You’ve probably seen us using the phrase ‘sextech’ around the Kaotik website. It’s on our packaging, in the manuals, and in our DNA.

So what is sextech, and we do we say it so much? Why not just say, for example, ‘sex toys’?

All these questions and a whole lot more you probably didn’t need to know below.

What Is SexTech?

It’s an abbreviation, or more accurately a portmanteau, of ‘sex technology’, and it covers any technology designed to facilitate sex in some way.

Sextech isn’t all artificially intelligent sex robots and multi-sensory VR haptic suits, though those all exist in their early stages right now. The term is broad enough to envelop any electronic sex toy, any remote-controlled sexual device, sex-facilitating apps (from interactive sex games to menstrual cycle trackers), as well as chatbots and interactive porn.

"A Recent Innovation"

So, sextech can be both hardware, like sex toys, or software, like an interactive app, or some blend of both, like Kaotik’s products. It can focus on pleasure, like VR immersive porn experiences, or it can focus on health, like sexual dysfunction solutions.

The reason the definition is so broad is because the word ‘sextech’ is a relatively recent innovation. It really emerged in 2016, probably as a result of journalists covering pleasure products at CES that yeah who needed a mainstream euphemism for ‘sex toys.’

Itmust have filled a necessary gap, because it’s gone from strength to strength ever since. Here’s how use of the word ‘sextech’ has caught on, according to Google:

Why Do We Say ‘SexTech’ Instead Of ‘Sex Toys’?

At Kaotik, many light office nights have been spent trying to decide how to refer to ourselves. Our products are sex toys after all, and that’s the phrase most people are familiar with. We are a business after all, so for SEO purposes alone, wouldn’t it make sense to just call the products sex toys?

Yeah. Probably. But what do you think of when you hear the word ‘sex toy’? We’d be willing to bet it’s not something like Kaotik’s products. It’s probably a pink, vaguely penis-shaped vibrating thing, isn’t it? This is a safe space, you can be honest with us. When you think of a sex toy, you’re probably thinking of a dildo or something.

And that’s fine. But it’s not what we do.

Not to sound immodest, but our products are more than that. They are extremely technical products. It’s not easy to do what we do. It’s not easy to develop products designed to do what ours do. Even the simplest KAOTIK product is extremely complicated, and the most complicated ones are legitimately marvels of engineering.

Our stated ambition, which we’re not shy about disclosing, as to make male pleasure products as ubiquitous and of the same or better quality as female pleasure products. We envision a future in which a Kaotik product sits on your desk right alongside your favorite headphones and game controller. 

In order for that to happen, to be taken seriously by the mainstream, we need to treat our products with the same respect and dignity as mainstream brands.

Hence sextech, instead of sex toys.

 What “Qualifies” As SexTech?

Right now, while the definition of ‘sextech’ is generalized and the term basks in its newness, a lot of traditional sexual health, wellness and pleasure products automatically qualify. That might change over time as the definition becomes better codified, but for now, just about anything used for a sexual purpose and requires some sort of circuit board would qualify.

First, there’s sex toys:

•       App-controlled sex toys, like Kaotik’s
•       Remote-controlled sex toys, like some of SVAKOM’s
•       Haptic feedback suits are emerging right now
•       Sex robots, particularly those with integrated AI
•       VR-compatible sex toys
•       Teledildonics – we’ll come back to this one in a moment
• Then, there’s the technology to produce sex-facilitating products:
•       3D printers, when used to produce custom sex aids
•       Generative AI, increasingly used in the design and marketing of sex toys
•       New sensation technology, like suction-based and sonic massagers

Software can also be sextech:

•       Most major camsites and platforms use AI chatbots to some degree
•       The software on which those platforms are built is sextech in a sense
•       Virtual sexual roleplay apps
•       AI partners have a niche appeal, especially for the exploration of kink
•       VR porn
•       Sex-positive social media
•       Erotic games

Then there are tech services, some of which might qualify as sextech:

•       Payment providers for adult services and porn
•       Sextech accelerators and incubators developing industry investment
•       Legal and compliance tools for businesses in the adult industry
•       AI content moderation tools are quickly growing
•       Blockchain-based identity protection for sex worker.

Wait Wait Wait… What The Hell Is Teledildonics!?

Ah yeah, good question. Teledildonics is a real word, we promise. It refers to a sex toy that can be controlled via the internet.

It’s not a brand new concept. It was coined in the early 1970s by IT pioneer Ted Nelson and by the 90s formed the basis of a number cyberpunk neofuturist science fiction. But innovation stalled in the mid nineties due to a patent which prevented others from using internet-controlled sex toys. When those patents recently expired, the industry was free to ramp the development of innovative internet-based sextech.

The word teledildonics has largely fallen out of favor already, for obvious reasons. Now it’s more likely to be called something like haptic sextech, or connected sex toys. Something like that.

In Conclusion

So there you have it. That’s sextech described as concisely as possible, and also the reasons why we choose to use the phrase ‘sextech’ more than we use the phrase ‘sex toys’.

Kaotik is a sex toy brand. There’s no getting around it. But if we consider ourselves a mainstream tech brand at the same time, then perhaps others might too.