Submitted by Mike Grenville on Thu, 10 Feb 2005 15:21

Mobile erotica service provider Cherrysauce has seen hits to its mobile adult content portal pass 1 million per month in the first months of 2005.

Additionally, around 12-15% of visitors are continuing on to paid services, as opposed to an average of 2-3% who do the same online.

The company attributes its success to date, to the high quality of its content and unique approach to its mobile concepts.

“There's absolutely no doubt that the figures we are seeing are due to the very high quality of the services we offer and the partners we work with,” says Julia Dimambro, the managing director of Cherry Media. “Everything Cherrysauce provides, from exclusive photoshoots through to video downloads and daily updates has been optimised from the ground up for mobile devices to ensure it's secure, simple to access and looks great on the handset.

"People are becoming more savy about how to use the mobile internet" says Dimambro. "Having Bango as our payment partner has helped give credability and confidence to our customers and has given us confidence about who has access to our content" she said.

"Over 40% of all mobile content sold is erotic" said Dimambro "but a lot of 'adult' content which is on the market today is still coming from sources not intended for mobile, and is launched without proper optimization or design. The key to success in this new market is understanding the mindset of the adult consumer, the capabilities of the mobile environment and ensuring value for money. ”

www.cherrysauce.com

Sales Growth Forcast

The report reveals that the majority of revenues will continue be derived from Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, although an increasing availability of services in the US will push North American mobile adult revenues past the US$400mn mark by the end of the decade.

Report author, Dr Windsor Holden, said, “At the present time, the size of the US market is extremely limited because customers are used to downloading content through the portal of their network operator, and the network operators are reluctant to offer adult content for fear of a regulatory or consumer backlash. But in the medium term, customers will become increasingly adept at browsing wireless internet sites operated by aggregators or other independent providers, with the result that overall revenues will show a significant increase.”

Dr Holden added that while the market will continue to be dominated by small businesses, the major adult publishers should begin to encroach on their market share from 2005.

“You’re also seeing an increasing level of convergence, with services such as ‘Naked News’ now available on PDAs and mobile handsets.”

Juniper