Jonathan Tyler's has to be the most unique and unlikely career path ever carved into the gay porn industry: raised in Utah, two years spent on a Mormon mission in Belgium, followed by studying international relations at the University of Geneva and a successful job working for the United Nations in information technology.
In fact, Tyler had never even heard of Bel Ami (insert gasp here) prior to his 1998 employment offer. So how in the world did he end up with one of the best jobs behind the scenes at one of the world’s leading gay porn companies, especially when he wasn’t even sure what it meant to be gay?
“I didn’t know anything about porn… I was very naïve, thinking that to be gay meant you hooked up with a guy who either did drag or was a transvestite,” recalls Tyler with a laugh. “Then in France I saw a gay porn magazine and I was, like, 'Oh my gosh! Two guys! And one of them is not a woman!’ The next day I go, ‘Okay, I’m done!’ So porn actually did bring me out of the closet, but I didn’t know Bel Ami.”
Tyler quickly made up for lost time when he was hired to help establish a strong Web presence. “It was kind of adventurous and maybe beyond its time because we were putting a lot of flash in and trying to make it like this whole walk-through museum with pictures on the wall.”
The hype of becoming a millionaire through the dot-com craze soon passed him by, and Tyler left in 2000 to devote more attention to the United Nations. But Bel Ami founder George Duroy persisted. And when a bad breakup with a boyfriend left Tyler itching for a change, he decided to take the plunge again as the Managing Director.
“I was in a very strong ‘Fuck it!’ stage in my life,” he says, laughing. “I was ready to do anything that would get me out of New York. So when George Duroy showed up, it was really good timing for the both of us.”
So in January 2003, Tyler moved his career and his life across the Atlantic once again. He started to completely revamp the Bel Ami site from scratch. He hired a translator and a Czech teacher to teach him the language, as well as someone to translate Czech to English for the programmers, and also to teach them English.
“We just started building and redefining what it is that we wanted to do,” Tyler recalls. “In 2004, we took a very bold step to develop our own Video-On-Demand, which nobody at the time had done. Everybody was outsourcing it. We don’t. We started our own office just for Web technologies in 2003."
Tyler notes they built a system that created tailor-made, secure keys based on customer purchase history. They then decided to resell the technology to other companies at cost through LotionLounge.com, allowing them to have Video-on-Demand “and not get gouged. We did that because we wanted people to realize that we weren’t just a studio, but we have in-house staff dedicated to internet technologies and the future of delivering adult-related content.”
Nearly two years old, the site will get a makeover with a new feel early next year, adding a dating-site element. Another huge project — one that was featured on the front page of respected magazine Czech Business Weekly — is Bel Ami’s Fantasy Finder.
“This will change how people get porn. It’s based on a robust database which actually has tags on every video. So you’ll go in and say, ‘I’m looking for a blond who sucks a dark-haired guy with a thick dick,’ and right while you’re touching it, it’s aggregating and pulling up clips immediately that are all cached in the system.”
Tyler notes that Bel Ami is also striving to make every DVD package unique, with its newest releases being packaged with hardbound, high-quality coffee table books in Europe, with no price increase — all ship for free worldwide from the Bel Ami site. (Tyler says they are looking for U.S. companies to handle the project).
“We’re trying to change the way consumers look at high-grade adult entertainment, because there’s so much stuff out there,” he says. “We’re going to give you something that is timeless.”
Tyler notes BelAmiOnline.com will also debut its own high-tech dating site next year, and will also focus more attention on providing service to build and maintain websites for other companies. More ventures will focus on mobile content and plug-ins for other megasites with packaged Bel Ami content, while the main site will continue to feature original content (more than 300 full-sex episodes have never been put on DVD).
“I don’t want to brag, but everywhere I go, I’m impressed at the penetration Bel Ami has,” he says. “The name has become a household name in the gay community. Some people may not have Bel Ami, but they certainly know what it is. The fans are the same everywhere.”
