The writer was lucky enough to convince Tim Vandecasteele to sit down for a one-hour interview over the weekend. Would you believe no one else has interviewed the man behind the next big thing in sex ed? Readers may remember Tim as the man behind "RubMyClit". In this hour-long Skype conversation, Tim mused about his inspiration behind RMC, the mathematical formula he constructed to get the girl off, and the business of running a start up mobile porn website.
Tonight, I'll summarize the RMC portion of the conversation, and tomorrow, in part two, we'll talk about Tim and his brother's foray into the mobile porn world (a.k.a. iphoneporngrid.com or iPG as I'll call it).
Tim Vandecasteele would be a true American inspiration, if he were American. This 23-year-old son of Belgium and president of the student union of engineers at the University of Ghent is every technologically-advanced frat guy's best friend.
"I was working with my iPhone and one of my friends mentioned what my stroking resembled and I started thinking how I could implement that as I found the idea very cool," Tim told me on Saturday afternoon.
I had so many questions about RMC, and Tim patiently answered them all. Wanna know who drew that amazing representation of the vagina, painted nails and all? Tim would tell you that, at first, he "took a picture, but a drawing emphasized the game element and the fun. It also made it in my eyes easier to accept." And surely, he's right-- it wouldn't be so easy for iPhone users to show their friends at the bar if they were staring into a real vagina.
Ultimately, he found a photo on flickr. "I was looking for a nicely drawn vagina that wouldn't be too shocky," Tim says. "RubMyClit is NOT porn, [it's] just a fun game." And we couldn't agree more.
Many people have asked me if this site is password protected, and the answer is no. Tim doesn't see any legal implications with the game. "If minors want to see porn, they will. And as I said, I consider RubMyClit more as anatomics than porn," he said. (We'll talk more about this tomorrow in the second part of this interview.)
And, ladies, you'll be pleased to know that Tim simplified the mysterious act of stimulating the clitoris to some mathematical formulas. "[The formulas] first react to slow strokes, and later on [to] more rude and faster ones." Tim carefully explained how the javascript application makes it possible to "make her come [sic]" on an iPhone, but almost impossible to do with your normal browser or scroll wheel.
"Everyone has the same one for now, the same speed, and the same rendering," Tim said when asked about the research or personal experience that went into the development. "It is more based on math fun than real-life experience." If only it were that simple.
And, fellow frat boys, Tim and his 22-year-old journalist brother were able to make money off of RMC with the use of GoogleAds. At its peak, after the article on BoingBoing brought RMC to the forefront, RMC was seeing upwards of 15,000 visitors per day. This success led the brothers Vandecasteele to create iPG, although the money has not yet caught up to them. "Too bad Google ads aren't allowed on porn sites," pines Tim.
What does the future hold for RMC? Well, the long-awaited SDK was finally launched, but while Tim was initially optimistic, the initial launch of SDK does not allow porn. "[Because] Steve [Jobs] doesn't want them," Tim would say.
Although RMC's visitors have declined to 300-400/day, I like to think that RMC will get its second wind as iPhone adoption increases. I'm also optimistic because I'd like to see Tim be successful-- he's just so likable and he really seems to know his audience:
"I actually thought about a male version, as I think you might enjoy that more," Tim had the audacity to say to the writer. (He was right of course). "But the gestures just don't fit."
That and the target online gamer audience (i.e. straight guys) probably wouldn't like getting a guy off. Also, let's face it, there's nothing mysterious about getting a guy off.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the second part of my interview with Tim.
UPDATE 3/17/08: Here is the second part: http://iphoneandthecity.blogspot.com/2008/03/part-two-business-of-mobile-porn.html.
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