PALO ALTO, CA — Ning.com, the social networking platform that powers thousands of social networks worldwide, will discontinue support for adult-oriented networks effective January 1st.“The decision to discontinue our Red Light District is a tough one,” co-founder and chief executive officer Gina Bianchini wrote on the company’s blog late December 1st. “However, from a practical perspective, this difficult decision is the right one.”

According to Bianchini, the decision had nothing to do with morals and everything to do with economics. A number of factors played into the company’s announcement, but primary among them was the inescapable conclusion the adult side of the community did not generate enough revenue to pay for its existence.

“Adult social networks don’t pull their own weight,” Bianchini wrote. “Specifically, they require other social networks to work harder because they don’t generate enough advertising or premium service revenue to cover their costs. Plus, our ad partners aren’t big fans of the adult networks and therefore require us to identify adult networks or risk our healthy advertising revenue.”

In addition, alleged copyright violation among the users of the adult networks has reached epidemic proportions, Bianchini indicated.

“Adult social networks on Ning receive a disproportionate number of DMCA take-down notices, creating additional work for our team,” she noted. “We respect intellectual property rights and comply with the DMCA. Compared to our other social networks on the Ning platform, the additional work created by adult networks alleged to have violated the copyrights of others is enough for us to discontinue adult networks in favor of investing time and energy in growing the Ning platform from here.”

Last but not least, Bianchini said some users were distributing illegal content through Ning channels.

“By having legal adult social networks on Ning, we’ve seen a rise in volume of illegal adult social networks,” she wrote. “We are always going to do the right thing as it pertains to social networks that are illegal or violate our terms of service. That’s non-negotiable. However, the time involved in reporting and assisting the authorities on illegal adult social networks is simply too time- and cost-intensive for the benefits derived by having adult social networks on Ning.

“This was not an easy decision and we did not make it on philosophical grounds,” she added. “We’re not discontinuing the Red Light District because we no longer believe in the freedom to create your own social network for anything as long as it’s legal. Practically though, supporting adult networks no longer makes sense. Our focus is on creating incredibly simple, beautiful software and rapidly adding new features for the benefit of all. We can’t do that as efficiently as we need to and still support adult networks on Ning. It’s that simple.”

The announcement created chatter within and without the adult entertainment industry. On ValleyWag.com, one headline blared “Is Marc Andreessen Running a Porn Ring?”

Andreessen, the co-founder of Netscape and Opsware, also is co-founder of Ning.

According to ValleyWag, “CPM Advisors notes that some of Ning’s top networks include names like girlongirl.ning.com, whiteholes4blackpoles.ning.com and ladyboyworld.ning.com. From Quantcast’s and Alexa’s numbers, these creatively named sites account for a double-digit percentage of Ning’s traffic…. One wonders if this is really what Andreessen had in mind for his third entrepreneurial act.”

Inside the adult industry, studios that have been victimized by content pirates were overjoyed at the news Ning was booting adult networks.

“This is very good news indeed,” one COLT Studio Group spokesman said. “Our copyright complaints finally brought the result we wanted.”

“That’s the best gift I got for the holidays,” a BangBangBoys spokesman said.

Others were not so sure. Chris Ward at Raging Stallion Studios wrestled with the news.

“I don’t see this as good news at all,” he noted. “There were lots of good Ning adult sites that did not have illegal content. I was a member of many of them, and these places were not only a good place to sell movies, but also a good place to recruit models. Having [Ning] throw all the sites overboard really sucks.”

Ward later noted he supported the adult industry in its fight against content piracy, but painting all members of all social networks with one broad brush was unwarranted.

“In the overall scheme of things, more good comes from Ning’s decision to stop hosting adult than bad,” he allowed. “Indeed, one of the Ning sites had over 50 Raging Stallion movies for free viewing. At least we can now stop sending daily DMCA requests to get our product removed.”

Titan Media co-founder Bruce Cam said he was alarmed by the reasons for Ning’s shuttering of its adult networks.

“I don’t feel any regret that one of the largest sources of pirated adult content is shutting down their hosting of adult,” he said. However, “in a world that is quickly sliding into a ‘free content, ad revenue’-supported [model, Ning’s rationale] could spell disaster for adult. Non-adult content can generate huge ad revenue from mainstream advertisers, just like they have done for years on television. Google has shown us the enormous potential of online ad revenue for mainstream content, just not for adult content.

“Our only viable option is to ensure adult content does not become expected as ‘free content’ by the consumer. The way we do this is by banding together as an industry and going after all sources of free and pirated commercial adult content. That means a centralized organization representing the adult industry that can go after and shut down sites pirating adult content.

“At the same time we have to offer a carrot along with the stick approach,” Cam proposed. “We have to make our content more readily accessible and affordable to the consumer. If we can make high-quality and affordable content easier for consumers to find and buy online than it is to steal, we will have won.”