Despite the economic downturn, Juniper Research forecasts that mobile adult market will reach $4.9 billion by 2013, driven by video chat services.
The report titled “Mobile Adult: Subscriptions, Downloads, Video Chat & Text-Based Services 2008-2013 (Fifth Edition)” found that although such services were utilised by a comparatively small number of users, the high spend levels in many markets are expected to push the value of the adult video chat market past the $1 billion mark by 2011.
Report author Dr Windsor Holden anticipates to see total revenues for 2008 be around $2.2 billion, which is around 3.5% bellow Juniper’s previous forecasts. “And while in some instances usage levels are marginally lower than we expected, we are actually seeing significantly higher spend per user on video chat and on some subscription-based services,” he added.
However, the report also noted that a number of markets such as Indonesia and Switzerland had tightened the laws governing the access of adult content, while U.S. operators still remained wary of offering such content on their portals. Nonetheless, operators in Europe and parts of Latin America offer on-portal adult content that is usually managed by third-parties.
Other findings from the Juniper report include:
- Western Europe will remain the largest regional market for mobile adult services throughout the period covered by the report, followed by the Far East and China.
- Premium content providers are becoming increasingly concerned at the volume of free adult content available via the Internet.
Whitepapers and further details of Juniper’s study are available from their website.