Sex Toy Crowdfunding Redux (via Vibease and Blowjob Toothpaste)
Well apparently I was wrong!
That right there is a picture of an Indiegogo campaign for Vibease, the Singapore based vibrator company that's been making its way through startup competitions for the past couple of years. They're looking for $15,000 as a pre-order campaign. As of me typing this, they're already 50% of the way through.
I was not even aware this was possible. Offbeatr seems to have become popular with furries, and both Vibease and LovePalz had their own kickstarter lookalike landing pages for a while. Apparently Indiegogo has always been ok with sex based projects though. From their terms of service:
By way of example, and not limitation, your promise means you will not use the Service: To offer, sell or distribute: Bullying, harassing, obscene or pornographic items, sexually oriented or explicit materials or services
I suppose sex toys aren't really materials or services, if you want to be pedantic about it. So Offbeatr is still the place to go for porn, but Indiegogo is fine for sex toys!
Honestly, Kickstarter may be the same way. Going back through their terms of service, I only see references to "obscene". The project guidelines have:
- No offensive material (hate speech, etc.); pornographic material; or projects endorsing or opposing a political candidate.
- No bath, beauty, and cosmetic products; electronic surveillance equipment; eyewear (sunglasses, prescription glasses, and others); firearms, weapons, knives, weapon accessories, and replicas of weapons; medical, health, safety, and personal care products; or infomercial-type products.
After some searching, I found a sex toy related project on Kickstarter that made it all the way through funding. The ChillDil Sex Toy Sleeve got the $500 it was looking for to make thermal sleeves for dildos. That's about all I could find though.
Now we know toys can survive on the larger crowdfunding sites, while porn is still stuck on Offbeatr. But what's something you can do on indiegogo that you can't on kickstater?
Yessiree, it's BlowPaste, the Oral Sex Lube that's good for your teeth! Not since a floor cleaner that's also a dessert topping have we seen innovation like this! Of course it's a personal care product so this wouldn't see the light of day on kickstarter, but all it needs is $5000 to make sure you're keepin' them whites pearly while getting some white pearls!
Ok I'll stop now.
