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Virgin's new service will allow users on any UK network to send as many as five anonymous messages to phone users who match their profile. Virgin has formed a small division to look after the new service called VirginXtras. While the new service is designed for adults, the company says it is not planning to launch pornographic services. It is thought that the UK-based mobile virtual network operator's services will be fun and playful, as opposed to the racier side of the market.
However, such is not the case with other operators. Last year it was revealed that Hutchison 3G was planning to offer video pornography with its mobile phone service, due to launch later this year in the UK.
There is little doubt of the potential for the wireless adult content market. Virgin's research into the launch of its new services claims that 40 percent of women say they would consider using text messages to request sex. Meanwhile, the mobile adult content market as a whole is forecast to be worth as much as EUR2 billion by 2006.
With the on-line adult content industry worth as much as USD1 billion currently, according to research from Forrester, and the higher-speeds of new mobile phone networks, the movement of adult Internet sites to the wireless Web seems unavoidable. Moreover as devices improve and handheld units allow for better, colour images and quick download times, the difference between adult content in the wireless space and in the wired Internet will become less noticeable.
A recent report by Jupiter MMXI says that by 2006 European consumers will spend EUR3.3 billion for content on their mobile phones, compared to EUR1.7 billion on their PCs. In that report the research company said that adult content is currently the only type of on-line business that generates significant income from paid content, comprising 70 percent of the EUR252 million spent on content by Western European Internet users in 2001. "Users are reluctant to pay for most kinds of content on the Internet, except adult content," commented Olivier Beauvillain, analyst with Jupiter MMXI, in an interview with ElectricNews.Net earlier this month.
A recent study by Merrill Lynch said that the number of worldwide wireless Internet users will surpass the number of wireline Internet users before 2004, and in that time it seems unlikely that demand for pornography will diminish.
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