Telus Retreats from Porn
February 21, 2007 by Mark Evans
Filed under Business
Telus’ ambitious foray into the world of pornography has come to a premature end (terrible puns, I know!) The Vancouver-based wireless carrier had quietly launched a service where customers could download pornographic photographs to their phones for $3, and video porn for $4. To say the least, it was a controversial initiative despite the fact online porn is huge and lucrative business. I guess Telus was thinking porn was a high-margin way to boost ARPU – and in the wireless business, it’s all about ARPU. Telus, however, discovered while, in theory, porn downloads make for good business, it’s a long way from being accepted by consumers. After several hundred complaints, Telus has decided to stop the service. The questions that must be asked is: what was Telus thinking? Is ARPU that important that they were willing to embrace porn?
Technorati Tags: Pornography
Is a telco providing for-pay porn much different than a cableco providing on-demand porn? There is definitely adult content on Rogers On Demand.
How is Telco offering an on demand service for their phones different?
ARPU indeed. The very model they, and every other ISP in North America wants to apply to the internet. That’s the story behind the story.
I think it’s a little bit ARPU related, a little bit “let the porn subsidize the mainstream service development” and a whole lotta wireless-number-portability “lets get sticky now” strategy.
-jules
julies.ca
Telus left thousands of customers hungry and in search for new mobile porn; I just cannot believe people where paying $4 to download a video. Oh well, if Telus won’t provide the porn, other sites will http://www.tomshark.com