By John Levett

The surge in consumer smartphone adoption, allied to low cost data bundles, has led to a sharp rise in the number of consumers surfing mobile adult sites, a new report from Juniper Research has found. This has translated into a marked increase in subscriptions to mobile adult paysites, with the number subscribing to such sites expected to exceed 35 million worldwide by 2015.

The Mobile Adult report observed that the consumer smartphone boom had indirectly resulted in the adult industry generating substantial revenues in the US for the first time. The market had previously been constrained by carrier reluctance to offer adult content on-portal, but that direct to consumer (D2C) adult sites were profiting as consumers were surfing the Internet via the mobile in ever increasing numbers.

Furthermore, the availability of a strong mobile revenue stream has come at a critical point for the adult industry. According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, “The opportunity offered by mobile couldn’t be more timely, given that sales from DVDs have collapsed while online paysites have also lost customers and revenues as a result of the proliferation of tube sites.”

Conversely, the imposition of stringent regulations prohibiting access to remote adult content in a number of Asian markets will adversely impact revenue growth within that region, while many European markets have also experienced a fall in sales as traffic to on-portal adult content has diminished.

Indeed, the report cautioned that the widespread availability of free content on thumbnail gallery posts (TGPs) would mean that revenue generation from casual users would in future be extremely limited and that providers should focus on catering for customers seeking high-value niche content. It also stressed the importance of customer retention, highlighting the fact that many mobile providers have focused almost exclusively on traffic generation.

The Mobile Adult Video Whitepaper is available to view from the Juniper website together with further details of the study 'Mobile Adult Strategies: Downloads, Video Chat, Apps & Messaging 2010-2015.

About the author and the company

John Levett is PR for Juniper Research, a company which provides research and analytical services to the global hi-tech communications sector, providing consultancy, analyst reports and industry commentary.