Aylo
Aylo (formerly MindGeek and Manwin) is an adult entertainment conglomerate owned by Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners. It is primarily involved in internet pornography, operating a number of video sharing websites (including platforms such as Pornhub, RedTube, and YouPorn), and pornographic film studios such as Brazzers, Digital Playground, Men.com, Reality Kings, Sean Cody, and WhyNotBi.com, among others. Aylo's headquarters are located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, but the company's corporate structure is divided among entities domiciled in a number of other countries (including tax havens such as Curaçao and Luxembourg).
Aylo | |
Company type | Private |
Industry | |
Predecessor | Mansef - Manwin - MindGeek |
Founded | June 2004 (as Mansef) |
Founders | Stephane Manos, Ouissam Youssef and Fabian Thylmann |
Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Products | Pornographic films |
Brands | |
Services | |
Revenue | US$460 million (2021) |
Owner | Ethical Capital Partners |
Number of employees | ~1400 (2016) |
Subsidiaries |
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Website | aylo |
The company is one of the largest distributors of online pornography, to the extent that it has been accused of having a monopoly position (with 3 out of the 10 most popular online pornography sites being owned by the company). In 2013, a spokesperson for the company stated that its properties were among the top five users of internet bandwidth in the world.
The company has been subject to a number of lawsuits and filed litigation against its competitors. They were sued in California for hosting non-consensual pornography produced by GirlsDoPorn, which coerced women into appearing in their videos under false pretenses. In January 2021, a class action lawsuit making similar claims was launched in Montreal for anyone who had pornography photos and videos, some of which may have been taken when they were underage, shared on its websites without their consent, since 2007. The lawsuit stated that the company knowingly did not "investigate or question its business partner regarding the mounting evidence of sex trafficking". In February 2021, a U.S.-based civil class action lawsuit was launched against the company on behalf of child sex trafficking victims whose child sexual abuse material was uploaded to Pornhub. On December 21, 2023, Aylo agreed to pay a fine of $1.8 million plus additional compensation to GirlsDoPorn victims, and to have an independent party assess their content moderation processes for three years.