Actually, much of the free erotica content on-line is provided by the vendors themselves. Most offer unlimited access to peripheral libraries, short periods of free access to their main archives, and lists of links to sites offering free erotica. The freebies are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of their site design--its accessibility, its organizational clarity, its straightforward navigating cues, and its downloading speed. The tactic could work just as well for conventional businesses, like newspapers and magazines. The Boston Globe, for example, already gives away each day's news but sells access to the full text of the articles in its archives.
Another intriguing feature of the on-line erotica market is its resistance to the classic business-text precept that specialization is the best response to stepped-up competition. An informal survey of site developers reveals that nearly all of them are planning to add new categories of business rather than target narrower niches. Some of those sites function like small Internets, branching off more and more services behind the same set of interface tools. In addition to its image databases, for example, New World Erotica runs classified advertising and operates on-line movie theaters, chat rooms, videoconferences, and a "mall" that sells videos, CDs, and other physical goods.
All these developments reflect an emphasis on technology-driven consumer convenience. If the erotica sector can teach one overarching lesson to fledgling on-line businesses, it's that selling information, products, and services amid a flood of competing content means keeping up with the demand for ever-friendlier user interfaces and the latest generation of multimedia technology. Until recently, for example, videoconferencing over the slow connections used by home computers was a high art, requiring special software and direct connections (usually over 800 numbers) to the videoconferencing service's own computers. Expenses were high because the service used real people and advanced communications. This year, advances in videoconferencing software--all you need is a dial-up connection to the Net--have lowered the cost of videoconferencing services, opening up competition. The erotica sector was the first to commercialize videoconferencing over ordinary phone lines, a service that brings the industry the largest share of its revenues.
Erotica vendors were probably also the first to make marketable products out of on-line animation delivery, downloadable video clips, virtual-reality environments, interactive videos, real-time video feeds, and streaming video (video that runs while it's being downloaded). According to Paul Feith, technical manager of the new media department at Playboy Enterprises, the paid Playboy site that is expected to open this fall is a technological extravaganza, with virtual-reality tours of the Playboy mansion and live chats with Playmates. Film promoters, video artists, and animators are already using similar technologies, and other mainstream businesses (travel agencies, for example) are likely to follow close behind.
The downside of technological development is that the headlong pace of change combined with breakneck competition makes for a highly volatile business climate. George Izumi of A6, a CD-ROM publisher of interactive Asian erotica, observes that erotica sites tend to be short-lived; as the competition increases, revenues fall and the pressures intensify, leading many businesses--particularly small-scale, one- or two-person outfits--to burn out rapidly. And even among the survivors, the longevity of a sector's pricing structures is an ongoing concern. Francis Sharrak of Live Centerfold Girls and More estimates that a properly run erotic videoconferencing business (which usually bills at a rate of $5.99 a minute) should be able to gross $25,000 a week or more. However, he concedes that with the addition of several new listings for competing services every week, that lucrative return probably won't last the year.
In the near term many site developers are going to try to entrench themselves by using the micropayment plans (developed by companies like DigiCash and CyberCash) that are beginning to appear in the market. Unlike on-line credit-payment systems, micropayment plans use the digital equivalent of cash. It's like getting money from an ATM: buyers withdraw "E-cash" from their checking or savings accounts for per-item purchases. Converting to this kind of payment scheme may prompt extensive design changes for existing businesses. Whereas most current erotica sites attract subscribers through services like mass downloading, a site built around micropayment technology, which could allow not only per-image but even per-second pricing, would encourage impulse purchasing and could open up the market to people who don't want to use credit systems on the Net or who aren't interested in buying subscriptions.
Other challenges are in store as well: possible changes in copyright law; the introduction of digital watermarking and other copyright-protection technology; significant increases in bandwidth; the development of high-end applications like 3-D video, touch feedback, and large-scale interactive simulations; and the prospect of stiffer government regulation.
Today's on-line erotica industry may not foretell the age of fully developed on-line commerce in every respect. For example, not every market sector will be as beholden to technological innovation or subject to so volatile a competitive climate. Still, the very scale of the industry's on-line presence offers a preview of what businesses might expect on the new playing field. It seems safe to predict that when the world's banking and investment sectors, say, reach a comparable threshold of Internet representation, they will have to contend with many of the pressures and contingencies that currently affect the erotica market. There's a lot more to those racy pictures than meets the eye.
Fred Hapgood is a freelance writer based in Boston.
Adult Education
Seven Lessons from On-Line Erotica
- Redesign your site regularly. If you don't, people assume you have nothing new to offer.
- Continually upgrade to ever-friendlier user interfaces and the latest generation of multimedia technology.
- Be your own access provider so that you can provide faster service. Speed is crucial.
- Promote yourself in news groups that cater to your industry.
- Distribute come-ons and giveaways to demonstrate the range of your retail services.
- Be innovative. Unique content matters less than innovative site organization and good information management. Consider, for example, periodic E-mail delivery to advertise search-engine updates.
- Design your site for the international market. Sites around the world are targeting your customers; you should be targeting theirs.
