By Erika Icon

YNOT – Red Apple Media is happy to describe itself as “a different kind of hosting company.” The company specializes in hosting media-heavy websites, and the pursuit requires significant tech and customer-service staffs. Still, in many ways Red Apple runs like a mom-and-pop operation, offering personalized service in whatever way makes the most sense to meet clients’ needs. The owners frequently answer the phone and provide personal assistance.

Red Apple has been around for more than a decade, but only recently has the name become familiar in the adult industry. Who are these guys, anyway? YNOT set out to get to the bottom of the mystery.

YNOT.com: What is Red Apple Media?

Steven Daris, co-founder and co-owner: Red Apple Media is a division of dotCOM host, a leading managed-hosting and e-commerce provider. We provide media-based websites a better way to offer streaming and downloadable video. We’ve been working with membership sites to improve and streamline their services for more than 15 years.

About seven years ago, a major studio approached us to create a product that would allow them to offer pay-per-download and other similar media-delivery options. That’s when we took our services to a new level. We had the servers, the network and the know-how, so we were able to customize services specifically for the unique needs of video companies who were making their way online with membership sites.

How did you, personally, get into this line of work?

My founding partner, Remik, and I were operating a fairly large e-commerce store. Our hosting very suddenly pulled because our business wasn’t within the terms of our provider’s services. We had been clients for three years, yet there was no warning and we were left out in the cold.

We made a firm commitment never to let that happen again. The first step was to found our own managed hosting company and operate it with an open mind and a liberal approach. We were very familiar with shopping cart programs and similar e-commerce services thanks to our prior business, so that’s where we started. As more clients came on board with new and different needs, we adapted and expanded to what we are today.

Unless we suspect something illegal or immoral, there’s nothing that would compel us to pull the plug on a loyal client without warning. It is not a hosting company’s business to judge its clients and determine what is and isn’t acceptable online. A hosting company’s job is to provide quality hosting, and that is precisely what we do.

Why focus on media delivery?

There was a time when membership sites were based on static photos; the closest we had to video was something called a “JPEG push,” which essentially was a series of stills that, when shown quickly one after the other, animated the image. At the time, bandwidth cost $600-$700 per megabit, and we knew hosting and delivery services were going to need to evolve along with current technology. So Remik and I founded [Red Apple] to focus on media delivery, membership sites and video in ways no others were. We worked to meet the needs of the e-commerce site we ran at the time as well as those of our growing client base, and we quickly realized we were at the forefront of an online media revolution.

Most hosting companies today claim expertise in uptime and media delivery. What makes Red Apple stand out?

The people. When clients call Red Apple Media with a request or a problem, they know they are going to talk to someone trained beyond traditional customer service. Our staff not only listens and genuinely cares to hear what the client has to say, but they also know how to fix the problem without transferring him or her to a tech-support trainee overseas.

We work to find a solution no matter how unique or unconventional the issue, and we’re available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. More than 15 years later, Remik and I are often found personally answering customer services calls. We care that much!

What do your clients like most about Red Apple?

While I’d like to attribute our clients’ loyalty and satisfaction to my rugged good looks, knowing they can talk to Remik and me directly and form genuine rapport with their hosting and e-commerce provider is what leaves them feeling most confident and fulfilled. Calls are answered within three rings, and service ticket submissions are responded to within 10 minutes. We even provide our personal cellphone numbers to many of our media clients, further instilling a sense of trust that we truly are here to serve.

What is the biggest mistake people make when choosing a hosting company? What are some of the pitfalls to avoid?

The most common and detrimental mistake we find is focusing explicitly on price. Seeing a $1.99-per-month price tag often carries more weight in the decision-making process than asking the important questions: What quality bandwidth do you offer? Is there risk of server oversaturation? How reliable and secure is the network?

Companies also are easily distracted by size, believing that bigger is better when signing on with a hosting or e-commerce service provider. Bigger often means less-reliable tech support, hands-off service, and certainly a more difficult time reaching an actual human being to solve a problem during a crisis.

Not only does Red Apple Media offer premium bandwidth and customer service, but we also provide a fast and reliable network with triple redundancy. It doesn’t get more secure than that!

You signed on as a Silver Sponsor for The Phoenix Forum. Why?

We love CCBill and their clients, and sponsoring The Phoenix Forum is a way to support one of the most important tech shows in the industry. The Phoenix Forum has always been the show that lets us have true quality time with clients and colleagues and is the perfect venue to showcase what Red Apple Media can do for the industry’s hosting and media-streaming needs. The ability to have great conversations, catch up on new technology and issues, and have some fun has made this a great event that our team has been attending for years, with many more to come.

During the forum, you’ll be promoting your new partnership with Media Commander, a web-based control panel. Tell us about the product.

Media Commander is a web-based control panel that revolutionizes the way online businesses manage their video-streaming capabilities, and we jumped at the opportunity to provide this management system to the online adult industry. Media Commander offers content and hosting providers a fast, easy and accurate way to publish video, monitor downloads and streaming, and track bandwidth use in real-time, saving time, effort and money.

For content providers, Media Commander makes it fast and simple to publish media in multiple popular viewing formats — including mobile — and track downloads and bandwidth use on a per-member or per-website basis. Webmasters easily can configure and control their content-delivery settings, including download rates and bandwidth capabilities, and use detailed analytics to identify potential consumer fraud.

For hosting companies, Media Commander can be white-labeled as a streaming infrastructure for their existing clients. This provides a valuable control platform from which to manage clients while also offering a system clients can use to manage their own accounts.

Media Commander’s real-time reports, rich-media support and ability to track each client’s bandwidth and download equip online companies of all sizes with the tools and services they need to better understand their customers’ usage trends, which ultimately helps them build better businesses.

What’s next for Red Apple?

We are continuing to help change the way video companies run their businesses online by offering better technology, faster services, even more secure and reliable servers, and maintaining strong customer support. We never stop searching for new and innovative ways to run our own business so we can cater to our clients’ unique needs as they grow and provide superior services that will take their businesses to new levels of success.

How can people get in touch?

Red Apple Media can be reached toll-free at 888-321-6239, or I can be reached at my personal email for direct inquiries.