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BT DOTCOM: COVER STORY Porn to be wild Porn could well be the most successful B2C business online. By Ashutosh Sinha
There is a seamier, albeit more successful, B2C story in the Indian context that hasn't been written about yet. It has to do with that three-letter word that makes the net, and the world, go around: sex, not MP3, though the latter does come a close second. At the outset, this correspondent would like to declare that this story was prompted, not by the exigencies of prurience, but the desire to write about a genre of online business that is, surprise, surprise, making money. Put simply pop (Plenty Of Porn) is the smoothest P2P (Path to Profitability).
Most sites rely on content that is either sourced locally in India or pirated from international sites. Ergo, the content comes free, or costs little. The bulk of it, as Amit Kumar, a code-jock at one of the country's software biggies and a self-confessed online porn junkie, terms it, ''ranges from the bad to the very bad in terms of quality.'' That it is, but quality, or the lack of it, doesn't reduce the efficacy of any of the four business models these online providers of porn leverage. BTdot.com takes a look at all four from a uniquely Indian perspective.
POP P2P# 1: Everyone knows the subscription model doesn't work for online content. As Mohanbir Sawhney, a professor of e-commerce at the Kellogg School-he starts with the admission that he knows little about the business of porn-says: '' It is very difficult to make a subscription-based revenue model work unless you have a well-known brand name.'' That's impossible in the Indian context: a porn site cannot advertise in mainstream print or electronic media without running afoul of Sections 292 (circulation and publication of pornographic material) and 109 (abetment) of the Indian Penal Code. Besides, most India-centric porn sites are based abroad and the subscription involves a foreign exchange transaction using a global credit card- something not many Indians are comfortable with. And at least one credit card company, Amex, has decided not to let its card be used for transactions on porn sites. Not out of any misplaced sense of morality, but because such transactions are often disputed (See The Credit Card Perspective). Pop P2P# 2: Relationships with other porn sites, Indian as well as global, is perhaps the easiest way to make money. Here's how it works: A.com agrees to feature a link to porn site B on its own website. In return, B features a link of A on its site. And for every user who travels through A to B, and then signs up with B for say, 'cheerleader pics in your mailbox,' B pays A a certain amount (the international norm is between $1 and $2). The typical Indian porn site is big on alliances. Thus CreamofIndia.com, offers links to other India-centric sites like Indiapornlords.com, Indianpleasure.com, and NudeIndiapak.com, as well as international sites like Cumforporno.com, Seductivenudewomen.com, and Allbustybabes.com.
Pop P2P# 3: Welcome to the biggest scam online. Several India-centric porn sites do not charge customers a subscription fee. Instead, they limit their access to those who have user names and passwords provided by a specific Adult Verification Service (AVS). These services, like Net Verifier, Adult Check, and Age Check, offer customers a user name and password (supposedly to let the site know that these customers are adults) in return for an annual fee that could range from $10 to $50. And every porn site that insists on a particular AVS is eligible for a percentage of this amount. For porn sites, this model promises a steady source of revenue without having to maintain a transaction interface themselves. India-centric porn sites like Indiapornlords.com, Cherrycanyon.com, and All-host.com, follow this approach. Pop P2P# 4: Some Indian porn sites offer customers exclusive content through downloadable .exe files. When the customer activates the file, it instructs the modem to make an international call through the customer's telephone, and the content is streamed down the lines. These sites work the same way phone-sex sites do: the telecom company in the country where they are based shares a portion of the revenue accruing to it through calls directed at the site. This, of course, precludes the possibility of them being located in India. Who Are They? Most Indian porn sites are run by shadowy non-resident Indians (NRIs) who prefer to stay away from the limelight: they ducked this correspondent's countless e-mails and phone calls. However, although most promoters of such sites are based abroad, and most sites hosted there, a few do have some sort of presence in India. This, though, invariably takes the form of a content-sourcing outfit that scrapes around for any porn it can gather locally. Today, the majority of the (paying) customers of Indian porn sites is drawn from Indians living outside India. However, if the entrepreneurs behind these sites can figure out a way to overcome the transaction and the regulatory issues involved, there is a huge market waiting to be tapped. As the head of a national-level ISP confides: ''Almost 70 per cent of the traffic that passes through our gateways is adult in nature.'' Oops! |
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It isn't hard to come across Indian porn
sites on the www. With names like Indianbabes.com, Indianerotica.com, and
NakedIndia.com, they make no effort to mask the nature of their content.
Without exception, all sites are hosted out of the Far-East, the US, or
the UK. Some of them have even managed to tap the Indian diaspora for
content. Thus porn stars like Chandini and Bhavana, the Indian equivalents
of the likes of Sylvia Saint and Tera Patrick, are based, not in India,
but the UK or Canada.