It was short and sweet for Playboy.com's Joe Lakey, who on Monday afternoon delivered the inaugural keynote speech of the Internext show.
Lakey spoke to the mostly crowded room about important changes brewing in the adult online community, touching on the future of content delivery and its relation to continued webmaster success.
Lakey began his speech on a light note, saying, "It's good to get up to Vegas, do some business, get away from the cold. I hear it was warmer in Anchorage, Alaska than it is here in Vegas."
The rest of Lakey's speech primarily was devoted to upcoming changes in content delivery and the challenges presented to adult webmasters.
"We all know about the past [of this industry], but what's really exciting is the future," Lakey enthused. "Those of us who have been around in the business knew that [the Internet] would be the preferred way to get adult content."
Lakey went on to boast of some of the industry's most notable innovations, including the creation of affiliate cash programs (he cited Cybererotica for launching this lucrative model), the advent of the pop-up, social-networking sites such as YNOT, user-contributed content, video on the Internet, and pay-per-minute viewing.
"We are now in the age of what's commonly referred to as Web 2.0," Lakey said. "It's a period of tremendous change."
Noting the increased availability and use of social-networking sites and peer-to-peer file-sharing sites, Lakey said those things "will continue to impact our business."
Lakey also predicted that there will be "a quantum shift" in mainstream culture as a result of the success of adult webmasters. Noting the impact the adult Internet industry has had on the mainstream entertainment industry, he said, "Every major TV network now has content distribution on the Internet."
What does all this mean, Lakey pondered. "The Internet can become your aggregation site," he said. "The market stands to significantly grow. The Internet will be the biggest part of the adult industry [and] market acceptance will certainly grow. It will open more choice for the consumers and more new distribution avenues for webmasters. The DVD and cable television businesses are seriously challenged, and the Internet will be the winner. It's a really exciting time to be in this business."
Lakey closed the meeting by adding that Playboy.com is looking for content producers and "business masterminds."
