1. 2013: Themes in the adult
industry
Garion Hall, abbywinters.com CEO
2. abbywinters.com
• Typical office (sorry!)
• Product Owner in Agile Scrum team
• Wholesome and natural approach
• Focus on social responsibility
• Staff and models
• Customers, industry, society
• Enormously profitable 2004 – 2009.
3. Platform Content
Adult
industry
Traffic Billing
4. Platform Content
Definition: Platform Adult
Traffic Billing
• Case study, traditional pay-site
• Packaging
• Subscription-based
• SKU-based.
5. Platform Content
Definition: Traffic Adult
Traffic Billing
• Traffic is eyeballs
• Basic SEO matters
• Own the traffic, make the money
• Build networks of pay sites
• Social networks are ineffective.
6. Platform Content
Definition: Content Adult
Traffic Billing
• Traditional content still sells
• “User generated content” concept
• Conversions are the key measure
• Conversion matters, but retention is key
• Strong reliance on Affiliates – up to 70% of sales, 50% cut
• Mini case study: life-selector.com
• Traffic becomes the real content (conversion, not retention).
7. Platform Content
Definition: Billing Adult
Traffic Billing
• Credit-card is still king
• Who here does not have a credit card?
• “alternate payment methods”: EU, BRIC
• Jury out: increase the pie, or just adding more slices?
• Mobile network billing
• Micropayments is the killer-app.
8. Bringing it together: Three case studies
• Cams and dating
• “Tube Sites”
• Mobile
Platform Content
Adult
Traffic Billing
9. Case study: Cams and dating
• Women with webcams
Cams • Customers pay-per-minute
• More for 1:1, less for spying, free for group chat
• Women paid to participate and flirt (or, free access)
• Some are “bots”; some real women
Dating • Extremely nichified (eg, disabled, Hindi, Jewish, etc)
• Pay to join, and make contact attempts
• Main focus of users is sex.
10. Platform Content
• Heavy web dev investment • User generated!
• 100’s of devs
• White-labelled
Cams and dating
Traffic Billing
• Extensive buying • Primarily credit card
• Attractive usage patterns
• Retention increases if more women on site.
12. Platform Content
• One company bought up majors • “User” generated
• Using mish-mash of platforms • Free to visitors
Tube sites
Traffic Billing
• Word-of-mouth • Ad revenue
• Compelling value proposition • Sticky audience
• Free to consumers
13. Platform Content
• Websites for smart phones • Bland
• (Not tablets) • Low quality
• Limited adult apps allowed • 3rd party
Mobile
Traffic Billing
• Bought from sites’ type-ins on • Mobile provider
mobile devices • Up to 70% goes to carrier
• Redirected
14. Applying these concepts elsewhere
• Not unique to adult industry
• Business models are driven hard and fast
• Quickly discarded if unsuccessful
• Low quality code, lack of completeness
• “Marketplace model” rising in popularity: airbnb.com.
15. The future?
• More personal interactions
• Less-piratable content
• Less fragmentation
• Boutique sites will flourish
• Micropayments.
16. The future?
• Increase in free content
• Reduction in creative quality
• Increase in technical quality
• Less money for performers and producers.
17. Thanks!
• Preso and links available on slideshare.com
• garion.hall@abbywinters.com
Notas do Editor
Typical office (sorry!)Typical for any adult companyProduct Owner, Agile Scrum teamAbby and Garion formed the site in October 2000; No formal experience or qualifications; AU$7000 and vague ideas; refined “paradigm” over timeWholesome and naturalRegular women, not porn-stars; no makeup; no PhotoShop; lots of pubic hair; under-arm hair; shot at models’ homes; wearing day-to-day clothes; Social responsibilityINTERNAL: plain-English release forms; cooling-off periods; scaring-off models policy; staff-always-leave-more-skilled policy; cross-trainingEXTERNAL: easy to cancel; responsive to feedback; donations to charity; real names on emails; real phone number and address on siteEnormously profitable 2004 - 2009Ah, the glory days; no expense spared! Before Tube sites with free porn; not much competition in our niche; now, much more modest
Perhaps true with any online business? Certainly true in online Adult industryStrategy required for each plank in any adult biz. Any missing will cause failure.I’ll define eachLook at some case studiesConsider the future
Traditional pay site: tour page showing some teaser content; join options; updates page, browse to shoots, view and download contentPackagingWebsite design; functionality; search and suggestions; tagging; voting; informational scent; update contents; release schedule, trickle over time; Subscriptionmoney for time; work to up-sell and cross-sell (buy this site, get other sites for free)SKU-basedPay-per-scene; buy credit, spend small amounts on scenes; customer marketed to in the future
Eyeballs: people browsing on the internet. Many paying porn customers are like sheep: and easily herded and easily satisfied.Basic SEO: Google publishes an extremely thorough guide, for on-site SEO. Required to get organic trafficOwn the traffic, make the money: pretty much accepted canon in online adult. Selling content, selling traffic, or selling ads.Build networks: Work to collaborate with other adult sites (or buy them, or buy their traffic), and send the traffic to the most profitable placeSocial networks: of very limited value, as accounts are cancelled on the flimsiest pretences
Traditional content: images as sets, videos. DVD’s still selling strong!“User generated content”: Content shot by real people at home, stolen from commercial sites; or produced professionally to have deliberately low production values (ex-GF)Conversions are the key measure: we enjoy conversion of around 0.20% (that is, for every 1000 people who visit, 2 will join). Mid-to-high rangeRetention is key: getting people to keep coming back – more loyal they are, longer they stay, more they tell their friends. AW has around 7.4 rebills for the average memberReliance on affiliates: Lure traffic with small content selected, then sending traffic to pay site in exchange for a 50% cut of each sale (and each rebill). Some sites, 70% of their revenue comes from this!Mini case study: life-selector.com: “choose your own adventure” style, with adult content. Cheesy, but fun, and other producers can submit to their platformTraffic becomes the real content: Increasingly, producers realise the content quality has little effect on conversion (though it does on retention), so put effort into make good conversion pages, not good content
CC is king: Huge majority of sales are via CC, even in EU“alternate payment methods” are theoretically taking the adult world by storm. Actual results: same customers use different methods.Mobile network billing: carrier charges customer on their phone bill; anonymous and easy. Large share to network and middle-manMicropayments killer app: many competing formats, when one is settled and accepted (like CC), it will change the game in adult.
User generated, actually means, submitted by pay sites
Marketplace model: where producers submit their works to central sites who manage their billing and hostingEg, clips4sale.com
More personal interactionsChat;web cams (one-way, and two-way); gamingLess-piratable contentLive shows, camming, dating; technology-based pirate-blocking systemsLess fragmentationCompanies with mainstream financial backing buy up niche sites, possibly merge themEg, Kink.com, manwin.comBoutique sites will flourishMega-sites will not manage quality issues as well; devoted fans will leaveBoutique sites, small organisations (under 20 people), will continue producing for devoted fansMicropaymentsA micropayment solution will become the standard; adult industry will embrace for PPS
Increase in free contentHard to imagine more than there is now! As pay sites become more desperate, more content on tube sites.Reduction in creative qualityLess time and effort spent by producers to make content; harder to make a profit, so costs are cutIncrease in technical qualityEver-increasing camera quality for lower prices; DLSR’s, HD.Less money for performers and producersPeople accept lower-quality free content, than higher quality paid. Customers demand more when paying. Something has to give.