Award-winning VR Porn CEO on the Future of the Industry

Todd Glider of BaDoinkVR reveals plans for more titillating virtual reality experiences.

Even in its fledgling stage, virtual reality porn is often regarded as the holy grail of the adult film industry. Content distributors and adult performers hope it will revitalize ailing businesses—ones that faced incredible profit loss due to free streaming sites and illegal downloading. Entrepreneurs are also trying to jump on the bandwagon so they don’t miss out on the potential boom.

To give insight on the future of VR porn, BaDoinkVR [NSFW] CEO Todd Glider spoke to us about how he’s bringing innovation to the industry.

FoS: Congratulations on winning the 2016 XBIZ Award for the best adult virtual reality site, especially since it’s the first time this has been a category. Why do you think your site beat out the competition?

TG: BaDoinkVR [NSFW] is the brand of record, and has been for more than a year. Where the mainstream media is concerned, we do a great job representing the industry. We’ve been covered by everyone from Rolling Stone to Forbes. So that’s key. From my perspective, we shoot the most immersive VR content. There’s also the technology aspect. In addition to producing the content, we created the player software needed for viewing VR content: a native app in iTunes App Store and Google Play, a browser-based app for streaming on Android and iOS, and a desktop app compatible with HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

FoS: One of the limitations of virtual reality porn, which I’m sure you’re aware of, is the passive male/active female dynamic is most videos. This is obviously partially due to the constraints of VR technology now available. What, if anything, are you working on or considering to shake up or expand user experiences in this regard?

TG: There are a few factors at work, and all of them circle back to the innovation lifecycle. Anyone using Virtual Reality today, any BaDoinkVR member, is classified as an early adopter. There is still a huge segment of the population that does not even know what VR stands for. The persistent hype masks the fact that it’s so early in this technology’s lifecycle. So let’s say we are able to integrate a tech that supports fully articulated hand tracking—Leap Motion’s new Orion, for example—so that the end user can not only see and control the POV’s hands, he can feel it, with the aid of haptic feedback. The market for this solution is terrifically small, and it would be difficult therefore to determine what hand tracking device or devices to develop for. We are shooting currently for a new virtual reality porn site that will launch this quarter. And I expect it will be enormously successful.

FoS: You recently launched the sex therapy VR video series Virtual Sexology. Why did you mix virtual reality with sex education, and how successful is the pairing in teaching people to become more attentive lovers?

TG: Nobody knows what they’re doing in the bedroom! And there is a widely held belief that the overwhelming number of adults out there are getting their “sexual education” by watching porn. That’s crazy, but, unfortunately, makes sense. Where it is taught in the schools, it’s not taught with much rigor. And at home, it’s one of the most uncomfortable subjects for parents to cover. That’s a problem. Pornography is entertainment. It’s not educational in any respect. None of us have teaching certificates from degree-bearing institutions.

A Meetup I attended here in Barcelona sparked the idea for Virtual Sexology. This was in 2015. A local company in attendance demo’ed its exposure therapy program, targeting sufferers of acrophobia. That got me thinking. Sexual hang-ups are pervasive, so we got to work on the planning. We enlisted the help of Hernando Chaves, a proper sex therapist. And that ultimately begot Virtual Sexology. The initial program contains 8 segments, focused on everything from Kegel exercises to breathing techniques. Response from the media has been overwhelmingly positive. Our BaDoinkVR subscribers consider it among the best videos we’ve ever produced.

FoS: Are you planning more Virtual Sexology videos?

TG: Indeed we are. I’d like to expand beyond that first video, which was, by design, broad in scope. I’m keen to create programs dedicated to addressing specific sexual hang-ups. For example, fear of intimacy, premature ejaculation, sexual arousal disorders.

FoS: I’m intrigued by your safe-for-work erotic reading VR video project, which is still in beta. The current video on your site features a fully clothed actress reading a sexy story. What was the inspiration to combine such a visually immersive medium with spoken storytelling?

TG: Erotic literature has been around since the dawn of written communication. So on a certain level, an aesthetic level, that appeals to me—old meets new. And historically, we humans have been audience to storytelling much longer than we’ve been reading on our own. 200 years ago, only 17% of the population was literate. Prior to that, we listened. So I think we’ve a natural affinity for it, for hearing a story read aloud. And let’s face it: erotica sells. Recently, 50 Shades of Grey caught the public’s pop culture imagination, but it’s nothing new or singular. Romance novels are pervasive, and romantic fiction is typically erotic. So I thought, if done right, with a real actor who can bring words on a page to life, there is the potential for it to be a highly engaging and titillating SFW experience.

FoS: Where do you see the erotic story reading project going?

TG: I’m interested in developing a series, perhaps even a new, dedicated site devoted to erotic storytelling. If we find there’s an audience, the sky’s the limit. We could have multiple actors reading from the same story. The reading could be commingled with recorded action in the VR space, action that matches the narrative. We could also find adult performers to read, and pepper the series with episodes that are NSFW. Anything is possible. Heck. Think of what’s possible with some Chroma key compositing.

FoS: Any plans to incorporate virtual reality and live webcams?

TG: We’ve been working with Fabian and the AliceX team since they were in beta, and we’re promoting them currently. We haven’t ruled anything out, but we’ve no plans to develop our own proprietary live VR cam solution at this point.

Image sources: BaDoinkVR