Page 39 - AVN March 2017

FEATURE
Hymes, meanwhile, said the cannabis industry is “a monster.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it. In adult whoever has the best programmer
wins; in cannabis whoever has the best chemist wins,” Hymes continued. “It’s still
an immature industry. There aren’t established relationships between retailers and
vendors. But there are extremely sophisticated black market ones.”
Mike Ackerman, whose Actually Helping is among the first payment processors
for companies and stores in the legal marijuana industry, has already signed on to
provide billing services for several major brands in cannabis. He predicted before
the end of Donald Trump’s first term that marijuana would be medically legal
everywhere and recreationally legal for “half of the US.”
The mobile seminar featured an all-star group headed by Joey Gabra, managing
director of mobile billing specialist Affil4you, with panelists that included Ovidiu
Necula (AuroraGlobal), Christoph Hermes (SaltyMobile), David Vince (Exoclick),
Andy Wullmer (SexGoesMobile) and Yannick Ferreri (PornDoe).
The group noted there is “very little existing fraud” with mobile billing.
“Mobile is changing all the time,” said Vince, the senior publisher account
manager for Exoclick. “It’s important to keep up with what’s going on. Carrier
billing is changing all the time. Things can change overnight.”
The live cams panel included remarks from Shirley Lara (Chaturbate), Shay
Efron (ImLive), Yuval Kijel (Streamate), Jeff Wilson (Flirt4Free), Jim Austin
(Stripchat) and Alex Lecomte (JuicyAds), who moderated the group.
This group also agreed mobile represents the future. “Mobile rocks. Everything
we do is mobile first for a few years,” Efron said. Kijel added, “It’s a blessing for
all of us. It expanded the exposure for cams. … Our 2017 is focused entirely on
mobile, bringing new developments for our affiliates, for our models and obviously
for users. It could be features. It could be applications.”
Meanwhile the billing panel brought out resident experts such as Gary Jackson
(CCBill), Frank Gannon (Epoch), Jeffrey Rosenweig (SegPay), Jonathan Corona
(Mobius Payments), Wendy Nelson (Netbilling), Karen Campbell (OrbitalPay) and
Mike Ackerman (Actually Helping) for a thorough discussion on understanding
the numerous options for billing.
The State of the Industry panel highlighted the final day of Internext as some of
the top executives in adult entertainment took the seminar stage.
In a spirited discussion moderated by MojoHost CEO Brad Mitchell, the
panelists shared insights about how they’re running their businesses and adjusting
to the changing digital landscape.
“We’re a technology company, and one thing I can say is invest in your
programming people,” said Ron Cadwell, the founder and CEO of CWIE Holding
Company, Inc., the parent company for CCBill and Cavecreek Webhosting, among
other blue-chip firms.
Cadwell emphasized how hard it is to find and retain quality talent and that
when you do, it’s important to make the investment in their future. He was joined
by Shirley Lara, co-founder and COO of Chaturbate; Cathy Beardsley, president
and owner of SegPay; Steven Winyard, main board director and VP for ICM
Registry; Jonathan Buckheit, CEO of FriendFinderNetworks; and Shay Efron, VP
of sales, marketing and business development for PussyCash/ImLive.
Lara said many market indicators point to a continued surge in live cams and
that the sector isn’t oversaturated.
“I feel for us in particular with Chaturbate we look at what’s going on with
mainstream. And let’s look at what’s going on,” Lara told the audience.
Regarding all the different types of social media, Lara said, “All of those tentacles
lead to live cams. What’s really good about that is millennials—they really are
the driving force. … Millennials are used to turning on their cell phones, doing
Snapchat, Periscope, broadcasting live. That kind of funnels into the next step of
cams.”
AdultFriendFinder’s Jonathan Buckheit revealed that “one innovation you’ll see
from us later this year is integrating cams with dating. I agree with Shirley that’s
it’s growing.”
The annual legal panel featured heavyweight attorneys Lawrence Walters, Corey
Silverstein, J.D. Obenberger and Ben Davidson discussing everything from the
likelihood of the Trump administration to target adult to patent trolls.
The general consensus was it’s unclear how much Trump’s Justice Department
will zero in on porn-related prosecutions, but one thing is certain: they have larger
concerns than the adult biz.
“It’s only when we screw up and don’t pay attention that they’re forced to step
in,” Silverstein said.
Davidson pointed out that “the only thing Democrats and Republicans can agree
on is patent law” and making it easier “to defend against patent trolls.”
Silverstein responded to one audience member’s question about whether it’s
necessary to film porn models signing 2257 documents and giving their consent to
sex scenes.
INTERNEXT 2017
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