It may not happen soon, but at least the numbers are trickling in. Last year, sales of adult content distributed through wireless phones hovered around $30 million, according to industry officials.
A sign Waat Media CEO Ian Aaron sees as “encouraging,” he told XBiz.
Aaron recently was named chief executive of the Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based company that has on-deck deals with more than 60 major mobile carriers to distribute images, games, video and mobile TV to more that 750 million handsets.
He also led the first-ever conference on wireless adult efforts called the Mobile Adult Content Congress, sponsored by Waat. The two-day symposium at the Radisson Miami Hotel last week included leaders of the content field and telecom representatives who are trying to get a grip on ways to exploit the U.S. market.
Industry officials from the likes of Vodafone, Playboy, Virgin Mobile U.K. and Ohmobile focused on issues such as content rating and age verification, as well as the role of aggregators and third-party content providers to licensing and revenue sharing.
Already, forecasters see a bright future with mobile adult. Juniper Research says global sales of adult mobile services are seen tripling between 2004 and 2009 to $2.1 billion.
“There’s a huge consumer demand following up on the immense success of the Internet,” commented James Walz of West Management at the Miami Conference. “It’s a sizzling, serious business.”
But one of the keys that nags adult mobile providers is a clear ratings system that U.S. telecoms can rely on. Leading U.S. carriers have been reluctant to jump into the mix, fearing a backlash from conservatives and the religious right if they provide consumers easy adult access to the devices.
Aaron says that his company already has operations in 25 nations in Western and Central Europe, as well as in many Latin American countries. And that has meant success with revenue.
“We have a 33-tier matrix in place [relative to rating systems], and we are the exclusive distributor for Vivid, Girls Gone Wild, Playboy, Digital Playground and others.”
Adi McAbian, Waat Media’s managing director, said that U.S. revenues could soon hit about $500 million per year, once the right technology, and services such as “robust age verification,” are in place.
“There’s no doubt it’s a huge market forthcoming. Long-range it’s a huge market,” said McAbian, who noted that key to future growth would be the ability for consumers to get billed for adult content directly by their mobile providers.
But Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless who attended the symposium, said that his company has nothing slated for adult content on the U.S. carrier’s phone system.
“As my grandmother would have said, ‘fat chance,’” Nelson said. “I hear all the same things you do about analysts saying this is a big boom. We don’t think that our customer base wants it.”