The Wall Street Journal calls it the Internet's dirty little secret: porn makes up in profits what it doesn't get in respect. Web surfers are still paying lots of filthy lucre for online porn and the stuff is here to stay, according to Journal analyst John Bushkin. "(B)y any standard," Bushkin said, "adult sites constitute one of the best businesses on the Web. But he admits that's not exactly a universally unanimous view. Jupiter Communications researcher David Card, who calls Net porn "way over hyped," said adult Web companies are mostly private owned with no public reporting responsibilities - but even Card admitted Net porn is probably the single biggest category of paid online content. In fact, for a way over hyped product, Net porn, in Card's estimation, drew in a conservative estimate of $175 million in revenue last year. And Forrester Research, considered one of the United States's leading Web research outfits, estimated Net porn pulled down between $750 million and an even billion around the world in 1998. Mark Tiarra, who runs United Adult Sites, estimates there are almost two hundred thousand Adult websites now in business. But, Tiarra also figures only the top twelve are grossing anywhere in the millions, with most pulling down $1,000 a month if they're fortunate.
VAN NUYS, Calif. - "It was evil. Now it's necessary evil." That's how Vivid On Demand chief Bill Asher sees the future, if we're talking about online porn becoming more acceptable for public stock trading. Asher said online porn's "mammoth demand" will all but force Wall Street to accept it trading publicly. For now, only New Frontier, Playboy, and two other adult businesses trade publicly. Metro Global Media does, too, but it was delisted from the high-tech NASDAQ composite earlier this year over questions with Securities and Exchange Commission reporting. And Asher may have history on his side, if one considers, as various published reports from the financial press point out, that porn has a tangible record of either benefiting from or opening the big path to technological innovations. Not to mention, as Asher pointed out, adult material rentals take up close to 60 percent of the rental market, though others say it's closer to 40 percent - sizeable shares in either case.
REDMOND, Wash. - It's not enough that Bill Gates has to worry about his software empire being carved up by the Federal government - now the Microsoft generalissimo can't even call himself the world's richest man anymore, thanks to the man some think is his real number one arch-nemesis. April 25 began with talk that before the end of the day Oracle chief Larry Ellison would pass Gates in the latter department - and pass him he did, to the tune of just under $50 billion against Gates's shrinkage to just over $49 billion. Gates's slippage, of course, comes largely thanks to the antitrust action (guided in no small part by Ellison, according to various reports) and speculation of the company's pending breakup and, ironically, potential advantages for investors as a possible consequence. But you can look at it this way, too - Gates may have been seen as the big bad wolf, but to some he's a downright pussycat compared to Ellison, whose reported tastes for online love affairs, ostentatious yachting trips, and suing anyone who tries to limit when he can land his private jet (like the city of San Jose, whom he sued when they cited him for repeated after-hours landings) contrast to Gates's quieter style.
--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
