I've done a lot of interviews with producers over the years, and have built up a lot of information on the history of the tickling video market. Some info:
The industry has had a number of distinct phases, which unsurprisingly have been driven by financial forces first, and technological ones second.
The first wave of honest to gosh Tickling Videos aimed directly at the tickling paraphiliac came from big porn houses, that figured out there was a market in producing stuff for smaller audience segments. Vid-Tech, Platinum, and a few others. They basically took the basic porn template and then subbed in fetish content. They worked their way down the list of paraphilia, feet, B&D, watersports, tickling. You got little made up plots, and tickling fit in. It was almost all f/f as the template was lifted from the base porn sorts of the time, by the very same companies that made it.
A good deal of it sucked. And not just sucked, was honestly bad.
This led to a second wave of producers to enter the market. These companies were oriented on JUST producing fetish material. They usually started with Bondage, but would branch out into feet, and tickling, and other specific things. They shared an understanding of the fetish outlook, and the material they produced was better. Harmony and FM are two examples of this wave. They were still plot centric videos. There was a paper thin story, and tickling. M/f got more play here, based on story needs, and more importantly (in FM's case) cost. It was easier to use a guy to tickle rather then paying two models, though they caught on quickly that hiring two girls and using them against each other in two clips switching the lee/Ler rolls made more cash.
Which is the real basis for so much f/f content. It sells miles better then M/F. Economics set the mold for much of what would come next.
Technology brought in the next wave of producers. Cameras and Editing bays got cheaper. MTP, Tickling Paradise, Soulfully Yours, and Tickler in Blacks operation (Which shifted names) all are of this era. Many of them used M/F templates for pure cost reasons. They could only afford one model at a time. But all of them knew that F/F sold better and whenever possible they would pair models. FM shifted in this era to much more F/F stuff also. And perhaps most importantly, the idea that a video needed to have a story was tossed overboard. Videos became very much like the amateur porn of the previous decade. It was all about getting to what the customer wanted, and to hell with the rest. You like tickling? Here is nothing but. And given that F/F was the customer desired material, with no 'story needs' M/F faded even more.
Easy credit card processing came along, and that field MTP's success, and TC's too. And they started to do almost nothing but F/F following the money.
But tech moved on. Clips became a viable format, and download on demand along with it. Cips4Sale came along, removing the issues of building a payment capture site, and the hurdles for producing stuff got much lower. You needed a camera a Ler and a lee. And a flood of companies popped up. Enough that they crippled the older guard companies, and those faded. You got more M/F as costs were important to the small houses, and you also started to see more */M as companies looked for any market that could expand sales.
Tickle Abuse rose from this pack, mostly on the fact that Tommy did a bit of everything, and because of his unique skill set could build some of the best bondage equipment in the world. But French Tickling, Chek tickling, and others rose all on supplying regular levels of high quality, and huge volumes of material at good value.
All these companies mostly focus on plot-less torture video style. Most do mostly F/F two nods to the consumer base demand. But many of them do M/F and some */M based on market demand for those forms also. Almost all of the current top level companies learned that co-fetishes (feet related fetishes, orgasm play) were market extenders and proceeded to integrate those aspects into product lines. These often required male models and since the guys are about, why not use them in some M/F shoots at the same time? So that pushed the balance a bit more.
Pure M/M companies have started to arrive on the scene recently, and are starting to serve their specific market. A big part of this is that the pure homophobic aspects of the community have been slowly pushed into the minority by the demographic shift of the millennial generation becoming economic forces on the web, and also bringing their more inclusive outlook with them. In short, gay-bashing is social uncool now, and gets one ostracized. Thank whatever god you choose for that. It makes running a place like this a ton easier. I fought to make this place inclusive for most of its first decade.
The things that will drive the videos you see in the years ahead will be two fold.
1) Social Want. The majority of consumers are male, and they like F/F
2) Demographical Service. Companies will seek to serve smaller and smaller audience segments in search of sales. The number of folks who prefer M/F is not as large as F/F but its still a market to tap, and it is. You'll see folks that specialize in it.
Smaller outfits will dominate the Fetish Market. For example FM can't compete with Tickle Abuse when it comes to hitting the sweet spot on what customers want. FM does dozens of fetish markets, tickling is one side that is shot because they have the models about, and why not? But places like TA are focused on providing exactly what the tickling fan wants. The product will appeal more.
As long as the quality is there, the top level small companies can survive as long as they are not pirated to death. There will be a host of more 2nd tier companies that are one person operations that can tune into even more specific markets, and serve them. And we'll also see a lot of 'Women Inc." sorta product stemming from models that realized they can market themselves to a fetish group and make cash, which are of course limited by the woman's ability to keep a cult of followers about that keep buying their product.
The Webcam industry is starting to cut into the clip business also. Many sites offer hundreds of women, who for $20 or so will perform live for you in whatever way you like, and tickling cash be arranged when they are doing duo stuff. In the 'real porn' world, webcam sites that feature couples just having sex are on the rise. People seem to like the fact that these cams offer a personal connection to the performers, and are more 'real' in what they project. They are a direction the future will see a lot of I wager.
Always a fun topic.
Myriads (Unofficial Tickling Community Historian, though I don't mention it often)
