The Very Early Days of Adult Work

[Vice Admiral]

I wonder if there are any members of UKP who can confirm / correct / amplify my memories of the very early days of Adultwork?

When I first found the site – presumably from Googling for “escorts” – it was in its infancy. If I remember rightly, there were something like half a dozen girls listed for the entirety of Hampshire and not more than about a dozen for West Sussex.

However I think – and this is where my memory may be wrong – that I also did a few searches for other counties, and found that even these modest totals were greater than those for other parts of England. 

Either way, I formed the view, rightly or wrongly, that Adult Work had very likely been founded by the proprietor of an escort agency located in West Sussex, who saw the potential for a more broadly-based approach to the advertising of sexual services.

An oddity is that my profile states that I have been a member of Adult Work since February 2004. This must be a “default” date, relating perhaps to the date the site was first registered or first went live, since I had my first encounter with an AW advertiser in October 2005 – and I certainly didn’t wait 20 months before I dipped my toe in the water! (She was a buxom Scots lass called Nycole, who plied her trade in a ground floor flat in the Marmion Road area of Southsea.)

[daviemac]

AW is worldwide and based, I believe, in Panama.     

[opal]

Im on my second incarnation on AW so no idea on dates but 2004 sounds about right.

 It would be interesting to compile a history of punting advertising as pre internet there was only contact mags in sex shops, adverts in newspapers, such as Manchester Evening News and the Daily Sport and early Punting forums such as Preston Punters which would probably be the late 1990's

[Vice Admiral]

AW is worldwide and based, I believe, in Panama.   

I am aware that the official base of the AW company is – for tax or other reasons – in another jurisdiction; and am interested to learn that it is Panama.

Unless I am very much mistaken, however, the web-site is British in origin, and the firm's employees and its (pretty useless) customer service set-up are located here?

[Doc Holliday]

Unless I am very much mistaken, however, the web-site is British in origin, and the firm's employees and its (pretty useless) customer service set-up are located here?

Article says US based?

External Link/Members Only

Edit 2005 sounds about right for me also.

[daviemac]

I am aware that the official base of the AW company is – for tax or other reasons – in another jurisdiction; and am interested to learn that it is Panama.

Unless I am very much mistaken, however, the web-site is British in origin, and the firm's employees and its (pretty useless) customer service set-up are located here?

I think it was 2007 when they changed from .co.uk to .com so more than likely it was set up in this country. I seem to remember something about customer services being base in Malta, though I can't be certain.

Edit

List of improvements since 2005 here.  External Link/Members Only

Domain name created 19.02.2000

[Rick2468]

I am going to be slightly vague here because I don't want this to get back to me but my theory is that the owner or one of the owners of Adultwork is a bloke from East London/Essex. Would be mid/late-30s now I would say. He was British but he had family origins in Malta which is a country the previous poster also mentioned. The reason I think he ran adultwork is I met this guy on holiday some years ago and he added me on social media. When I looked at his page he was one of these people who had 5,000 friends. I saw in his friends list loads of women who I had seen advertised webcam on adultwork but their profiles seemed to be their general civvy pages. Looking elsewhere on his page suggested he ran a website and I thought it might have been adultwork but I suppose it could have been any website. I recall being nervous he might realise I had an adultwork profile!

I remember he came across a bit intimidating as he was loud, brash and totally stacked but by the end of the trip I realised he was really friendly. Our groups kept bumping into one another during the course of the holiday and he always seemed delighted to see us and would come over to have a chat haha.

[RLondon99]

Malta fits. Don't know if this is 100% true but in the 1980s a fellow porn aficionado told me many of the porn cinemas in Soho were run by Maltese. This lad stole some films from an establishment in Old Compton Street, said the Maltese crew came after them and they only just got away alive.

[Landscape]

Im on my second incarnation on AW so no idea on dates but 2004 sounds about right.

 It would be interesting to compile a history of punting advertising as pre internet there was only contact mags in sex shops, adverts in newspapers, such as Manchester Evening News and the Daily Sport and early Punting forums such as Preston Punters which would probably be the late 1990's

Here's an article about the 1980s "visiting massage" service complete with adverts from those who offered the service.

