PORTLAND, Maine — A new app has launched to bring sex-positive, fictional erotic stories to mobile devices daily.
According to the company, “when Sunsette co-founders Ellen Clark and Joe Powers first met at a Mexican restaurant in Westport, Conn., the subject of porn didn’t come up. After almost four years of dating, they not only broached the subject, but started collaborating on a project to build a better kind of erotic content, aimed at women and largely created by women. Cue Sunsette.”
Sunsette is a discreet app that can be downloaded to any iPhone device (Android coming soon) that delivers one sex-positive, fictional erotic short story each day, at sunset.
What sets Sunsette apart is the sex-positive angle — all of Sunsette’s stories are described as “non-demeaning” and generally feature women as protagonists. The app features stories sourced from talented writers across the world, many of whom are regularly featured on Amazon and USA Today bestseller lists, the company said. Sunsette’s tagline is “No Guilty. Just Pleasure.”
Sunsette says the text format allows readers to engage their imagination, something that is proven to increase arousal. According to the Journal of Sex Research, women who read romance novels have 74 percent more sex with their partners than those who don't.
The company says it also believes that consumers want mobile-specific access to erotic content, citing PornHub’s 2017 Year-In-Review report that indicates a 75-time increase in erotic content consumption via mobile phone (versus desktop) over the last decade. Additionally, the report also notes that compared to men, women are 34 percent more likely to consume erotic content on their mobile devices.
Powers, who holds an MBA and has a tech background with Tesla, leads the technical architecture buildout for the app, while Clark, a publishing native, leads sales, marketing and author support. The Sunsette App was developed in collaboration with Perch Design Studio in Portland.
In the short term, Clark and Powers say that they plan to build out the Sunsette app to serve more diverse consumers with tailored content. On the horizon, the founders are planning additional offerings in the sexual wellness category that can serve their community more widely. Additionally, Sunsette donates 10 percent of profits to ending sexual violence.
For more information about Sunsette, subscribe to the newsletter or download the app.
