By Peter Berton

PHOENIX – If it is true that 99 percent of men admit to masturbating, then it stands to reason that an online community that caters to male masturbators would be popular.

That’s premise upon which BateWorld was built. According to the site’s marketing material, it’s “a unique social networking community for men who love to masturbate solo, in groups, in chat rooms, viewing photos and videos or connecting live.”

More succinctly put, BateWorld is a worldwide jackoff community for men of all sexualities.

David Maxey is one of the co-founders of the community. YNOT asked him for details.

YNOT.com: From where did the concept come?

David Maxey: The founders and owners of BateWorld are two friends who met through another site called BateNation, which closed soon after we met. There were many guys on that site who were then forced back into Yahoo! Groups and other places online without any support system.

We recognized that there was a community of men who enjoyed what BateNation had to offer, but, strangely enough, there weren’t any viable sites that filled the void. Although neither of us had any experience in running a website, we were able to find a service online that allowed us to create the basic interface for a social networking platform and manage it without knowing any coding.

The site opened in September 2009. We’re about to reach our five-year anniversary, and we’re still amazed that we get to do this for a living.

Who does the site target?

One of the things that makes BateWorld so unique is that it’s a place where men can find a common language and bond. It’s beyond politics or religion, and for the most part is free from the kind of judgmental competition found on many similar sites.

The men on BateWorld are friendly, encouraging and supportive of each other. Even those who aren’t considered traditionally “hot” get attention and praise, and we’ve received many messages from men expressing how the community has made their life better.

Jacking off together is an extremely civil act of social male bonding, and enjoying that together seems to be a high priority with the guys on our site.

What kind of content do you offer?

BateWorld is user-driven, meaning the content comes from members. Although we add other features, the bulk of the photos, videos, blogs and other content come from amateur men jacking off together in whatever ways they most enjoy.

We provide a platform for a diverse community of guys with a wide range of sexual expressions and interests. Within the community are men who identify as edgers, gooners, solosexuals and other subcategories. Some men are balls-out exhibitionists, while others are more discrete. In some cases, we only know our members by their penises.

How many members does the site have?

In terms of signups, we get approximately 100 per day, and that number has remained steady for several years with slightly more growth each year. We’ve had morethan 100,000 signups in nearly five years, which is way more than the 500 we were hoping for when we started. We try to delete inactive profiles, so our membership numbers currently read at 74,000. Out of those we estimate around 50,000 are active.

How does the site make money?

BateWorld is free for all basic members, but it’s supported by premium memberships. One of the unique things about the site is that, although we do what we can to make money, we also want to keep everything available to as many men as possible, so we keep the rates very low.

A bit less than 10 percent of our active members have premium memberships, and we make just enough from that to keep things progressing. I should also mention that we have a Helping Hands program which offers three-month premium memberships for free to men who are unable to afford the full price. We also encourage our members to sponsor others.

Do you plan to expand the site?

We’re in the first stages of creating a separate site that will focus on a wider spectrum of sexual interests. Eventually we hope to get into other media, including comics and video production, but for now we’re still evolving BateWorld and that’s a lot of work.