Mar 25 2008
Jeremy Schoemaker

Zivity is Pretty Hot, Founder Cyan Banister On Tonights ShoeMoney Show!

By Jeremy Schoemaker 51 comments

ZivityJust a few days ago my friend, bigdave sent me a invite to Zivity. A new interesting website that I was first introduced to at the techcrunch40 conference in San Francisco last fall. Zivity was probably one of the most memorable of all the companies seeking funding on the TC40 stage. Having half naked women roam around while you explain what your company does will do that. They did not win, but while I forgot most of the 40 companies Zivity is one that stuck out in my mind.

So what is it? Well Zivity’s founder, Cyan Banister says “Zivity is a cross between Myspace, Playboy and American Idol”. I would have to agree so far… except I would add in digg somewhere in there. Basically photographers and models submit their photos where users can vote on them. Each user gets 1 vote when they get an account (for now) then they have to purchase more votes. You can also friend both model and photographer and “follow them” if you will. So how adult is the site? Well after hours of investigation I would say 80% of the photo sets on the site contained some nudity and about 30% of those showed complete nudity. Its very well done though with a lot of class. There are some very skilled photographers and really beautiful models on the site.

So it’s just another porn site? But “classier?” no… not quite…. Its actually a pretty awesome site with a lot of nice web 2.0 features. Also its the first “Adult” website to get VC funding so far raising 8 million dollars!

Its VERY hard to get an account (thats what she said) on Zivity but tonight on the shoemoney show live on webmasterradio.fm at 5pm CST, 3pm PST founder Cyan Banister will reveal a special code for Shoemoney listeners which will allow them into the beta (which is VERY limited ATM). I think Cyan will be a very interesting guest talking about how Zivity started and the opportunity for people to make money with it.

If you have any specific questions you would like me to ask her please post in the comments.

Ill tell you who I voted for on Zivity… cause I know people will ask. I voted for pearl:

and no… it wasn’t cause I met her at the Techcrunch Awards and she put me in this cool hat… ok it was… =)

So make sure you tune in tonight to the ShoeMoney show on webmasterradio.fm

  1. tyler dewitt said on March 25th, 2008 at 11:34 am

    LOL thats funny you just posted that picture because I was looking through Jim Boykin Myspace profile and bumped into your profile and was just looking at that picture on your myspace and just left that picture and then you posted it on your blog .

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  2. tyler dewitt said on March 25th, 2008 at 11:35 am

    so other words that was the page I was at before this blog

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  3. Michael D said on March 25th, 2008 at 11:45 am

    I checked this out when you twittered about it last week. Regardless of the content, there appears to be some good examples as to what can be done in niche spaces. Also, if you’re the site webmaster, you can stay up all night doing “research.” Beats reading marketing blogs.

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  4. Affiliate Confession said on March 25th, 2008 at 12:25 pm

    Hey Shoe, I’m sure your wife is okay with this huh?

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  5. Robert Bardou said on March 25th, 2008 at 12:37 pm

    I didn’t understand… what is it? Is it a site simply, a site of Zivity firm? Or a social network?

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  6. ShoeMoney said on March 25th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    oo i dunno I will have to check with her before posting in the future !!!

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  7. Blog Marketing Journal said on March 25th, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    Hmm interesting concept to say the least. Nice photo at the end! Pretty “bad ass!”

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  8. Sean said on March 25th, 2008 at 12:58 pm

    I always want to add another “ity” to the end of that name when I try to pronounce it. zivititity or something like that. So you pay to join and pay to vote. What do you get in return? other than the obvious intangible

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  9. bubub said on March 25th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

    is it an e-commerce site kinda like the “emperors club” where you can order the girls?

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  10. james said on March 25th, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    Question for Cyan: I saw on Techcrunch where you took off your clothes on zivity! Have you always been a voyeur ? Was it nerve racking?

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  11. MikeK said on March 25th, 2008 at 1:11 pm

    Shoe your review is hilarious! (thats what she said) had me loling

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  12. roger said on March 25th, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    QUestion - is the overall revenue model just in voting or will there be other ways the site will generate income?

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  13. Rob said on March 25th, 2008 at 1:34 pm

    The hat makes you look Gangsta. Look forward to the interview!

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  14. yourtradingstock said on March 25th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    Interesting spin on a soft porn site.

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  15. jim said on March 25th, 2008 at 2:12 pm

    Zivity sounds like the name of a cirque de soleil show

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  16. tonyrocks said on March 25th, 2008 at 2:20 pm

    Thanks for the warning :) I’ve just displayed boobies on the overhead projector at work. :( hehe

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  17. Neil said on March 25th, 2008 at 3:06 pm

    Nice pic there shoe! You are pimp’n it.

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  18. Flimjo said on March 25th, 2008 at 3:07 pm

    Nice hat.

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  19. Iphone Blogger said on March 25th, 2008 at 3:37 pm

    What a sexy site?

