For many Americans and other folks around the world, the word “Europe” is synonymous with style, trendiness and a distinct elegance and flair. XBIZ wanted to put this characterization into the context of adult entertainment today, and so asked a selection of key industry insiders, “What are the hottest adult entertainment trends unique to Europe, that you’re currently seizing upon or studying with interest?”
Their answers provide a pathway for those seeking to gain traction with European audiences, or expand their current dominion.
While in the U.S. the ‘fauxcest’ theme is extremely popular right now, that is not the case in Europe. For our live and recorded shows, young girls with older guys as well as squirting are very popular with not only our audience but European consumers as a whole.
Yannick Ferreri, Porndoe Production’s head of business development, told XBIZ each region comes with its own predilections, which the company tries to cater to as much as possible.
“Social trends are generally quite global so we tend to keep our finger on the pulse there as much as possible,” Ferreri said. “Billing is another one, but that tends to require skewing your product’s identity to fit with each legislation.”
Stinger, TrafficPartner.com’s “make more money manager,” says online communities are still a craze.
“When looking to social media in general, everything seems to be better on a more personal level, or generally speaking, when sharing experiences together,” Stinger says. “Twitch or YouTube come to mind as broad examples that are steadily increasing in interest for audiences.”
Stinger notes that these audiences include everyday people “like you and me” that picked up a camera — “Not the typical stardom that clearly would divide audience and star.”
“Something alike is one of our products, AmateurCommunity. It’s essentially the same as YouTube, except the audience here is sharing adult videos (and images) or streaming live,” Stinger explains. “Commenting, chatting and so forth — again, experiencing entertainment together is a theme. LTVs are so high that most partners love to work with us on a revenue sharing basis.”
Vendo Services’ CTO Buddy Love says the company is very focused on paysites and cites its co-hosting with XBIZ of the Paysite Meetup, where Love learned a lot about what is important to this industry, particularly in Europe.
“There is a big focus on having a mutually beneficial relationship with tubes. Paysites also want to understand their business better through clearer, more insightful reporting. They are very interested in how to get the most out of their partnerships,” Love explains. “If you think about it, paysites are really hubs for many, many partnerships with content producers, affiliate systems, billers, ad networks and affiliates. It’s a lot to manage. There are big opportunities for paysites to improve how they partner.”
Studio 20 PR Manager Andra Chirnogeanu cites the company’s own #GirlsFromStudio20 initiative as an example of pursuing the newest trends.
“We’re not only developing a marketing strategy around the #GirlsFromStudio20 but a community,” says Chirnogeanu. “Right now, for us, the #GirlsFromStudio20 means all the models that we have and the potential models that will come to us. It’s about making sure they have a good start for their career.”
Traffic Company’s affiliate manager Wouter Groenewoud says webcam products are still a very valid option for Europe, even on mobile.
“This is because Europe has a very high penetration rate for the latest smartphone models,” Groenewoud reveals. “Combine that with an excellent mobile infrastructure and you’ll understand why streaming services perform so well in Europe.”
Immoral Productions CEO Dan Leal told XBIZ the European customer base has different tastes than do U.S. consumers and must be catered to accordingly.
“For example, while in the U.S. the ‘fauxcest’ theme is extremely popular right now, that is not the case in Europe,” Leal said. “For our live and recorded shows, young girls with older guys as well as squirting are very popular with not only our audience but European consumers as a whole.”
SkyPrivate CMO Andrew says the company has been to many European events over the past year and seen firsthand the many opportunities the region presents.
“We have noticed that models and members alike are very interested in group shows via Skype [so] we’ll be working hard on bringing this new feature to all SkyPrivate users,” Andrew said. “We’re also looking to increase our reach in the German market and have more fetish-related shows available in our platform. That means we’re interested in recruiting more models that are [accustomed] to performing for German audiences.”
Marc Dorcel CEO Gregory Dorcel says that more than ever customers are looking for quality content, different experiences and a strong brand.
“OTT and retail are our focus, there are so many new concepts to offer to customers,” Dorcel explains. “We have created the DORCELLAB which is a start up incubator, [which] means Dorcel will continue to innovate more than ever with lots of new and powerful innovations.”
Manager of ModelCentro Germany, Yens Kramosch, told XBIZ that in Europe, especially in Germany, the adult entertainment market began to work with dating offers several years ago.
“It’s not just ‘online porn’ like you imagine from the live cam industry; it became more private. The goal is to have a hot chat and maybe schedule a date,” Kramosch explained. “In times like these where everybody can use non-adult dating platforms (which became quite reliable in Germany) such as Tinder, for example, it’s logical that the adult entertainment market also looked into the dating factor.”
Kramosch notes many online products changed their usability, communication and style to more resemble a community such as Facebook while keeping their adult content, echoing the value that others find in social media mixes.
“In the end, it’s a mix of meeting people who are looking for a date or even attempting to produce a porn clip when the date is happening,” Kramosch added. “It turned out that people really want to know how their neighbor looks naked in front of a webcam instead of watching a porn star. People realized they can’t meet a porn star but maybe they can meet the girl or boy next door.”
At the end of the day, the diversity of these responses reflects the diversity of the European market, where a wide range of factors play a role in shaping the trends that furnish a Euro flair to our industry’s products and services.
