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Report: $400 Million Mobile Porn Market to Grow to $5 Billion in 2010

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 17, 2005 - 10:37am.
Boston -- Adult entertainment services for mobile phones will face challenges in the short-term, generating just $400 million worldwide in 2004, before growing to a $5 billion market by 2010, according to a report from Boston-based market research firm Strategy Analytics. Despite the greater availability of advanced handsets, and the recent launch of services from pornographers including Playboy and Private Media, Web-based porn will continue to dominate the market. "Adult services are not a killer application in waiting. With so much free pornography available on the fixed Internet, and mobility conferring only limited advantages to adult content, we believe that demand for adult material will continue to be largely met by fixed Internet services," said Strategy Analytics senior analyst Nitesh Patel. The firm did, however, upgrade its mobile adult entertainment outlook, from an earlier projection of $1 billion in 2008 -- based on stronger evidence of consumer demand and advances in carrier technologies.
tags: Deals | VC | Reports | Mobile Porn Market |

Illinois, Alabama Lawmakers Approve Bans on Sale of Violent Games to Minors

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 17, 2005 - 10:33am.
Springfield, Ill. -- Illinois state lawmakers have approved a bill that would ban the sale of violent video games to minors in the state, with the Illinois House voting 91-19 in favor of the legislation. The bill will now move to the state Senate. Meanwhile, a similar bill to ban violent game sales to minors passed on Wednesday in the Alabama House of Representatives. Courts have routinely struck down similar video game sales bans on First Amendment grounds in the city of Indianapolis, St. Louis County, Missouri and the state of Washington.
tags: Law | Bans | Illinois | Alabama Lawmakers | Violent Games to Minors |

Apple Seeks Share of Revenues from "Official" iPod Accessories

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 17, 2005 - 10:29am.
San Francisco -- Apple is seeking a share of the revenue that third-parties are making off of accessories for its iPod digital music player, CNET News.com reported. The company announced in January its "Made for iPod" program, wherein Apple would provide a special logo and endorsement for official iPod accessories, in return for 10% of wholesale pricing, people familiar with the situation told News.com. The program would not apply to cases and protective covers for the iPod, but would cover accessories that feature an electrical connection to the iPod, such as portable speakers or FM transmitters. "With more than 400 iPod accessories on the market and growing, the Made for iPod logo program is designed to help consumers choose iPod accessories that work properly with their iPods, and also provide participating iPod accessory makers with guidelines and technical specifications to develop their products," Apple said in a statement.
tags: Deals | Apple | Official | iPod Accessories |

Snocap Licenses Independent Labels for File-Sharing Song ID Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 17, 2005 - 10:26am.
San Francisco -- Snocap, the digital music licensing and copyright management firm founded by Napster inventor Shawn Fanning, announced on Thursday that it has signed agreements with a number of independent labels and aggregators, to include their music catalogs in Snocap's database of songs authorized for purchase on peer-to-peer networks. Labels including TVT Records, Absolutely Kosher, Artemis, Gammon, Nacional, Nettwerk and OM Records have committed to Snocap; in addition, independent music aggregator Independent Online Distribution Alliance will offer 75,000 tracks from 500 labels for Snocap's database. Major labels Sony BMG and Universal have also provided their catalogs to San Francisco-based Snocap, which the company says will allow them to securely distribute their songs on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. Using acoustic fingerprinting, Snocap will identify songs being traded on peer-to-peer networks, and enable labels to sell authorized, protected versions of their tracks. A company called Mashboxx plans to launch a peer-to-peer file-sharing network using Snocap's technology later this year.
tags: Music | Snocap | Independent Labels | File-Sharing Song ID Service |

Report: U.K. Online Casino 888.com Planning IPO This Year

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 17, 2005 - 10:24am.
London -- According to a report by Reuters, online casino 888.com is planning an initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market (AIM) later this year. Quoting unnamed sources close to the company, Reuters said Cassava Enterprises --- 888.com's Gibraltar-based parent company -- had already hired Credit Suisse First Boston to prepare an IPO that would value 888.com at about $1.6 billion. Industry experts have long tipped the online casino to cash in on the booming U.K. Internet poker market. A recent study conducted by 888.com found that the total number of people gambling over the Internet in the U.K. has increased by more than six times over the last 12 months. What's more, the survey of more than 2,700 people also found a remarkable 566% increase in the amount of money staked online since the end of 2003. Neither Cassava nor CSFB has commented on the Reuters report.
tags: Internet | IPO | Reports | U.K | Online Casino | 888.com |

Dutch Content-Protection Firm Irdeto Buys LockStream

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 17, 2005 - 10:20am.
Amsterdam -- Irdeto Access, a provider of content protection technologies for digital video and IP networks, announced on Thursday that it has acquired LockStream Corp., a Seattle-based mobile digital rights management (DRM) firm. Irdeto is a unit of Dutch media group Naspers. "LockStream is a great addition to the Irdeto Access content protection portfolio for digital TV, IPTV and mobile networks," said Irdeto CEO Graham Kill. "With this acquisition, Irdeto Access gains leading-edge products which are already deployed in real applications, and a top-notch team to drive us towards our objective of leading the mobile content protection market." Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
tags: Deals | Dutch | Irdeto | Content-Protection Firm | LockStream |

Microsoft to Launch Paid Search Ads to Compete with Google, Yahoo

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 17, 2005 - 2:43am.
Redmond, Wash. -- Microsoft plans to launch its own paid search advertising service, to compete in the lucrative market dominated by Google and Yahoo, which currently provides paid search ads for MSN Search. The service will provide advertisers with non-personally-identifiable information on users of its search engine, such as gender, age and location -- gathered from tracking users of Microsoft's Hotmail and other online services. Microsoft will test its new adCenter service in Singapore and France, in tandem with Yahoo's service, over the next six months. The company's contract with Yahoo to provide paid search listings for MSN Search is due to expire in June 2006, but MSN corporate vice president Yusuf Mehdi told the Associated Press it is too early to say if its service will launch in the U.S. before that date.
tags: Microsoft | Yahoo | Google | Compete | Paid Search Ads |

2009 U.S. Ringtone Market to Hit $724 Million, Mobile Games $430 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 17, 2005 - 2:39am.
New York -- U.S. revenues from mobile phone ringtones, which were $91 million in 2003 and $217 million in 2004, will reach $724 million in 2009, according to New York-based market research firm JupiterResearch. Additionally, the report forecasts that mobile games revenues were $24 million in 2003 and $72 million in 2004, and are projected to reach $430 million in 2009. Even so, JupiterResearch said, ringtones and games made up just 10% of carriers' non-access data revenue in 2004, mostly due to the fact that advanced handsets capable of downloading such features do not yet have wide market penetration. "During the next five years, the mix of data services will evolve, but messaging will still account for 65% of non-voice, non-data access revenues," said JupiterResearch research director Julie Ask. The firm also predicts that ringtones will remain the largest revenue stream in the premium content category, but will not dominate to the degree they have in recent years.
tags: Deals | Mobile Games | VC | U.S. Ringtone Market |