HAMPSHIRE, England – Increasing adoption of streamed video and video-chat services, fuelled by a sharp rise in the adoption of 3G services, will push revenues derived from mobile adult services to nearly $3.5 billion by 2010, according to a new report from Juniper Research.“Mobile Adult: Subscriptions, Downloads, Video Chat & Text-Based Services 2007-2012” also predicts a significant proportion of new revenues will hail from the relatively underdeveloped North American markets, despite existing restrictions governing on-portal content.

“While operators in the U.S. and Canada are still very reluctant to introduce age-verification systems and offer adult content, it is a completely different story off-portal, with a number of service providers now offering [distributor-to-consumer] content and services aimed at those markets,” said Dr. Windsor Holden, author of the report. “Furthermore, as mobile subscribers become more comfortable and familiar with the off-portal environment, then the traffic to these sites is likely to mushroom.”

Holden and his team also discovered that while new legislation in markets like China and South Korea may depress growth in Asia, adoption in Eastern European markets is rising at a higher rate than previously anticipated. In part, that is due to the greater willingness of operators in the region to offer a wide variety of explicit, white-label content on-portal.

“While in most forms of mobile entertainment the brand is king, that truism does not apply in mobile adult content,” Holden said. “The most popular genre amongst consumers is graphic, amateur content. If operators truly wish to maximize their revenues from adult content, then they should provide consumers with a mix of genres in which white-label content is given equal prominence to that of major brands.”

The report also points out that Western Europe is expected to remain the largest regional market for mobile adult services throughout the period, with revenues rising from $775 million in 2007 to $1.5 billion by 2012. Global revenues from video-chat services are expected to rise from $138 million in 2007 to more than $1.5 billion by 2012. Even with those projections and the fact that users of adult services have demonstrated they are far less price-sensitive than consumers of other mobile entertainment services, the report cautions service providers not to over-price content.

The report was constructed by Juniper researchers based on interviews, case studies and analysis from representatives of some of the leading organizations in the growing mobile adult services industry. It and a related whitepaper are available from Juniper’s website at JuniperResearch.com.