Fabian Thylmann

Who is Fabian Thylmann?

Fabian Thylmann is the owner of some of the world’s most heavily used pornography websites, via his company Manwin, which has its headquarters in Luxembourg and offices in Hamburg, London, Los Angeles, Nicosia, and Montreal. Combined, his sites generate sixteen billion hits per month, and consequently are among the most popular websites on the planet.

Little is known of the reclusive Thylmann, other than he was born in 1978, is German, lives in Belgium, is married with two children, and is a computer programmer. His breakthrough came in the late 1990s when he developed software called NATS, which linked up the vast number of internet pornography sites for the first time and enabled visitors to select sex films according to personal preference.

He has only ever given one press interview, to the German edition of the Financial Times at a pornography trade fair in Las Vegas in 2011, which described him as 'The King of Porn'. At the time he welcomed the chance to "clear up rumours" and "dispel conspiracy theories" about his identity. "NATS was very easy to use and could do what the others couldn't. Our objective is actually rather banal, we want to create as many opportunities as possible for people to spend money." He has not spoken publicly since.