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Mobile Porn Industry: No Viagra Needed!

Posted on February 26, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

I read over at CNet this morning that mobile porn today is a $1.6 billion industry.

I read over at CNet this morning that mobile porn today is a $1.6 billion industry.

I read over at CNet this morning that mobile porn today is a $1.6 billion industry.

Furthermore, in the next five years it’s expected to grow to $3.3B, a figure I actually find fairly low, as all the key contributing factors (3G adoption, more smartphones, better quality displays, etc) are all in heavy growth mode.  I still can’t believe it’s already earning that much!  Ready for the kicker quotes?

“Steven Hirsch, co-CEO of Vivid Entertainment, one of the world’s largest adult film producers, said that mobile distribution currently makes up only about 5 percent of his company’s total revenue.”

and

“The lackluster reception adult entertainment has gotten in the wireless market so far […]”

Only 5%?  Lackluster reception?  Wow.  Mobile porn makes more money than the entire Web 2.0 industry (no source for that, but it’s a safe assumption).  Mobile porn is bigger than the entire e-book industry. On the other hand, I guess it’s like saying Mobile Porn is worth about as much as YouTube…

I’m personally not all that turned on by mobile porn (yes, double-entendre, I know), but I’m also surprised at the hypocrisy within US companies on the topic in general.  There’s a general “don’t go there” type of reaction from the press (unless it’s scandalous, in which case we must rush out and cover immediately) as well as Wall Street (unless it’s really a lot of money, in which case try to hide it in the books as “services”).  I have two friends who work for companies which make a decent chunk of their profits because their technologies get used in the adult space, and in both cases the companies can barely discuss the related income. 

NOTE: from this point on, please use your discretion on following links, as many are “not safe for work”.

I wanted to try to figure out what $1.6B represented in terms of consumption of content, so I went looking for some facts and, heh, figures.  Now Telus Mobile recently decided to drop mobile porn services but, they were charging $4/video.  Adult star Tera Patrick just launched “moistmob” (link) which charges almost $3/minute.  Other services can be as much as $25/day for content streaming (source). A quick Google Blog search (term: “Mobile porn”) pointed me to the recent launch of my.iPlayground, a mobile adult content directory with a wide variety of both free and paid-for content, showing similar rates.

  • At $25/day, that’s 64 million days’ worth of subscriptions (175K years).
  • At $3/minute, it’s 5.3 billion minutes, or 148K days’ worth of consumption.
  • At $4/video (2 minutes long each), 4 billion videos were served for 8 billion minutes.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t seem to matter how you want to break it down.  With an estimated 400 million 3G subscribers worldwide (seemingly correct source), if 7% are paying for the porn (source, but its buried in other stats on that page), that leaves 28 million people spending an average of $57 per year to get their porn in the palm of their hands.

Sounds like a pretty sizable market.  Now let’s be sure to stay quiet about it, because the only safe place for mature content in this country is on the magazines in the checkout stands at groceries nationwide, or on primetime television.

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5 thoughts on “Mobile Porn Industry: No Viagra Needed!”

  1. tivoboy says:
    February 26, 2007 at 9:31 am

    I find this a bit hard to accept (note, I was JUST about to say swallow – but thought better of it)

    the porn industry is noted to be about 20B, how could mobile already be close to 10% of that? I have the feeling that DVD and VHS sales must still be the lions share, with online at mabye a 30% contribution and 900 dialing (yes, that still exists) some measurable amount. Personally, I have never seen mobile porn, and don’t think I know anyone who has. We ARE the tech people, who would at least try something for the “research factor”, and most people are FAR less tech savvy. How are they getting it?

    Reply
  2. Tera Patrick is Hot says:
    April 18, 2007 at 4:51 pm

    VHS sales in porn are about non-existant. DVD sales are steadily declining too. VOD is the wave of the future.

    Reply
  3. Myiplayground Team says:
    June 4, 2007 at 8:37 pm

    Hi all,

    We (the myiplayground team) are pleased to be mentioned in this article. We have only been around from July 2006 and we already are seeing the value of a niche adult market segment such as mobile entertainment. Here are a few interesting points that were researched during the creation of our business plan in Novermber 2005:

    By 2009, the mobile adult entertainment segment is conservatively, expected to reach $3 billion worldwide, 1/6 of this revenue is expected to come from the North America. It is important to note that in this segment, all adult content is accessed or downloaded onto mobile devices from Internet sources. Last year, this segment generated $1.2 billion with $30 million coming from the US. The mobile adult entertainment segment is in the introduction stage. This is evident when viewing the launch dates of several online mobile adult entertainment providers on alexa.com . “Windsor Holden, an analyst for the tech monitoring organization Juniper Research, said that the delivery of adult porn to cells phones and mobile devices is in its infancy.”

    Sources: Hatcher, Monica. Mobile Porn set to make Big U.S. Break, 2006. Retrieved on: http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/business/13733257.htm. February 22nd, 2006.
    Gay, Lance. Portable porn: The next Billion-Dollar Industry?, 2006. Retrieved on: http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=PORTABLEPORN-01-24-06. February 24th, 2006.

    Reply
  4. mobile porn says:
    August 16, 2009 at 8:23 pm

    Excellent article and nice mention of myiplayground.com..tks!

    Reply
  5. Mobile Porn Report says:
    August 21, 2009 at 8:00 pm

    Mobile porn is growing by leaps and bounds and with every new smartphone that is introduced the consumer base expands. I agree that mobile entertainment is in it’s infancy and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future…

    Reply

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About

Jeremy Toeman is a seasoned Product leader with over 20 years experience in the convergence of digital media, mobile entertainment, social entertainment, smart TV and consumer technology. Prior ventures and projects include CNET, Viggle/Dijit/Nextguide, Sling Media, VUDU, Clicker, DivX, Rovi, Mediabolic, Boxee, and many other consumer technology companies. This blog represents his personal opinion and outlook on things.

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