TorrentFreak

The place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collide

Vuze BitTorrent Client Closes Porn Torrent Site

BitTorrent and adult entertainment go hand in hand, which is one of the reasons why the Vuze BitTorrent client introduced a paid erotica section last year. However, the project turned out to be a quickie and has been canceled due to a lack of traction among Vuze users.

Owned and operated by Vuze Inc., StudioHD was silently integrated into the Vuze client last year. Once the user had signed up for a subscription costing $24.99 for a month or $149.99 annually, the service offered hundreds of high definition videos that could be downloaded using BitTorrent .

The project was supposed to generate a healthy revenue stream to support the company in tough economic times. A few months later, however, the project has been canceled and the site closed, as the company focuses on other ways of satisfying its users.

“Over the past six months, we prioritized our projects to focus development on features that were gaining significant traction with our community. As part of this prioritization, StudioHD was closed in November,” a spokesman at Vuze told TorrentFreak.

Vuze’s defunct adult entertainment network

vuze

Although Vuze officially claims that the closure of StudioHD is a matter of changed priorities, we assume that it was not as profitable as the company had projected. This is not really a big surprise, as even the ‘free’ adult torrent sites are having trouble keeping up with the increasing popularity of adult video streaming sites.

The Vuze spokesman told TorrentFreak that the company will instead focus on integrating devices and torrent search capabilities into its client.

“Almost half our active community use Vuze Device integrations to watch their media on screens other than their computers (iPhone, iPod, PS3, Xbox 360 etc). They’ve successfully transferred more than 50m files to other screens since launch last March.”

In addition to the successful device integration, the built-in search capabilities using existing torrent sites such as isoHunt and BTjunkie, has gained in use significantly. Three quarter of all Vuze users are searching for torrents using the feature, compared to 55% a year ago.

Ironically, this integrated search allows users to find thousands of adult torrents that can be downloaded for free. No paid subscription needed. Could that be one of the reasons why the StudioHD subscription service was canceled?

Related Posts

Previous Post | Next Post

  • TorGuard

NewsBits

The latest news from around the web, not covered on the frontpage

  • 0 French Films Were Pirated Between May and December 2011

    It’s no secret that copyright lobbyists do whatever it takes to justify stronger anti-piracy measures, but...

  • Look! We got a Medal for Defending the Internet

    Yeah I have to admit, we are awesome… In fact, TorrentFreak is so great that we...

  • Filecrop Bans Porn “Out of Respect for Women”

    The popular cyberlocker search engine Filecrop decided to disable access to all porn on its site....

  • Dutch ISPs Appeal Pirate Bay Blockade

    Two weeks ago the Court of The Hague ordered several ISPs to prevent subscribers from accessing...

  • TorrentFreak Censored by Orange’s Child Protection Filter

    The Internet is a scary place for kids, but luckily there’s censorship. In the UK mobile...

MostDiscussed

Below are TorrentFreak's most discussed articles of the past month. Join the discussion if you like.

CopyQuote

Left Quote

“The Pirate Bay has been one of the most important movements in Sweden for freedom of speech, working against corruption and censorship.

Peter Sunde Left Quote

PopularArticles

A selection of some TorrentFreak's classics dug up from our archives.