Adult entertainment, while clinging to its past formats and distribution models, is undeniably moving to a more interactive future, with two-way live content, remote controlled sex toys, increasing immersion and augmented reality bringing models into the viewer’s own environment.
For a glimpse of this future and trends that are driving it, XBIZ asked some of the adult industry’s top executives to reveal their predictions of trends for the year ahead. Here is what they had to say:
More corporations are noticing the power of social media and becoming more active in this segment. I see this across the board, with mainstream, cam sites, tubes, pay sites, and even content producers. -Shirley Lara, Chaturbate.com
Shay Efron
Vice President of Marketing and Business Development
We predict interesting and challenging trends in mainly two relatively new areas that will for sure see advances and increased adoption in 2017. The first one is IoT, or in other words, connected hardware devices with specific functions that interact with and complete the experience of the webcam session. Connected toys are not a new thing and have actually been around for years. However, technology advancements made them smaller, cheaper and much easier to connect and use. In 2016, we already started to see increases in the usage of connected toys by models, which we are sure will continue to grow in 2017. We predict that we will see increasing adoption of connected toys on the users’ side as well for a full bi-directional experience. The second trending area is VR. VR is not new and has been around for a while; however, today’s mobile devices make VR much more accessible to the average user. At the same time, model-side equipment (VR cameras) is also becoming much more accessible, which makes us believe that more webcam sites will start offering VR interactivity experience to users during 2017.
Shirley Lara
COO, Chaturbate.com
More corporations are noticing the power of social media and becoming more active in this segment. I see this across the board, with mainstream, cam sites, tubes, pay sites, and even content producers. There is a growing trend for people relying on social media to stay in touch with friends, get their news, to shop … and it makes sense for the same audience to turn to social media for SFW and NSFW updates in porn.
Ela Darling
Content Manager, CAM4VR
I think we will see a large growth in device interactivity with teledildonics. CAM4VR is preparing to outfit many of our performers with Kiiroo devices to extend the immersive experience even further. I also think we are going to see gamification used to sell experiences, as VR porn companies see more competition and seek to set themselves apart from the rest. I hope to see more novel ways of engaging the users of that particular market and I think that the live cam industry will continue to embrace new technologies that the users can interact with from a distance, allowing them to contribute to the performer’s broadcast as well.
Rick Morales
Community Manager, Stripchat/XHamsterLive
I think one of the biggest trends for 2017 is going to be video sharing or mobile video broadcasting, we can see this in the day to day use of our mobile devices. We, our friends, and family, are sharing our lives (content) through small videos shared on Instagram (My Story) and Facebook (My Day), and of course do not forget Snapchat. Ninety two percent of mobile users share videos on their device with friends — the trend is unmistakable: in 2017, content will still be king — but video will be queen.
If we want to have a successful website, whatever we are selling, promoting, or advertising, doing it by video is necessary. Nowadays, people do not read that much, instead they are watching videos, so I am sure that adding video to your landing page can increase the conversion rate by 80 percent, making this interactivity with videos a big trend in 2017.
Mugur Cosmin Frunzetti
CEO, Studio 20
If interactivity is about toys, I never believed in them and I never will. For us, live cams are about emotions more than about sex. The next big revolution in live cams will be the hologram, and I feel we are so close to it. The market will explode once we can have another person standing next to us — and not only on the screen.
Dragos Costea
CEO, Charm Group
Continuing the trend from 2016, we expect 2017 to be characterized by a huge expansion of augmented and virtual reality in live streaming. [Nowadays everyone is] recording or streaming live — even Facebook implemented ‘Live’ and is ranking it higher in news feeds. More and more platforms are developing and preparing for 360 content using inexpensive VR glasses. I can only foresee that AR and VR will be more than what 3D was supposed to be.
I also believe that the first cam site that will be able to look, feel, and act like a social media network will be the blast of the decade. I can only desire every day to fight with that kind of traffic overflow, and I am confident that someone will be able to integrate it somehow, by the end of 2020.
As the biggest European live cam studio group, Charm Group already signed contracts and is almost ready to stream in VR for those cam sites that will implement the technology faster. We expect the cutting-edge feeling and interactive nature of live cam streaming will continue to drive strong growth in the market as more developers and more viewers get involved. We also believe that TV traffic will grow in 2017, despite mobile traffic.
Derek Devlin
Head of Public Relations, CAM4
I foresee 2017 as being the year that teledildonics comes of age. I expect to see the launch of several new interactive sex toys, as well as increased adoption by existing early movers, particularly those targeting male pleasure. The newest Bluetooth sex toys and other teledildonics are helping to take live cams to new heights for cybersex. By combining them with other cutting-edge technology — such as our 3D 360 VR live cam experience — we’re bringing virtual sex closer to the real thing than ever before and creating the complete two-way experience. We look forward to 2017 as being the year where these emerging technologies start to really get traction.