SYDNEY — An American sex industry operator believes the corporate market can learn a lot from the industry. “Mainstream business sites need instant traffic figures to show their investors,” Reuters recently reported. “We’ve got traffic, so we can direct it to struggling sites. But we also hope to ‘get in bed’ and start a relationship, so when these companies do bounce back, we can get involved in some sort of business together.”
Australian representatives aren’t convinced.
“Traffic is useful for mainstream business sites, but what they really need is profits,” Sergeant says, “and earning profits requires coherent and effective business strategies.”
Forming alliances with adult sites will be rare, because in most cases it will damage the brand. “Of course there may be a few that are overcome with enthusiasm, and are unable to resist the temptation.”
“Demands for filtering software are evidence of lack of tolerance amongst mainstream for this type of content,” he concludes, “and exposing children with this type of content is obviously very contentious.”
The sex industry, according to Patten, has undergone a number of shifts in the past year, which place them in good stead to remain profitable.
As with many other sites, the free model was funded through banner advertisements, and has subsequently failed.
The growth of third-party billing, which has increased in the past twelve months, allows small operators to develop ecommerce systems with minimum expenditure, she says.
Sergeant adds, the increase in micro-payments, under ten dollars, will also assist the industry.
As far as working with mainstream companies, Patten believes it will provide legitimacy to the business. She is quick to point out that Sharon Austen have a “very mainstream model. We’re not trying to offer the weirdest and wildest – we’d be quite happy to be linked to the Ninemsn portal. Working with mainstream companies is important in building confidence,” she suggests.