Wireless porn may titillate, but will it monetize?: Adult-oriented mobile content to increase due to Web-friendly phones

Airport newsstands sell porn.
That’s what I think of whenever I hear skeptics talk about an over-hyped market for adult mobile content. It’s tough to imagine more difficult or awkward place to, um, consume the salacious stuff than an airport – or, worse, an airplane – but people are picking up Penthouse and Hustler at the airport as they grab last-minute gum and newspapers.
So it’s no surprise that they’re increasingly using their mobiles to access porn. Online porn distributors Pink Visual and Digital Playground saw traffic soar after Christmas as users directed new iPhones and other multimedia gadgets to their destinations, according to a recent story from the news outlet AFP, as consumers took advantage of high-speed networks and big, colorful screens to check out NSFW material.
“The way people get their porn is changing,” Pink executive Kim Kysar said at the annual Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas a few days ago, according to the AFP article. “It is going to be more personal and you get it anywhere you are: on the road, in the bathroom at work taking a break. Nobody is going to be the wiser.”
Kysar’s comments call attention to a trend that is as undeniable as it is potentially creepy. Consumers are finally firing up their browsers and using devices to access all sorts of Web-based content that was all but unusable on wireless phones just a couple of years ago. And while it may not be a gold-plated revenue stream quite yet, that titillated traffic will ramp up drastically in the next couple of years.
Interestingly, the ramp-up in online wireless porn will be supported in large part by another predictable trend in mobile data: the growth of Internet-based video. Carriers are struggling to monetize their branded video offerings, but a recent study from Nielsen indicates far more demand for online mobile video than for traditional, TV-style content. While the vast majority of content is still accessed through carrier decks, two-thirds of all mobile viewers say they access video content via the wireless Web, according to Nielsen.
U.S. carriers thus far have shackled the mobile porn market by keeping all but the most innocuous stuff off the deck – and, therefore, out of the hands of the overwhelming majority of consumers. That’s changing, though, as subscribers with multimedia-friendly devices become more accustomed to firing up the browser and strolling the mobile Web to consume all sorts of content, from news channels to streaming music services to, yes, hardcore sex videos.
Adult-oriented mobile traffic is sure to increase as Web-friendly phones expand beyond the high-end segment and become cheaper – or even free. The question isn’t whether consumers will use their phones to access the stuff; the question is how to monetize it. Which is why Larry Flint and Joe Francis don’t need a $5 billion bailout from the government. They just need better, more lucrative mobile distribution channels.
Because if consumers will buy porn at the airport, they’ll buy it anywhere.