External Link/Members Only

[winkywanky]

For some reason I always associated AW with Malta?

Didn't know about a British bloke setting it up? Certainly spellings on the site don't seem to be in US English.

I don't imagine for one minute the company is registered in the UK for tax purposes, or indeed anywhere else where they might pay more than tuppence ha'penny for every £1000 in generated revenue .

[winkywanky]

Here's an article about the 1980s "visiting massage" service complete with adverts from those who offered the service.

External Link/Members Only

That's very interesting, note the US Police mugshot photo from 1898 on the RHS of that page - it bears a stunning resemblance to the gormless, pouty, affected face that so many current WGs seem to adopt these days. Funny how history repeats itself, eh? 

Hidden Image/Members Only

[winkywanky]

Impossible to see in that photo whether she has fake tits though, I guess in those days it would've been half a pound of pork sausages stuffed into the bra .

[Murray Mint]

I wonder if there are any members of UKP who can confirm / correct / amplify my memories of the very early days of Adultwork?

When I first found the site – presumably from Googling for “escorts” – it was in its infancy. If I remember rightly, there were something like half a dozen girls listed for the entirety of Hampshire and not more than about a dozen for West Sussex.

However I think – and this is where my memory may be wrong – that I also did a few searches for other counties, and found that even these modest totals were greater than those for other parts of England. 

Either way, I formed the view, rightly or wrongly, that Adult Work had very likely been founded by the proprietor of an escort agency located in West Sussex, who saw the potential for a more broadly-based approach to the advertising of sexual services.

An oddity is that my profile states that I have been a member of Adult Work since February 2004. This must be a “default” date, relating perhaps to the date the site was first registered or first went live, since I had my first encounter with an AW advertiser in October 2005 – and I certainly didn’t wait 20 months before I dipped my toe in the water! (She was a buxom Scots lass called Nycole, who plied her trade in a ground floor flat in the Marmion Road area of Southsea.)

I first came across Adultwork in late 2003 about a year after I started punting, and you're right, there were very few girls listed and they were all on the south coast, predominantly in the Portsmouth/Southampton area, and it was Adultwork.co.uk.

I see there is still one SP from that era on the site:
External Link/Members Only

[CoolTiger]

I first came across Adultwork in late 2003 about a year after I started punting, and you're right, there were very few girls listed and they were all on the south coast, predominantly in the Portsmouth/Southampton area, and it was Adultwork.co.uk.

I see there is still one SP from that era on the site:
External Link/Members Only

She is one of the earliest members on AW, that is still around. Was originally based in birmingham, later moving to isle of wight.

Her AW user number is 37. It has today reached 7-digit and now starts with 57xxxxx.

[Vice Admiral]

I first came across Adultwork in late 2003 about a year after I started punting, and you're right, there were very few girls listed and they were all on the south coast, predominantly in the Portsmouth/Southampton area, and it was Adultwork.co.uk.

Very interesting, Murray – not least in confirming my impression that the site's initial area of operation was the South Coast.

You were evidently an "earlier adopter" than me; and the fact that not much seems to have changed between your finding the site in late 2003 and my starting to take a serious interest in late 2005 suggests that Adult Work in fact took a while to get going – before, within a year or so after my arrival, coming to dominate internet escort advertising to the extent that it had, and still has, a near monopoly.

[Vice Admiral]

She is one of the earliest members on AW, that is still around. Was originally based in birmingham, later moving to isle of wight.
Her AW user number is 37. It has today reached 7-digit and now starts with 57xxxxx.
External Link/Members Only

I see that the "early girl" girl whom Murray found has been a member since 25 July 2003!

Wow.

[Home Alone]

I see that the "early girl" girl whom Murray found has been a member since 25 July 2003!

Wow.

I see her 'Stated Age' is 51; can any of the veterans confirm that she was 34 back then?!

