Ten years ago, nobody knew the word internet. Or, not many people did. Not enough to make a dent in the common lexicon, and certainly no one was spending money or using credit cards online. There was no online industry to speak of.Ten years ago, nobody knew the word internet. Or, not many people did. Not enough to make a dent in the common lexicon, and certainly no one was spending money or using credit cards online. There was no online industry to speak of. But, a few pioneers started that industry and watched it mushroom over the last decade. Today, pioneers are looking ahead to the mobile industry and the revenue-making potential of this untapped adult market.

The Mobile/Wireless/SMS seminar at this year’s winter Internext Expo convention provided some insight as to what’s already available across the pond on European phones, and what kind of potential exists for the developing North American mobile market. The panel was moderated by Katie Smith of www.3ob.com, and comprised of Lee Ali from Opera Telecom UK, Simon Pollack from One World Interactive, Harvey Kaplan from AEBN, and Paul Benoit from Python.

The opening presentation by Lee Ali explained briefly why mobile should be on everyone’s thoughts. Although ringtones dominated the mobile industry sales last year, the numbers projected for the adult mobile market by 2008 are upwards of $1 billion dollars, which would represent only 15% of the total revenue from wireless products, applications and services.

From the information provided by the panellists, it’s clear that the mobile industry is rapidly growing and has something to offer just about everyone.

For consumers, a variety of mobile services are currently available in both mainstream and adult, including information alerts, live 121 text chats, and downloads.

For webmasters, the mobile industry has started to offer mobile affiliate programs and turnkey customized mobile web and WAP sites. Some examples are: cellphonebucks.com, mobival.com, and mobilesexchannel.com.

Content providers should be looking at the mobile market for content delivery and billing platforms, content conversion platforms, CRM platforms, and turnkey customized web/WAP sites.

According to Ali’s presentation, there are four keys to success in the mobile industry: applications and content; billing; distribution; customer relations management.

The first must be unique, targeted content formatted for the maximum number of handsets… and easy to use and access. The second must support multiple billing options, such as premium SMS, e-wallets, domestic 900/premium rate, etc. For the third, multimedia promotion increases accessibility, visibility, and thus sales. Offline ads, in print or on TV, become mobile portals. And last, build an opt-in mobile customer database, using the database to cross-sell services, and increase customer loyalty by using recurring billing and/or a subscription model.

The future of mobile seems to be headed towards mobile video chat, live video with text chat, and pay-per-minute movies. Customers will be able to preview content before buying, and phones will come with pre-installed menus with functions and applications built in, creating instant customer loyalty.

The current problems with mobile lie mostly with the American carriers who flat-out refuse to carry any adult content whatsoever. But, as Paul Benoit mentioned, “The US carriers are not willing to carry adult yet, but they won’t be able to pass up the money for long.”

Ali agreed. “The biggest seller in ringtones last year was the orgasm ringtone.”

Simon Pollack talked about economies of scale. “Eventually the US carriers won’t be able to ignore the revenue stream and they will come around.”

Billing is the current hot topic for mobile in the states. Rather than using a credit card, consumers can make purchases using their phone, charging their phone bill rather than their credit card.

One of the important themes brought up and emphasized repeatedly by the panellists was the importance of doing clean, ethical business, and keeping the way open, rather than having the door close on the opportunity because of shady business practices like those the adult online industry has had to deal with.

The overall message reiterated by each of the panellists was simple: Spam is bad! Phone spam is worse!

Paul Benoit put it this way: “If we start with spam, the telcos will shut the door, and that will be the end of that. We have a chance to start the next wave, right now, hand in hand with the telcos.”

Pollack agreed. “Spam and shit will kill this industry before it starts. We need to focus on good quality of content.”

The audience addressed the panel with questions of image theft, wondering how to protect copyrighted images from being passed around from phone to phone. Since DRM technology isn’t up to par yet, the best thing to do is watermark images. There is no real way to prevent the images from being passed around yet, but, the panellists agreed, watermarking was the best way to capitalize on the image-sharing and to turn it into a viable viral marketing strategy.

Before closing the seminar, the panellists offered simple words of advice to the audience.

Simon Pollack: “There is an industry for you here in the US. It started in 2004, and it will explode in 2005. But, as we say, don’t spank the monkey yet.”

“This is a great time to test and experiment so that when it comes, you’ll be ready.”

Harvey Kaplan: “Geotargeting is key. We need to band together and work collectively to get content onto phones.”

Paul Benoit: “Start collecting now and building your database. But remember, if we screw this one, we’re gone.”

For more information on Internext Expo, please visit www.internext-expo.com.

SexyScribe is an Assistant Editor with YNOT. She can be reached at cyn@ynot.com.