Brazzers
 | |
| Private Subsidiary of MindGeek | |
| Industry | Pornography |
| Founded | June 22, 2005[1] |
| Headquarters | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Feras Antoon (CEO), David Tassilo (COO), Lenc Sterili (CEO) |
| Products | Pornographic films |
| Parent | MindGeek |
| Website |
www |
Brazzers (/ˈbræzərz/) is a pornographic production company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The online network consists of thirty-one hardcore pornography websites. As of October 2015, Brazzers.com has a traffic ranking of 1,650.[2]
History
Founded in 2005 by a group of Montreal investors, Brazzers became part of a larger group of pornographic sites under the corporate name of Mansef. In 2010, Mansef was sold to Fabian Thylmann, and rebranded as Manwin Inc.[3] In December 2012, Thylmann was extradited from Belgium to Germany on suspicion of tax evasion.[4]
In October 2013, Thylmann sold Manwin's assets, including Brazzers, to an internal management group, Mindgeek, headed by CEO Feras Antoon, and shareholder David Tassilo.[5]
In 2014, Brazzers celebrated its 10th anniversary with a billboard in Times Square in New York City. The digital billboard was located at the corner of 47th and 7th and viewable for the entire month of August.[6] Previously in 2010 Brazzers had used a Times Square billboard to promote its safe sex campaign and to announce its "Get Rubber!" slogan and website.[7]
In September 2016, http://Vigilante.pw broke the news of a database breach suffered by Brazzers, which affected almost 1 million users after the site was hacked in April 2013.[8][9][10][11][12]
Operations
Brazzers is currently headed by CEO Feras Antoon, and owned and operated by Mindgeek, a multinational officially registered in Luxembourg.[13]
Brazzers came under industry criticism for associating with streaming media sites like Pornhub. In response, in 2009, Brazzers initiated an anti-piracy campaign.[14]
The company was acquired by Manwin in March 2010.[15]
Litigation
In 2008, after being fired, producer Bobby Manila served Brazzers with a lawsuit for fraud and violating the terms of his contract. The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court.[16]
In February 2010, a lawsuit was filed by Pink Visual Studio accusing Brazzers' parent company, Manwin, of infringing on copyrighted content by distributing unlicensed video content on their free video sharing sites. Brazzers' network has been accused of benefiting from unlicensed content by indirectly benefiting from traffic from sharing sites, but this was the first time a well-known studio had filed a lawsuit. A class action lawsuit was considered by other studios.[17]
Awards
- 2009 AVN Awards – Best Adult Website[18]
- 2009 AVN Award – Best New Video Production Company
- 2009 AVN Award – Best Big Bust Release (Big Tits at School)
- 2009 XBIZ Award – Affiliate Program of the Year[19]
- 2010 AVN Award – Best Big Bust Series (Big Tits at School)[20]
- 2011 AVN Award – Best Membership Site Network[21]
- 2011 AVN Award – Best Big Bust Series (Big Tits at School)[21]
- 2011 AVN Award – Best Vignette Release (Pornstar Punishment)[22]
- 2012 AVN Award – Best Big Bust Series[23]
- 2012 AVN Award – Best Membership Website[23]
- 2013 XBIZ Award nominee – Vignette Release of the Year (Big Tits in Sports Vol 9 and Day With a Pornstar); Vignette Series of the Year (Big Tits in Sports and MILFs Like it Big); All-Girl Series of the Year (Hot and Mean)[24]
- 2014 XBIZ Award – Studio Site of the Year (Brazzers.com)[25]
References
- ↑ "Brazzers.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS. 2016. Retrieved 2016-02-21.
- ↑ "Brazzers.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
- ↑ "Meet The New King of Porn". Retrieved January 18, 2012.
- ↑ "'Porn king' detained on suspicion of tax evasion". Retrieved December 17, 2012.
- ↑ "Fabian Thylmann Sells Stake in Manwin to Company Management". Retrieved December 17, 2012.
- ↑ Smithberg, Allen. "Brazzers Marks 10th With Times Square Billboard". AVN.com. Adult Vide News. Retrieved July 31, 2014.
- ↑ Javors, Steve. "Brazzers Unveils Massive New York City Billboard". AVN.com. Adult Video News. Retrieved September 13, 2014.
- ↑ Breach of Brazzers Forum (BBC) - http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37285715
- ↑ Breach of Brazzers Forum (HIBP) - https://haveibeenpwned.com/PwnedWebsites#Brazzers
- ↑ Breach of Brazzers Forum (MyBroadband) - http://mybroadband.co.za/news/security/178474-the-south-african-government-departments-exposed-in-the-brazzers-porn-forum-hack.html
- ↑ Breach of Brazzers Forum (TheNextWeb) - http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/09/05/hackers-ejaculate-800000-brazzers-accounts-onto-the-dark-web/
- ↑ Breach of Brazzers Forum (LifeHacker) - http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/09/brazzers-porn-site-forum-hack-lead-to-80000-accounts-exposed/
- ↑ "Manwin: opérations en coulisses". Retrieved October 12, 2013.
- ↑ "Webmasters Seek Solutions in Tube Site Wars". XBIZ. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
- ↑ Pardon, Rhett (July 15, 2010). "Brazzers, Mofos, Tube Sites Acquired by Manwin". XBIZ Newswire. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
- ↑ "Manila vs. Brazzers.com Settles Out of Court". XBIZ. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
- ↑ "Adult studio tackles 'tube sites'". AfterDawn.com. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
- ↑ "2009 winners". Archived from the original on June 8, 2012. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
- ↑ "2009 XBIZ Award winners". XBIZ. Retrieved July 25, 2011.
- ↑ "2010 AVN Award winners". Retrieved July 25, 2011.
- 1 2 "2011 AVN Award winners". Retrieved July 25, 2011.
- ↑ "2011 Award winners". Retrieved July 25, 2011.
- 1 2 "2012 Award winners". Retrieved November 21, 2012.
- ↑ XBIZ Nominees 2013 Archived January 31, 2012, at the Wayback Machine., XBIZ, January 2013
- ↑ Dan Miller (January 24, 2014). "2014 XBIZ Award Winners Announced". XBIZ. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
