HAMPSHIRE, U.K.-Demand for racy video will drive the mobile adult content market past the billion-dollar mark this year, according to a new report from Juniper Research.
The consultancy predicts the global market for adult-oriented mobile text, audio and video will increase by more than 50 percent this year, reaching $1.01 billion, and will top $2 billion by 2009. While small businesses will continue to dominate the market in the short-term, the report forecasted that major adult publishers will begin to dip their toes in the water of wireless this year.
Juniper predicts that while Europe and the Asia-Pacific region will continue to generate the majority of revenues in the space, an increasing availability of services in the United States will push North American revenues past $400 million by 2010. European users are currently the biggest spenders on mobile adult applications, spending an average of more than $34 a year for the content.
“At the present time, the size of the U.S. market is extremely limited because customers are used to downloading content through the portal of their network operator, and the network operators are reluctant to offer adult content for fear of a regulatory or consumer backlash,” said Dr. Windsor Holden, who authored the report. “But in the medium term, customers will become increasingly adept at browsing wireless Internet sites operated by aggregators or other independent providers, with the result that overall revenues will show a significant increase.”
