Most end users are familiar with AOL's (www.aol.com) Instant Messaging (IM) service and the ever-popular ICQ (www.icq.com) messaging. Log on to either of these systems and chat with friends or strangers, and you might even find a casual or serious relationship. Nevertheless, you can't always be sure who you meet or chat with will be interested in the same things as you.
Adult Cyberspace.com (ACS, www.adultcyberspace.com/acs) has created an all-adult browser with a built-in instant messaging service and real-time chat for "horny adults." Surfers can download the software, which is free, and start the "adults-only" messaging software in cyberspace.
"The goal of ACS is [for surfers] to be able to explore and share your erotic fantasies with other like-minded adults," says ACS Vice President of Marketing, Jackie Barnard, who runs the company along with two silent partners. "Surfers that have sought out and desire to find adult-only material know they'll find what they are looking for."
Barnard has an extensive history in online marketing, and once worked for an audiotext company in the U.K. that ran a number of 1-900 lines. "This was like a natural progression for me," she says. She describes the site as a virtual "Pleasure-Ground for Adults on the Internet." Surfers who use the browser are guaranteed "top quality adult sites" because ACS identifies sites with consoles, pop-ups and blind links, and indicates those sites to the surfer. Barnard also notes that surfers who browse their sites don't have to worry about a glut of unwanted material filling their hard drives. "We have over 400 hundred adult sites listed on ACS," says Barnard. "The beauty of the software is the images from our browser sites are not going to [be] stored [on the surfer's] hard disk unless they save it themselves."
ACS is also a webmaster resource, with adult-Web-related news and feature articles, and listings of content providers, partnership programs, billing solutions, website designers, hosting companies and counter services. And, Barnard says, adult webmasters benefit by listing their site on ACS because ACS guarantees an adults-only audience. "Our site will improve reseller traffic," she says. "In theory anyone who has taken the time out to download the browser has expressed the desire for adult related material."
Every other week, the company hosts a free program for surfers called "In Bed with ACS Live!" (www.adultcyberspace.com/acs/inbed) where surfers get to meet and greet (via webcam) an assortment of directors, producers, CEOs and actresses from the adult industry. "It's a new addition to the Adult Cyberspace site," says Barnard. "I think it'll be fun and a great traffic generator for webmasters. Our goal for 'In Bed with ACS' is to eventually provide fully interactive webcam facilities like webcam audio."
Surfers are also able to win prizes (such as DVDs) while chatting live with their favorite adult industry players. Barnard says she has seen a 25 percent increase when ACS hosts one of the live shows. "Surfers love being able to chat directly with these people, especially the adult stars," she observes. "In exchange, the adult stars get to sell their products directly to the end user. It works out for everyone."
Barnard says the original vision for ACS was to have a sub-network that would be exclusively for adult-related material. "The infrastructure of the rest of the Web and the way the adult industry relies on that infrastructure would've made it very difficult for webmasters to changeover their site, it would've been virtually impossible," she says. "We would have had an acs domain instead of a www domain. So, we had to just keep up with the browser technology and the instant messaging and the chat facilities and look after the surfers that have downloaded it."
According to Barnard, about 45,000 surfers had downloaded the software as of mid-April. ACS is expecting that number to steadily rise. "We've had users with us from the very beginning and that's comforting," she says. "Now, we have regulars, we talk to these guys, and they give us ideas about what they want. We get to know these guys so we can serve them better and enhance the software if needed." Barnard also says that the longer a user is logged on, the more time she has to market to them via banner advertising. "It's quite a targeted market.
"We're building a brand with ACS, we want to make it really solid and stable so we can be a one-stop stop for everything," she says.
Surfers and webmasters can visit the site for more information, or to download ACS's free software.
