The world could see more than 3 billion mobile users worldwide by 2010. That figure more than doubles the number now going mobile, according to market analysts Gartner Research—and that could mean a concurrently higher demand for mobile adult content as well.
That's the call from Brickhouse Media, which is now working as a sort of brokerage to bring adult mobile content to the mobile market by making it a palatable package for wireless carriers to allow over their lines.
"In the mobile space, obviously, we content providers look at mobile as just an extension of the Internet," Brickhouse President L.R. Clinton Fayling told AVNOnline.com. "It's just like putting more PCs in the market. By having a good portion of the world population walking around with a mobile phone, it's going to mean more demand for adult content."
Gartner's latest findings say the mobile-user growth they project will just about force mobile manufacturers to aim toward more innovation, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, where users demand more inexpensive handsets than anywhere else. "We will see a lot of innovation coming out of Asia," said Gartner Vice President Nick Jones in announcing the company’s findings. "That's forcing the price down and open[ing] up a whole new set of opportunities."
Brickhouse Mobile’s Fayling said the actual number of mobile users predicted by 2010 fluctuates, "depending on the research firm you read—the numbers could be all over the map." But he agreed that the actual market will prove broad enough that if companies like his "get the content out to a certain subscriber base, we're all going to be making good money." He said the usual estimate for the coming adult mobile audience equals around $5 billion in revenue, citing recent figures from Boston firm Strategy Analytics.
"Our strategy is really straightforward," Fayling said. "To identify niches in the adult category and go after the top tier companies in that niche. Approach them about mobilizing their current assets for the mobile market.
"We do have a variety of companies signed as well as a few more coming down the pike," Fayling continued. "In the end we're going to end up with a family of 10 to 12 brands, as noncompetitive as possible. And [we want] to fully develop these brands with a complete mobile solution and strategy and take these out to carriers and fill in a lot of real estate. That's resonated so far very well with the folks we've been talking to. We're going to keep it simple and push it with a tight collection of solid companies."
Concurrently, mobile payment and billing company Nimbus Systems told a gathering at the World Telemedia Expo and Conference that the quality of mobile content is and will be the king of the mobile world for the foreseeable future, with content providers being compelled to reconcile "more sophisticated settlement capabilities" with mobile operators.
"Historically, content providers have needed to rely upon operators’ billing systems to reconcile revenue share agreements," Nimbus managing partner Tom Uhart told those at the conference April 20.
"I do not believe this to be sustainable in the medium term—emerging content reconciliation standards will place operators and providers on a more equal footing. This will, in turn, enable content providers and aggregators to calculate and bill their own revenue-shares," he continued. "The growth in mobile content creates a win-win situation for content providers and operators alike. Each must ensure that they continue to cultivate the relationships they already developed, and operate using best-of-breed billing technology."