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  20. Info Portal said on March 25th, 2008 at 3:50 pm

    This is a great Internet Property

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  21. Zak Show said on March 25th, 2008 at 4:52 pm

    So cool ! But how we can make money from this ??

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  22. Ludwik C. Siadlak said on March 25th, 2008 at 5:18 pm

    If you had to choose only one answer, is it more similar to chickipedia or chicksnbreasts?

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  23. Sean said on March 25th, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    doesn’t look like there is much “pedia” to it

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  24. Terry Tay said on March 25th, 2008 at 6:23 pm

    So it’s mostly a site for models and photographers and people that would need to hire models or photographers right? I like the name Zivity as it’s kind of catchy.

    I think you made a good vote for Pearl ;-)
    ~Terry

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  25. Terry Tay said on March 25th, 2008 at 6:26 pm

    It almost looks like you were thinking your wife might see the pic as you are keeping your hand off of her. Unless the pic was taken just before ;-)
    ~Terry

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  26. Douglas Karr said on March 25th, 2008 at 6:49 pm

    Hot or Not for Web 2.0? Maxim Myspace? Facebook Idol?

    Is anyone else as unimpressed as I am? In a world where journalists have to have more beauty than brains, and we vote more for American Idol than the President, this is just what we needed.

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  27. ShoeMoney said on March 25th, 2008 at 6:53 pm

    welcome to capitalism where people get what they want ;)

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  28. POYTSPOT said on March 25th, 2008 at 7:00 pm

    hot chix Shoemoney.

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  29. jtGraphic said on March 25th, 2008 at 7:25 pm

    It’s funny that a system like this exists, but in the presidential elections we have hanging chads :-P

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  30. Bibokz said on March 25th, 2008 at 7:58 pm

    Wow.. is it a n another photo site or a poll yard?

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  31. Yiwu said on March 25th, 2008 at 8:23 pm

    LOL. its so beauty..

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  32. Erica DeWolf said on March 25th, 2008 at 8:29 pm

    Very interesting site…It’s great that so many industries are adopting the web 2.0 style of things.

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  33. Mayank Rocks said on March 25th, 2008 at 8:34 pm

    This chick is HOT!

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  34. Mayank Rocks said on March 25th, 2008 at 8:34 pm

    hahaha. Shoemoney turned a pimp? hahaha

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  35. Mayank Rocks said on March 25th, 2008 at 8:35 pm

    lol
    Her boobies are sexy

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  36. Julian said on March 26th, 2008 at 1:45 am

    I agree that it’s made with a lot of class. Still… :-)

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  37. goroskop said on March 26th, 2008 at 9:00 am

    nice :)

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  38. Flimjo said on March 26th, 2008 at 10:26 am

    How would you value this internet property?

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  39. Paul said on March 26th, 2008 at 10:50 am

    Right a classy nude site. Seems that sites like these are coming out more and more. There seems to be a lot of money to be made. I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet but I am sure that it is well put together with 8 million backing it.

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  40. Вакансии в Украине said on March 26th, 2008 at 11:47 am

    Thank you for this interesting information.

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  41. VEl said on March 26th, 2008 at 5:54 pm

    I see so basically this is a site to stalk hot chicks and gives you some kind of hope that you can truly befriend these hotties by voting for them, and gving you this .098979747944% chance in hell that they will return the gratitude by having sex with you.

    Doesn’t America suck enough as it is because we have half the female population already being wastes of space because they strive to look hot as a career instead of doing something meaningful without having to make them feel that they need to persue that avenue even MORE?

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  42. CodeFreedom said on March 27th, 2008 at 12:00 am

    NIce….ahhhh, sight, sorry, site !

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  43. oakling said on March 27th, 2008 at 12:47 pm

    holy crap, they finally monetized amihotornot.

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  44. DamnSmiley said on March 27th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

    raised $8m already? wow they must be so damn fast..good job!

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  45. DamnSmiley said on March 27th, 2008 at 2:56 pm

    yea i know that for sure…lol

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  46. CodeFreedom said on March 27th, 2008 at 3:33 pm

    Hot girl you got there@
    I envy you.

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  47. Karl said on March 27th, 2008 at 7:25 pm

    From what I see, Zivity is hot. I wish I wouldn’t waste my time on sites like that, but then I do. Nice post. Interesting place to visit.

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  48. Ismail shihadi said on March 31st, 2008 at 9:53 am

    hmm.. there are 47 comments but its showing 3 only.. some kinda bug ??

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  49. Forumistan said on April 2nd, 2008 at 2:42 pm

    Wow, nice pics man!…

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  50. chris said on April 3rd, 2008 at 2:55 pm

    You have to pay money to vote on pictures??? Are you kidding me? I guess if the saying “there is a sucker born every minute” is true then maybe this will generate some revenue.

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  51. Forumistan said on April 9th, 2008 at 8:45 pm

    And zivity is a cool name.

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