LAS VEGAS - The industry's heavyweights led Internext 2008's second panel discussion Sunday, divulging secrets of success and progressive visions for the future.
AVN President Paul Fishbein moderated the Future Vision panel that drew a 300 plus crowd, which listened intently to the seminar's speakers: Lars Mapstead, aka Legendary Lars of AdultFriendFinder; Jay Grdina, president of ClubJenna Inc.; Michael H. Klein, president of LFP Inc., Hustler product line's parent company; Ron Cadwell, founder and CEO of CWIE Holding Company Inc., CCBill.com's parent company; Python founder David Van der Poel; and Joone, founder of Digital Playground and creator and director of Pirates, the largest title in the history of adult film.
Fishbein opened the discussion by proudly listing adult's greatest achievements and top news for 2007 and followed with numerous informative questions for the panel speakers regarding progression into the decade ahead.
Fishbein discussed the past year's issues that have kept the industry on its toes, though it remained triumphant. These issues included obscenity prosecutions that continue with the federal government; the success of 2257 being declared unconstitutional; the victories of Evil Angel and Jules Jordan in the piracy lawsuits in Canada; consolidation issues and the closing of the biggest deal in adult history, Lars' sale of AdultFriendFinder to Penthouse.
While the panel began to discuss the major issues, Fishbein stated piracy will most likely top the list, since there has been a lot of talk about protecting copyrights and stealing on the web.
Fishbein opened the discussion with the question, "What is the most important issue affecting your business?"
Grdina stated there has been an oversaturation in the marketplace and piracy issues in the video marketplace. "We should work together and fight the piracy issues," he said.
"I think that the declining dollar has hurt a lot of our customers," Cadwell said. "With the dollar going down and a lot of the content coming in from overseas, various other producers that are overseas keep saying that their costs are rising, but the revenues remain the same. The content is going up, so the decrease in the dollar has made a big difference. It's hurting a lot of people with their overhead costs."
Van der Poel stated his business has invested in new technology, which has improved content. Klein said free Internet content is a big issue affecting his business, and the industry should join together to combat it.
Lars agreed that free Internet content is a top topic, however, the industry should not fight against it, but work with the changes and invent new business models to evolutionize the adult industry.
"I have a little different take on things," Lars joked. "The Internet is demanding more and more time of people's interest in just entertainment, including YouTube, MySpace and more. They are spending more time on that than porn. It is hurting our sales. Regarding free content, we will be seeing new business models very shortly. The people who grab ahold of that are going to be able to rise to the next level. I don't see it as an end game. I see it as an evolution."
Lars added that the next phase the industry will encounter is how to monetize traffic coming in from free sites. He said it will be changing from credit card processing to other ways of monetizing traffic.
Fishbein then asked, "How do we stop the free content if we join together as a whole?"
The speakers stated how difficult it would be to rid or control free content because everyone is putting it up, using it to generate traffic. We cannot police ourselves, panelists agreed.
Panelists also stated other issues affecting their businesses.
Grdina stated while they are producing high quality content, people mostly want hardcore sex that gets right to the point, calling it the three-minute click/get off. He said he has encountered an increase in interest in MILF, teen or big butts.
Klein said Hustler is always looking to increase sales, a constant issue with their business. He stated businesses should list their top porn stars beside title names to help them in this matter.
"Web 2.0. You are going to have to evolve," he said. "You are going to have to give an experience to your user on that site. It's not all gloom and doom. People are making very good money having small niche sites. Being responsive to the people. They know they don't have to have all these massive sites. They listen to their customer and study what they want."
The panelists also discussed the issue of consolidation. Grdina stated that from the video standpoint, we will see massive consolidation. Lars said they will have more consolidations because it just adds to the energies they have created.
Speaking of consolidation and moving into the mainstream, Cadwell mentioned wonderful news. "Adult is becoming much more mainstream. At AVN's award show last night, Paul sold the Showtime on broadcasting. Everywhere I went, he would come up to me and say ‘We're on Showtime.' I thought how funny it would be to say, ‘I'm on Showtime. Thanks for my award for best anal.' That's great! Showtime is a mainstream cable channel. You are going to see more revenues coming in. Because with our weak dollar, what our companies will sell for, in relation to the money coming in from overseas, someone will buy it at 60 cents on the dollar, you are going to see people consolidating with that."
"I see the business where Vegas was in the '70s. It's going from a ma and pa shop to becoming corporate," Joone added.
Fishbein then asked the panel about mobile content and its delivery with the United States, compared to other countries.
It was stated that American carriers are too afraid at the moment to carry adult content, due to child protection issues. However, places like Italy are going wild, while husbands and wives swap content. Grdina predicted carriers will find a way to protect kids from adult content within a year.
Cadwell stated mobile has a long way to go, but content delivery will increase for Internet TV.
The panel also discussed the important issue of new content protection technology. Cadwell said to get Adobe Flash and that Microsoft is coming out with a new technology that will lock up pictures and control it.
They also talked about expanding into the mainstream. Grdina said they are developing new platforms and heading in new directions to expand their new material. They are also utilizing Second Life and all new things on the Internet. They also just shot a new reality show with three mainstream girls that they will be selling hopefully to Showtime or Spike TV.
The panel closed with questions from the audience. Overall, the discussion proved to be extremely informative. The conversations by the industry's leaders generated a feeling of positive vibes throughout the crowd. They listened to the speakers' accomplishments, walked away with wonderful advice and envisioned success for themselves for the future.
