To capitalize on this growing marketplace, txtnation has released their MPUSH family of mobile products, enabling webmasters to offer their existing web-based content directly to cell phone users worldwide.
"This is a massive opportunity for adult webmasters to start selling into this new market now," Marc Jarrett, txtnation's Sales Director, told XBiz, adding that "Not only can they 'mobilize' their content within minutes, but we already have revenue-share agreements in place with all the carriers, and in those markets where Premium SMS is not yet a reality, we offer credit-card and 1-900 solutions – so we've got the world covered in terms of billing. We are the only company in this space that can offer both content and billing solutions quickly, cheaply, and efficiently."
As the networks roll-out their long-awaited 3G networks, in which they have invested in excess of $120bn, many industry observers are predicting a boom-time for forward-thinking content owners. Yankee Research recently predicted that mobile porn will become a billion dollar industry by 2008.
On a 3G network, content can be delivered to a subscriber in two ways: either by using a packet switched connection in the 3G network, such as what is offered today via the operator portals (Vodafone Live!, Orange Kiosk, KPN iModePortal, etc), or by using a circuit switched connection in the 3G network. This type of connection is comparable to existing (premium rate) audio text services, enhanced with video capability. These services are new and offer content providers a huge opportunity as 3G networks are rolled out all over Europe.
3G will allow end-users to receive and pay for memory-rich content such as movie clips directly onto their cell phones. However, 3G handset penetration is still negligible, so this a virgin market. In the interim, content owners can sell pictures by means of MMS, whose predecessor was the hugely successful SMS – of which more that 100 Billion have been sent so far this year. MMS has experienced a 400% increase in usage this year, driven in part due to the huge popularity of camera-phones.
"Our tools offer a turnkey solution that thus far has been unavailable," Jarrett told XBiz, adding that "content owners can decide what they want to sell, and they decide the pricing. They can then cross promote their new service on their website and now casual browsers who never converted before will become customers."
