Perhaps The Register's headline put it, uh... well, best: "Mobile Porn Market Set to Explode."
The "figures" from a new Juniper Research report, "Mobile Adult Content: Text, Images & Video, 2006-2011," were picked up by news outlets around the world. Stories involving pornography are like that. What always seems to surprise everyone is how much money it generates.
Juniper forecasts that the mobile adult content (read: porn) market will grow from $1.4 billion in 2006 to more than $3.3 billion by 2011.
Juniper analysts expect the most lucrative regional market over that period to be the already well-developed, and high-priced, European market, with the Asia-Pacific market running a close second.
From 2006 to 2011, Juniper estimates that mobile porn services will generate $14.5 billion in revenues, with Europe contributing 39% and Asia-Pacific 33%.
"Adult content business models have succeeded in other major delivery media: print, cinema, DVD, PPV TV, etc. There is no reason why the mobile channel should not be equally profitable for adult content industry players," said Bruce Gibson of Juniper. "The mobile channel will reach new audiences."
While the early mobile content market was focused on text-based services, the introduction of 3G mobile networks and handsets with enhanced video and graphics capabilities has opened up new content opportunities, and the growth of mobile content aimed at adults is merely one example.
As Mr. Gibson concluded, "Mobile is about fun and instant gratification. I think the biggest opportunity is at the casual and 'softer' end of the adult market — lads in pubs sharing a video clip after a few pints and people looking for a bit of fun when they have spare time to kill — not the hard core stuff."