's executive vice president and co-founder Constantine Tsiamis. "If you start to put your values in the wrong place with money, or if material things cloud your judgment or get caught up in what you're doing - especially in this genre - you're going to lose it.
"What we try and do is apply a solid, mainstream-type mentality to the way we run our business."
VS Media was founded in 1996 by two entrepreneurs, Tsiamis and Gregory Clayman, who were eager to find a way to make money on the emerging technology of the Internet. Before founding VS Media, childhood friends Clayman and Tsiamis worked in the insurance game. The first business idea the pair had was a more "traditional" undertaking: an attempt to use the World Wide Web to link financial advisors and their clients. Like many Net ventures, the venture proved less than profitable. As Clayman told the Los Angeles Business Journal, "Nobody was ever going to pay for this."
Clayman and Tsiamis eventually came up with something Web surfers would pay for: porn. Using real-world experience gained in the straight-laced arena of actuary tables and risk management, the pair set to work building what would eventually become one of the most successful, longest-lasting companies in the adult technology business. Over the last seven years, Clayman and Tsiamis have managed to apply solid business principles to the world of Web sex, and in the process, have grown their tech start-up into one of the big boys of the adult Internet. VS Media is proof that the solid basics of capitalism apply no matter what sort of business is being run and what materials are being sold. "We are probably the world's largest distributor of Internet content," states VS Media's president and co-founder Clayman, "whether it's live or pre-recorded."
Of course, it's not a two-man operation. VS Media currently employs over 25 people, and only hires the most experienced, best-educated applicants to do the job. "I think it's the people we have here that separates us from the rest," explains Tsiamis. "Every person here is either technical or a sales professional. We only hire the very best."
VS Media's bread and butter operations break down into two major areas: Streaming live video and providing high-quality adult content for Webmasters. Although they don't produce any video or pictures of their own, VS Media provides service to Webmasters the world over by hooking them up with profitable, high-quality content. "We're like the Miramax of adult," Clayman says. "We partner with the people we feel create the best content, and then we distribute it and market it to our network of Webmasters."
The majority of VS Media's business comes from streaming live video over the Net. Taking advantage of the awesome power of technology to connect people a literal world apart, VS Media has set up one of the most easy-to-use, smooth, and simple-to-navigate video streaming operations on the planet.
While there's more than one firm out there providing Webmasters with live video-streaming Webcam girls and guys, Clayman and Tsiamis's company uses tried-and-true business principles to maintain their position at the top of the hill. First off, their service is priced competitively: Consumers pay $5.99 a minute for personalized, one-on-one action with their Web model of choice, a third of that for the "voyeur" option of watching someone else's show, and $2 per minute for multi-user feature shows.
With competitive pricing in effect, VS Media also maintains customer loyalty by trying to provide better service than the other guys. Their interface is easy to use, the streaming is flawless, and, probably most importantly to surfers, the models are smoking hot. VS Media's girls and guys are willing to bend over backwards (sometimes literally) to please their customers. "We have Asian, Czech, ebony, Romanian, Slovakian girls and guys that really understand what it means to 'sell' a private show," says Tsiamis. "They are schooled in the salesmanship and art of attracting prospective customers from the free chat to the one-on-one shows. When all is said and done, it's all about the relationships between our customers and models."
Web surfers are not treated like open checkbooks by the girls and guys of VS Media, either. Instead, they're treated like valued guests. "We look at it as if the customers are spending $50 at a restaurant. We want them to have such a good time and a good experience that they will come back, and will feel fulfilled and appreciated when they're done," says Clayman.
The other aspect of VS Media's plan is providing content, mainly in the form of still pictures and videos, to Webmasters. Clayman and Tsiamis saw early on that the key to staying competitive in a rapidly crowding marketplace was ensuring that the content they distributed would remain a hot commodity to surfers and Webmasters. They did this by dealing with the top names in adult, the kinds of companies that are known even outside the milieu of "porn fans" as being the best-of-the-best when it comes to X-rated materials. "When she shakedown happens, whether from the government or from Visa and MasterCard, the big guys, the big names, will be left standing," Tsiamis says.
How big are VS Media's names? Try Video Team, Wicked Pictures, Private Media Group, and Penthouse, along with many others. VS Media even has the exclusive sales rights to the infamous Pamela Anderson-Tommy Lee video, as well as a deal with the most famous porn chick of all time, Jenna Jameson. "We're going to be rigging up Jenna's house live, so people will be able to see Jenna at any time, and we're going to have her friends plugged into the house as well," Clayman says.
Securing all this content for their customers is the main mission of VS Media - keeping Webmaster's satisfied is job one. "We always take the viewpoint that our Webmasters are our most valuable asset," says Clayman. "They're really our customers, but it goes down the line. If the end user is happy, and they're buying more time on our service, then the B2B customer is happy too, because they're making money, and we're happy because our Webmasters are happy. It's a 'trickle up' effect."
Another aspect of maintaining a profitable business is protecting your interests from hostile forces. Lately, one of the most hostile of these is the patent lawsuit brought by Acacia Media Technologies Corp. against companies that stream video on the Web. Inspired in part by the lawsuit, Clayman helped found the Internet Media Protective Association, a special interest group for the adult Web industry. Clayman is the group's secretary, while Homegrown Video's Spike Goldberg is its Chairman of the Board. VS Media, along with Homegrown and other companies, have hired the respected firm of Fish & Richardson to argue their case against Acacia. "We have some of the best outside advisors in America, some of the best law firms in the country," Tsiamis tells AVN Online.
A profitable company has to continue looking forward as well, and in this area too, VS Media is leading the pack. Look for the company to stay with their core strengths, but refine and hone them even more. "We're going to continue to bridge the gap between the live model and the consumer," Tsiamis says. "We're going to continue to implement new technologies and make the experience more organic in the sense that will really make it as close to an 'in person' experience as you can get."
As the adult Internet business shuffles on toward maturity, perhaps the most important thing that separates the long-running successful businesses from the too common quasi-criminal ones may be integrity. "We've paid out for almost seven years straight, millions and millions of dollars, and we've never missed one payment on anybody," Tsiamis concludes. "At the end of the day, no matter what kind of money you make, nothing is worth your reputation and your integrity as a person, as a business person, and as an individual. That's non-negotiable."
