Comments on: Vodafone and Porn – It’ll end in Tears

By: Justin Mason

Justin Mason — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hmm, good post.

How do the Japanese operators do it? I hear there’s quite a lot of adult content over there, and their mobile content production industry is massive (for all types of content, not just porn in particular).

By: Benedict Evans

Benedict Evans — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The idea that porn inevitably involves abuse is as silly as the idea that everyone who has a beer every now and then will end up sniffing petrol under a bridge.

“drug addicts, prostitutes”…? Of course – no woman would willingly choose to go into porn. They must be forced! Who’s being naive here?

FYI, try looking at Yahoo or MSN’s European portals. Spot the porn topic, right next to business or sport? This is an absolutely standard business for any media company outside of the US and UK.

By: MostlyVowels

MostlyVowels — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Benedict Evans wrote:
“FYI, try looking at Yahoo or MSN’s European portals. Spot the porn topic, right next to business or sport? This is an absolutely standard business for any media company outside of the US and UK.”

URLs, please. I’ve made a quick browse through Yahoo’s, German, French and Italian portals, and through MSN’s German, Spanish and French portals. Purely for research purposes, mind you

Couldn’t find anything even remotely risky material, which would be expected as the portals are also supposed to be accessed by kids. I didn’t bother checking out Yahoo’s possibly promising DVD on-line shop selection, though.

Anyway, on MSN’s French portal, the topic “Femmes” led, as predicted, to fashion and cooking stuff.

On MSN’s Spanish portal, there’s a cute gal pic pointing towards — the horror! — “?ltimas tendencias en maquillaje” (latest trends in make-up)

Nothing untowards either in Yahoo Italy’s
* Societ? e culture/Amore/Lettere d’amore
* Societ? e culture/Amore/Poesie d’amore
These Italians can be such softies

As for the UK, the Sun’s paper version’s page 3 can be, um, interesting, though perhaps tame compared e.g. with Playboy stuff.

By: MostlyVowels

MostlyVowels — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

URLs, please. I’ve made a quick browse through Yahoo’s, German, French and Italian portals, and through MSN’s German, Spanish and French portals. Purely for research purposes, mind you

Anyway, on MSN’s French portal, the topic “Femmes” led, as predicted, to fashion and cooking stuff.

On MSN’s Spanish portal, there’s a cute gal pic pointing towards — the horror! — “?ltimas tendencias en maquillaje” (latest trends in make-up)

Nothing untowards either in Yahoo Italy’s
* Societ? e culture/Amore/Lettere d’amore
* Societ? e culture/Amore/Poesie d’amore
These Italians can be such softies

As for the UK, the Sun’s paper version’s page 3 can be, um, interesting, though perhaps tame compared e.g. with Playboy stuff.

By: Bernie Goldbach

Bernie Goldbach — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Voda needs to avoid the trap of content creation. They already facilitate titillating content in the form of “nip slips” and “thong spotting” that certain mobile channels offer now. Plus you can download celeb wallpaper to Nokias (i.e., Janet Jackson’s Superbowl slip and Courtney Love on a table) over Voda. That could mean the horse has bolted already and the news item is simply getting a public sounding before Voda starts marketing the adult themes themselves.

By: Tom Hume

Tom Hume — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Antoin

The approach you recommend Vodafone take (acting as a common carrier for third party content providers, and opening up their billing systems to them) is indeed the approach they are taking for all sorts of content (including adult), through Vodafone Live.

Tom