Mobile Porn Games Go Limp

[gonzo]

Thanks go out to Tech Digest (http://techdigest.tv/) for providing us with some industry statistics that we’ve missed. Orange_c550_2 Analysts Informa Telecoms & Media has just published its predictions for the future of mobile phone content sizing up how much the market will be worth in 2010.

[/URL]The market for erotic content for mobile devices is predicted to be worth $2.3bn by 2010, but realisation of this is highly dependent on mobile phone carriers and content providers working with regulators in order to determine solid controls and age verification procedures. Much of this depends on networks who seem to have an ambivalent attitude towards online adult entertainment. Overall Informa thinks adult entertainment on mobiles will be a lot smaller than has previously been thought.

There’s potential for growth in games which use other phone features (such as camera/GPS).

Mobile gambling to grow from US$1.2bn of annual revenues in 2005 to US$7.6bn by 2010, by which time there will be more than 200 million consumers gambling using their mobiles. Europe will be the big market with lotteries, online poker and basic casino games attracting the highest number of users.

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[JR]

i said that on gfy in that Mike Vega guys' "mobile porn is the next big thing" thread. first and foremost there is a massive problem with age verification, not to mention the fact that the telecom industry is probably the most regulated industry on the planet... combined with tiny/impractical screens, slow downloads etc etc. mobile phone companies would have to take steps to create a system to allow adult content where minors are protected. i don't really see that happening. in the US, i do see certain groups doing everything possible to get it shut down using that the argument that kids can download porn on their phones.

i can see video chat happening from user to user... where two consenting adults, do consenting adult stuff... but its still impractical and like someone mentioned, mobile content caters to the lowest common denominator (cheapest, shittiest phones), not the highest... just as it always has on the internet where so many poeple still have dialup and shitty connections, low screen resolution etc.

i personally dont think porn on a phone is ever going to be more than a novelty... and i think the idea of a legal and sanctioned future in the USA is questionable at best.

[gonzo]

A wise man said earlier this year.
"Mobile porn is nothing more than a bitrate."

[Jace]

how do they work age verification on sites like ohmobile?

[JR]

how do they work age verification on sites like ohmobile?

i just went through the process. they use mpush.com it looks like for content delivery and thats outside the US anyway. maybe thats one way domestic carriers are avoiding the "porn" issue... by having third parties deliver content the their subscribers phones which probably limits their liability if its minors viewing adult content.

i have been doing some mobile stuff and i am wondering a lot about all of this as well and very curious about the issues. i might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but i just can't see how this can work in the future. it seems to me that one simple CNN story about 5th grade kids watching porn on their mobile phone in class is all it will take to spark furious debates and new legislation and it can be over in the blink of an eye. but then again, if a third party is supplying the content and the carrier has no direct liability for the content delivered to that subscribers phone (as an ISP has no liability for what you view/buy online) then maybe i am wrong. seems that the mobile industry being as regulated as it is, is very vulnerable to a simple legislative act to shut it down.

[Hammer]

The best way to go is non-nude with SMS billing and those sites convert like gangbusters. The chat is hot too.