Keeping on the pulse and ‘in the mix’ is now more crucial than ever before as we are distancing and ‘locking-down’ in our neighborhoods. In an attempt to re-live the feeling of a crowded conference venue bar. Lukas Taylor, leading Sales & Partnerships for DigiRegs co-hosted a virtual gay forum called ‘Protection and Prediction’ over Zoom, on Thursday 23^rd July at 9am PT, in collaboration with a Payments and Data Partner.

Let’s face it, we are all missing the networking, drinks, and social aspects of the canceled or driven virtual adult industry conferences globally. What better way to see some familiar faces, chat, and share insights on the last 4 months than host a Gay Zoom group!

The virtual red carpet included the popular names in gay porn, many of whom are clients of DigiRegs, including NakedSword, Male Revenue, Halfway House, Mr. Man, KristenBjorn, CockyBoys, and Belami.

On entry to the zoom, guests were sat in a ‘waiting room’ then assigned into groups. This approach allows for easier management of the audience and any polls, commentary, or infographics shared are funneled via each group.

Lukas Taylor of DigiRegs commented “the objective of the first ‘Prediction and Protection’ Virtual event was to gather peers from the Gay and LGBTQ side of adult entertainment in a fireside like gathering. We then wanted to share insightful and valuable data, like COVID-19 statistics using key adult pay-site metrics, to understanding the impact on piracy and how to position/prepare for what is to come.

Somewhat predictable yet positive results presented during the meetup were based on the aggregated data insights for Europe, USA, and Asia comparing Post-lockdown stages Vs Pre-lockdown.

The aftermath of lockdown showing the inverse with traffic surging to 25%, conversion remained flat, ‘members net change’ (how many new users Vs how many people have expired/left) at a high of +45%, this reflects that people were hanging onto their memberships, with fewer people canceling. This was 10 days before and 10 days after a lockdown in Italy. 40 days into lockdown Italy saw traffic maintain at 20% up and conversion remain steady.

As Italy began to re-open and people began to move around and consume, traffic moved up by 16% with conversion dropping by 18%; showing more browsers with fewer buyers. The net member change was still positive at 16%, again indicating people are hanging onto their subscriptions. Cancellations dropped by 13%, a surprisingly good figure. On July 23rd as Italy continued to reopen traffic fell by 9%, conversions are down 11%, and the ‘net member change’ is down 9%. Consistent with people out and about, and summer vibes.

Flying over to Spain, on March 14th the country went into a severe lockdown. Ten days into lockdown traffic was up 25%, conversions up 25% showing a huge compounding positive effect which reflected the net member change surging to +326%. 40 days in Spain showed traffic was still up at 22%, conversion maintaining at 22%. June 23rd saw movement with traffic up 23%, conversion dropped to -26%, with members net stayed flat, cancellations still down at minus 10%. By July 23rd traffic was flat, conversion flat, net members up at 10%, and cancellations still down at +5%.

Heading home to the USA, March 20th lockdowns began to commence state by state, traffic remained flat, conversions up 7%. 40 days in, traffic is up 25% and conversion is up 25%.

June 23rd traffic is down 7%, conversion flat, and net member down 8%. Over the last month across the USA, as the states began to re-open, traffic has remained flat, conversion moved slightly up at 6%, and net member change up at 14%, again reflecting lower cancellation of subscriptions.

Now with all this activity in the world of subscription-based revenue, try to imagine the impact this has had on content piracy, downloads, and illegal, free content proliferating the internet. The team at DigiRegs mission day in, day out to collectively combat piracy on behalf of their clients and the industry as a whole, and were not surprised by the spikes and lulls.

Andy Fair, Business Manager at NakedSword, was interviewed by Lukas Taylor in a candid chat to name and shame piracy tube sites they deplore most. Andy went on to mention icegay.tv as number one offender and remarks their responses are ‘ingenious’, showcasing how many piracy hubs attempt to escape legal repercussions and any removal of pirated material. Andy also went to mention the contradictory practice of advertising on tube piracy sites, with major adult brands we all know actively running campaigns on these tube sites. However, in some cases such partnerships can be symbiotic, providing both parties with benefits that outweigh the costs and allowing them to work together in an otherwise inhospitable environment, and this being almost a necessary evil in some situations.

“Participating in the Name and Shame Q&A was fun and insightful. The breakout rooms are a great idea for networking and discussing topics in real-time as they come up. I’m looking forward to even more during the next event.” said Andy Fair when surveyed post-event.

The impact of COVID-19 has had a profound effect on piracy globally. The consumption of pirated streaming content doubled in 2 months. Italy showed a whopping 66% increase in piracy, the UK at 43%, and the USA at a 41% increase. Around 10% of these numbers are first time offenders. Visits to privacy sites in the USA hit a massive 1.1 billion visits in March 2020, Russia not far behind at 727 million, the United Kingdom at 300 million, and Canada at 285 million visits in March alone.

Piracy infringements have seen massive spikes as our world changes before us.

After sharing the staggering statistics with the audience, Lukas Taylor iterated a message for all adult entertainment production studios and performers to consider using all tools available to them to ensure they are one step ahead of the fast-moving piracy environment. Using systems such as trademark and brand metadata detection, forensic watermarking, digital fingerprinting, and SEO management tools are just some of the approaches that can be taken to protect your content and help you grow your brands within an ever-changing landscape. “We must act as an industry and collectively work on containing it, mitigating it, and working together to minimize the damage being caused. We must look to the future of our industry.” he commented.

Phil Henricks, Marketing Director at MrMan commented that “It’s always incredibly valuable to get a baseline of how other businesses in our space are performing. I also thoroughly enjoyed the interactive bits such as the live survey, very engaging, and very valuable”.

Overall, the pandemic period has been devastating to many people and for global economies. However, if viewed with an eCommerce lens the effects have been very positive for subscription-based adult businesses and retail alike for the moment. We have never seen such a major global shift in our lifetime, and the key will be to adapt and work together. A final message to keep safe, stay strong, and focused during this surreal time in our world. Remember to safeguard your brand and show you care by acting on piracy; engage a service provider like DigiRegs to help you protect the content that you work so hard to create.

Please contact Lukas Taylor at DigiRegs to enquire about content protection, brand management, SEO optimization, and much more.

EMAIL: Lukas@digiregs.net