MIAMI — One of the highlights of this week’s XBIZ Summit, presented by AWEmpire, unfolded on Thursday at the Shelborne Hotel in South Beach when more than 20 of the leading digital media vendors in adult entertainment gathered for the Mix & Meet – Global Edition.
The theme of the intimate marketplace was to showcase the latest products, services and technologies that had worldwide appeal. And with online executives coming all the way to Miami from France, Germany, Spain and Amsterdam to discuss what’s hot and new, this annual special event did not disappoint.
Without a doubt, one of the most intriguing rollouts was LabelSex, which is being billed as “the next step in flirting and dating.” LabelSex is an interactive online dating platform where users will discover a digital world filled with real people, dating opportunities, social activities and more.
It is officially being launched in mid-June by the same management team behind BrokerBabe after 18 months of development that involved 40 programmers.
“Actually, we created a virtual city, a virtual world,” explained Carmen Lumina, the junior affiliate marketing manager for BrokerBabe. “You sign up, create your own avatar and you just for example go in Miami Beach and you walk there and I meet you. We start to talk. We call it ‘the next level of dating.’”
Lumina said that LabelSex.com could make a profound impact on the online dating sector.
“We showed some friends, some partners of this project that have a really big dating platform and they said this is the shit,” she said. “Because everybody can sign up to a dating site. You search the profile, you send the message. Nobody replies, you get bored. But here’s it’s like combined. You go there, you go into the shopping mall, you go into the disco. You walk on the street. It’s really cool.”
Meanwhile, Laurent Baquiast, the chief operating officer of Affil4u, the 2012 XBIZ Mobile Services Company of the Year, traveled from his home in Paris to spread the word about his company’s mobile traffic options.
“Everyone who has mobile traffic should be working with us,” Baquiast said. “We have our service available in more than 75 countries including France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland...Our message to everyone is if you don’t have mobile, you are missing a lot of opportunities.
“On the computer everyone is trying to get scenes for free. With mobile it is the user’s own handset, so it’s private. And people are used to paying for mobile.”
In another corner of the Mix & Meet Market was the team from industry innovator AdultCentro, a virtual one-stop shop for adult content that Product Manager Alex Kudinov called “like Amazon.com” for the adult industry.
“It’s a virtual marketplace for selling and purchasing content rights,” Kudinov said. “What’s really unique is the transparency factor. Usually with a broker, the seller doesn’t know where his content is going and for how much. With AdultCentro it’s a direct relationship between the buyer and the seller of the content.”
AdultCentro VP Alex Moiseenko said that the company covers all the bases so thoroughly that he can build an entire pay site package in a matter of minutes.
“It’s a content delivery program,” Moiseenko said. “Just one click and we could have your site ready.”
AdultCentro was also giving out miniature, magnetic smoking pipes with “AC” initials emblazoned on the side. The discreet, ice cube-sized pieces are undoubtedly one of the most original giveaways in the industry.
“They were [CEO] Stan DaMan’s idea,” Moiseenko said. “It’s something unique, something no one did before. People remember you.”
Karen Campbell, the assistant VP at OrbitalPay and one of the XBIZ.net social network’s top personalities, said she was enjoying the Summit, seeing several colleagues that she’s met through XBIZ.net.
“I think social media is very important and sites like XBIZ.net really help you to network,” Campbell said, noting that OrbitalPay’s main message during the Summit is simply, “We have a very solid relationship with our bank, which is something I really wanted to emphasize this week.”
Meanwhile, Joe D. said that he was ready for his new post as the chief marketing officer at NetCash, which also staked out at table at the Mix & Meet.
“I like new challenges and learning new aspects of processing and billing. It’s just an evolution,” said Joe D., who has also been an XBIZ contributing blog columnist for the past four years.
Douglas Richter, the senior authorized consultant for AWEmpire, told XBIZ that the Summit had been a highly successful endeavor as his company wanted to make a statement about its commitment to excellence. AWEmpire's branding was impossible to miss all over the Shelborne and even inside attendees' rooms, where each show-goer received a jumbo-sized AWEmpire beach towel.
“We know that we’re the largest adult company in the world. We know that we are the only premium sub-100 Alexa adult site," said Richter, who also moderated the closing "Industry in Flux" seminar. "We know we’re the biggest, but we also want to be the best. That’s what we’re striving to make sure people understand. We’re constantly adapting to what the industry is needing."
Richter continued, “I’m happy. I like to see AWE everywhere. I bleed AWE, so to see the branding on the beds and on the towels, that’s important. And also to let the industry know that we’re here to stay, and we’re financially stable.
"While a lot of other companies are being streamlined and absorbed, we’re not. We’re financially strong and we’re future-thinking and when it comes to technology we are the true innovators right now. And when I keep hearing mainstream isn’t adopting [our technology], I say they are. They’ve adopted our technology. They’re coming to us for licensing software and I think people just don’t realize it or don’t want to admit it.”
As the seminars wound down on Thursday, attendees began to gear up for a full evening of XBIZ Summit events. First will be the Poolside Happy Hour presented by Online IPS and Credorax and then the night will continue with the South Beach Closing Bash presented by ExoClick at 1020 Lounge at The Clevelander Hotel on Ocean Drive.
