Caroline Spiegel, the 22-year-old sister of Snapchat CEO and “world’s youngest billionaire” Evan Spiegel, made her own mark on the tech industry Thursday. But the younger Spiegel is taking a slightly different approach than her big bro.
Since the founding of Snapchat—now known as Snap Inc.—Evan Spiegel has battled the app’s quickly earned reputation as on online haven for homebrewed porn. But Caroline Spiegel is going in the other direction, launching her own porn site.
As the tech publication Fast Company reported this week, Spiegel’s new site serves as a platform for user-produced audio porn. No videos or sexually explicit images appear on the site.
In fact, Spiegel believes that the adult industry relies too heavily in visuals. Audio-only porn, on the other hand, “gets across the intangibles of porn—the flirting; the intimacy,” she told Fast Company.
Her aversion to video-based porn sites comes across in the design of the site, Quinn, which is heavy on the black, negative space. A row of unobtrusive icons, each a link to an audio file, is scrollable along the bottom third of the screen.
As of Friday, some of the available files included, “Masturbation Moans,” “Daddy,” “Harry Eats You Out” and “The Skype Call.”
But Spiegel is not in the porn production business, audio or otherwise. Instead, she describes Quinn as “YouTube for audio porn.” User-created audio files drive the site. Plans to create a method for users to monetize their audio porn files are in the works, but the site is free to access.
Spiegel told Wired magazine that she got the idea to create an audio porn site while she was a junior in computer science at Stanford University—but had to drop out due to a debilitating eating disorder. That’s when she realized that her own sexuality made her uncomfortable—until she listened to a “guided masturbation” audio file.
“I felt so turned on in a way that I’d never felt by myself before,” Spiegel told Wired. “[Audio porn] emphasizes the sort of nonobvious, intangible parts of sex—the desire, the buildup, and the intimacy that you get in real life.”
About 400 files have already been uploaded to the site, following its beta launch earlier this year. Some are strictly amateur, others are clearly the work of audio-erotica pros. But they all must adhere to the site’s community guidelines.
“Our golden rules are no incest—we allow stepbrother, stepsister—no bestiality, no minors whatsoever, and no nonconsent,” she told Wired. “But you can have consensual nonconsent, so like within the boundaries of fantasy or play.”
Spiegel isn't the only entrepreneur looking to explore audio erotica. In addition to such apps as Rosy and Dipsea (read more here), two stalwarts from the adult industry—Sssh.com founder Angie Rowntree and director Nica Noelle—are producing audio-only stories called Erotic Radio Plays (read more here).
Sex educator Laura Delarato told Fast Company that she is “not surprised” by what appears to the emergence of audio porn as popular form of erotica.
“There is a market and interest for audio erotica,” Delarato said. “Especially one where users can generate their own content and partake in their own voyeurism knowing that others might listen to their voice and story.”
Photo By Liam Dunn / Wikimedia Commons
