The Montreal Basement That Changed the Internet
Honestly, it’s kinda wild to think about now. Back in 2007, the internet was a mess of slow-loading sites and expensive paywalls. Then, on May 25, 2007, a web developer named Matt Keezer launched a site that would basically break the adult industry forever. He wasn't some corporate mogul at the time. He was just a guy in Montreal working under a company called Interhub.
Most people think it was always this massive, sleek empire. It wasn't. It started as a "tube" site—a direct response to the success of YouTube, which had launched only two years prior. The idea was simple: make adult content free, searchable, and incredibly easy to find. Before this, you usually had to pay for a monthly subscription to a specific studio or deal with sketchy, virus-filled pop-up galleries.
Pornhub changed that overnight.
When Did Pornhub Start Scaling?
The site didn't just appear and become the king of the mountain instantly. It took a few years of aggressive growth and some very smart, albeit controversial, business moves. While Keezer got the ball rolling, the real power shift happened in March 2010.
That is when Fabian Thylmann entered the picture. Thylmann was a German tech entrepreneur who had already made a killing with affiliate tracking software. He bought Pornhub and merged it into his conglomerate, Manwin. This was the moment it stopped being a successful website and started becoming a monopoly.
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Thylmann was a math guy. He didn't care about the "art" of the industry; he cared about data. He realized that if you own the platform where everyone watches for free, you control the traffic for the entire industry.
The MindGeek (and Aylo) Era
By 2013, Thylmann was out, selling his stake to Feras Antoon and David Tassillo. They renamed the parent company MindGeek. You've probably heard that name if you follow tech news or documentaries. Under their watch, Pornhub became a household name. They didn't just host videos; they started doing weird marketing stunts like "Sexplorations" (trying to crowdfund sex in space) and launching the "Wankband"—a kinetic charger that was... well, exactly what it sounds like.
Fast forward to today, and the company has rebranded again. As of 2023, it's owned by Ethical Capital Partners (ECP) and goes by the name Aylo. It's a far cry from a few university buddies in Montreal playing foosball and coding in their spare time.
Why 2007 Was the Perfect Storm
If you're wondering why it took until 2007 for this to happen, it’s all about the tech. High-speed internet (broadband) was finally becoming standard in homes. Before that, trying to stream a high-quality video on dial-up was a nightmare.
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- Flash Video: The tech that powered early YouTube made streaming possible for everyone.
- User-Generated Content: This was the "Web 2.0" era. Everyone wanted to upload their own stuff.
- The 2008 Crash: Shortly after the launch, the global economy tanked. People were staying home more and looking for free entertainment.
The Controversy That Nearly Ended It
Everything wasn't just growth and "funny" marketing campaigns. Because anyone could upload anything, the site became a minefield of legal and ethical disasters. For years, the company operated on a "notice and takedown" policy. Basically, they'd wait for someone to complain about a video before checking if it was consensual or legal.
That came to a crashing halt in December 2020.
A massive exposé in The New York Times by Nicholas Kristof highlighted horrific instances of non-consensual content on the platform. The fallout was immediate. Visa and Mastercard pulled their payment processing services.
In a single day, the site's history changed forever. They purged every single video uploaded by unverified users. The site went from hosting 13 million videos to about 4 million in the blink of an eye. If you go on the site today, it's a completely different environment. You can’t just upload a random file; you have to go through a rigorous ID verification process.
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What Actually Happened with the Founders?
There is a lot of "he said, she said" regarding who actually started it. While Matt Keezer is the name on the original paperwork, he was part of a tight-knit circle of Montreal tech guys. People like Ouissam Youssef and Stephane Manos, who founded Mansef (the company behind Brazzers), were heavily involved in the ecosystem.
They were basically the "PayPal Mafia" of the adult world. They went to university together (Concordia), they hung out together, and they built a network of sites that eventually all merged under the same corporate umbrella. It was less of a "lone genius" story and more of a group of friends who realized that the old-school DVD model of the adult industry was dying and they had the tools to bury it.
The Legacy of the 2007 Launch
So, when did Pornhub start being a "tech" company instead of just a "porn" site? Honestly, from day one. They were using big data and algorithms to suggest videos way before Netflix was doing it effectively.
In 2013, they launched "PornIQ," which was basically a recommendation engine that looked at the time of day you visited, where you lived, and what you’d watched before to predict what you wanted to see next. It’s the same tech that keeps you scrolling on TikTok today.
How to trace the history yourself:
- Check the Wayback Machine: You can actually see the original 2007 layout. It looks like a relic of the early internet—lots of blue links and low-res thumbnails.
- Look into the Aylo rebrand: If you're interested in the business side, reading the press releases from 2023 shows how much the company is trying to distance itself from its "wild west" beginnings.
- Watch "Money Shot" on Netflix: It gives a decent, though somewhat dramatized, look at the transition from the Montreal startup days to the global powerhouse it became.
The story of 2007 isn't just about a website launch. It's about the moment the internet became the primary way we consume media—for better or worse.
Actionable Next Steps
If you're researching this for a project or just curious about digital history, your next step should be looking into the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Understanding that law is the only way to understand how Pornhub was able to grow so fast without being sued out of existence in those early years. You might also want to look up the "Manwin acquisition spree of 2010" to see how they systematically bought out their competition to create the modern landscape we see today.