Why Mobile Commerce May never be a Viable Business

December 31st, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

Why Mobile Commerce May never be a Viable BusinessNew technologies will come and go, and while the first to market may not always succeed, those who follow will often learn from the original founders of such an industry and pick up those pieces and thrive. Take the case of Webvan, over a billion dollars spent and lost and yet today FreshDirect flourishes. It’s not only commonplace, but expected, so taking that into mind one would assume that it’s only a matter of time before Mobile Commerce takes flight. While over the past five years countless companies have tried and failed, someone is bound to figure out the right business model or maybe this is just one that will have to bite the dust.

Like it or not, commerce itself was built on pornography. While its roots were based on the concept of a communications network with no single point of failure, things quickly changed long too long after that. Before PayPal was X.Com or even a thought in anyone’s mind, iBill cornered the billing market in adult credit card payments. Years before YouTube existed, adult streaming feeds were pushing their way into the homes of millions of Americans. Even before Digg, Persian Kitty changed the way people searched for high quality free adult pictures. While it’s often the subject no one wants to talk about, a lot of money and innovation goes into pornography that often yields huge benefits to those who come next.

Surprisingly, this may in fact lead into why Mobile commerce just doesn’t work no matter how you spin it. Can you imagine watching porn on a 2 inch by 2 inch screen? Also, porn is often enjoyed in one’s home whereas why would anyone choose a 2 inch screen versus the many other options in their home? Fact is, they simply won’t. So many companies continue to try and figure out what’s wrong with this picture, but until they realize that the average guy just isn’t going to waste his time buying porn on his phone, then it’s just not going to work.

Here’s an idea, if you could covertly charge purchases to your phone without the wife or girlfriend knowing about it and then taking advantage of the sweets on your computer, then that may in fact be a viable alternative. I hear Europe is trying to take that market, but those outside of America have often been years ahead in porn, sorry Mr. Hefner. *

* Hugh, if you are reading this please don’t ban me from that mansion, that comment was meant out of respect, you do great work, I read EVERY article.

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There Are 8 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Johnny2008 on 3 January 2008:

    Well while the adult industry might not boom in mobile commerce other things still have potential. Music and games will still attract customers, and maybe even educational services such as live tutoring and such will be available on mobile platforms. And yes it’s not the best for consumers with phones with small screens, but someone with a sidekick or iPhone might want to try out some sort of service like that as their screen would be quite useful for such a thing.

  2. Comment by Fendy on 25 January 2008:

    Hahahahahahah… ROFL. the internet boomed because of adult pornography, seriously? But i like what this guy johnny2008 said - about the music, games and probably tutoring. It’s like having some books on the go, except that we didn’t have to bring the heavy stuff around.

  3. Comment by Strom crow on 26 January 2008:

    Mobile phones are not only for watching adult movies or pictures it is used for many other purposes. It is used as pocket manager.

  4. Comment by aubs on 2 February 2008:

    Interesting, I never knew that the internet boomed because of adult pornography. And also that is started on the phone.

  5. Comment by benz on 2 February 2008:

    Definitely there are more handphone users than PC users. Getting a good business with handphone users is a profitable business given its wide market.

  6. Comment by pcking on 11 February 2008:

    Mobile commerce,
    lets say, can be used for things in the future as everyone is going ceullar so dont give up on this yet!

  7. Comment by swap on 24 February 2008:

    I didnt knew internet boomed because of adult pornography.

    I agree that mobile commerce can never be a viable business. I just had a experience with giftmate which is just launched in my country and can be used for making online payment. The process is so complicated that half of my friends gave up even when they where offer money for inital signup.

  8. Comment by Ultra on 2 September 2009:

    Wow… what’s up with the guys not knowing the Internet boomed because of the adult industry. Are you guys 15yrs old? There was so much money going to adult entertainment they could afford to develop new technologies, such as online payment, and streaming video. They were the 1st ones to actually make money on the Internet, while other business had no CLUE on what the Internet was and just had landing pages with info doing no more than a page in the phonebook would do. Do some homework, you are on the Internet you know.

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