[Doc Holliday]

Some good on topic replies and factual detective work here. Makes a pleasant change 

[GreyDave]

  found it by chance after seeing a plastic tited Lee34ee up north (having a grey moment cant quite recall town but it smelt of stale fish n chips )

Any ways banged her after shed done a crappy pole dance and she asked me if I see her reveiws ...I found her though the Sport newspapers small adds. I got a few swingers and couples out of it and thought a sad day when it went

I think its Long Eaton ... 

[Home Alone]

found it by chance after seeing a plastic tited Lee34ee up north (having a grey moment cant quite recall town but it smelt of stale fish n chips )

Any ways banged her after shed done a crappy pole dance and she asked me if I see her reveiws ...I found her though the Sport newspapers small adds. I got a few swingers and couples out of it and thought a sad day when it went

I think its Long Eaton ... 

That's not North; it's south of Nottingham, ffs!!!   

[Murray Mint]

I also see that one of the first women I saw from Adultwork back in 2004 still has her profile there, although she no longer escorts
External Link/Members Only
I saw Pru quite a few times. She had a magnificent body with a wonderful pair of tits, and was up for all sorts of fun. Happy memories!

[Home Alone]

I don't know if it's permissible to say this - Mods, please delete if not - but she sounds like she'd be the answer to the prayers of the OP in this recent thread 
https://www.ukpunting.com/index.php?topic=277154.0

[fudi_maar]

I remember ending up on External Link/Members Only back in 2002, in my search for escorts. I hadn't started punting then, but was building up courage, and it took a few months, before I broke my punting cherry in Feb 2003. It was with Natasha in Reading - a MILF who was a great professionally qualified masseuse, but also fucked, although I remember the sex was pretty crap.

[sparkus]

I am going to be slightly vague here because I don't want this to get back to me but my theory is that the owner or one of the owners of Adultwork is a bloke from East London/Essex. Would be mid/late-30s now I would say. He was British but he had family origins in Malta which is a country the previous poster also mentioned. The reason I think he ran adultwork is I met this guy on holiday some years ago and he added me on social media. When I looked at his page he was one of these people who had 5,000 friends. I saw in his friends list loads of women who I had seen advertised webcam on adultwork but their profiles seemed to be their general civvy pages. Looking elsewhere on his page suggested he ran a website and I thought it might have been adultwork but I suppose it could have been any website. I recall being nervous he might realise I had an adultwork profile!

I remember he came across a bit intimidating as he was loud, brash and totally stacked but by the end of the trip I realised he was really friendly. Our groups kept bumping into one another during the course of the holiday and he always seemed delighted to see us and would come over to have a chat haha.

Mid to late 30s would make him late teens/20 or so when it all started?

I seem to recall when I first discovered it and looked into it there was a Dutch connection...

[jeanphillipe]

AW is worldwide and based, I believe, in Panama.   

It might be world wide based but ive yet to visit a country outside the u.k where its useful/popular

[hw189]

I remember it being piss slow when I signed up, timing out and sometimes not loading pages or images at all.

[sparkus]

I remember it being piss slow when I signed up, timing out and sometimes not loading pages or images at all.

Was an absolute nightmare.

But but but... I do remember also it was heaven on earth about 2009 or so to just type in my postcode and find within walking distance a pair of Polish knockers to unload on.  That didn't last.

[Londonpunter30]

For some reason I thought they used to be based in Gibraltar

[petermisc]

Article says US based?

If it were US based, it would probably have got shut down by the US authorities at the same time as Backpages.

[conrod]

For some reason I thought they used to be based in Gibraltar

I had the same impression as well.  It was at a similar time when UK bookies were basing their offshore betting operations there.

[rubric]

I am going to be slightly vague here because I don't want this to get back to me but my theory is that the owner or one of the owners of Adultwork is a bloke from East London/Essex. Would be mid/late-30s now I would say. He was British but he had family origins in Malta which is a country the previous poster also mentioned.

Think I may have met the same bloke -- though prior to social media being a big thing.

[hillingdonpete]

For some reason I thought they used to be based in Gibraltar

I seem to remember that at one point they had servers there. They were getting ddos attacked and had to wait for some new hardware to arrive there??

I also in my mind recall something about the Turks and Caicous Islands?