Will
War Be Good or Bad for Business?
By Eric Ernest March 20, 2003
CHATSWORTH,
Calif.—With the Iraq conflict building to inevitable
fever pitch, many in the adult Internet community shared
their thoughts about how the effort to depose Saddam Hussein
will affect their businesses.
Whether
positively or negatively, respondents were asked how they
thought the predominately United States-led effort would
affect their economic bottom lines.
“At
this stage in the game it’s difficult to know how
the war in Iraq will affect my income, which is entirely
derived from self-employment as a writer and editor,”said
Theresa A. Reed, who is perhaps better known as the erotic
writer, artist, and Web mistress Darklady. “My intention
within this year is to expand that into teaching sexuality
and relationship enhancement workshops, as well.
“The
financial success of each of these ventures depends upon
the available capital of consumers purchasing services provided
by advertisers or coming to me directly - like the workshops
I host,”she said. “Publishing is always a risky
venture, so none of this should be news to me or anyone
who depends upon it for their livelihood.”
Greg
Salsburg of IVolt Networks cautioned observers of the conflict
that appearances aren’t always what they seem. “Sometimes
what we anticipate or perceive is in complete contrast to
the final outcome. Our intolerance for Saddam will lead
to war and how it will affect business is still uncertain,”
he said.
“However,Salsburg
added, “I suspect it will not have a large negative
effect since the sentence ‘This war has me not wanting
to look at naked women’ has never been uttered.”
Jay
Servidio, president and owner of Teleteria,
feels the impending conflict with Iraq will change our notions
of armed conflict.
The inevitable military aggression against Iraq will not
be a war as we know the definition of the word war. This
is going to be a slaughter worse then last time [the first
Persian Gulf War],he said.
Citing
numerous articles on the subject that exhaustively detail
the approach the U.S.-led assault will take, the New York
native said, “It will be a blazingly fast attack that
will be measured more in gigabytes than body count. The
first Iraqi division that tries to fight against our boys
will simply be wiped from the planet. Then, hopefully, the
rest will fall in line and surrender.”
“The
business that Teleteria.net
has invented and continues to thrive in will not be affected
negatively. On the contrary, our business is likely to continue
to go up. As more people from all walks of life begin to
realize that money is getting harder and harder to come
by, they will continue to contact Teleteria.net
to get them entry into one of the most profitable business
on earth,” Jay Servidio said.
“Our
customer base has always grown since we started the custom
turnkey adult Website business in 1994. In times of a sluggish
economy we grow stronger, because people who wouldn’t
think of getting into adult Internet businesses before are
now starting to question themselves.”
Jay
Servidio reinforced his opinion with the revelation that
an estimated 24 million Iraqis represent a sizable untapped
consumer market share. “Remember, inside every Iraqi
there is an American waiting to come out. So let’s
all get on the team and come on in for the big win,”he
said.
Similarly,
Eric J. White, the CEO of Virtual Reality Innovations Inc.,
said he feels the Iraq conflict can yield a valuable new
client base long after the hostilities have ceased. He forecast
the creation of “a new nation of customers that were
formally forbidden by law to access our goods and services.”
Past
economic trends have proven the adult industry is generally
resistant to war and political upheavals. Instead of the
possibility of short-term traffic reaching a plateau, White,
like many others, sees a gold mine.
“In
this case, I think the liberation of the Iraqi people and
the freedom to think for themselves will create a new customer
pool for everyone in the adult industry,”he said.
“What better way for these people to finally be able
to deal with their pent-up sexual frustration? When they
have freedoms like us, they’ll have access to the
World Wide Web and unfettered access to satisfy their sexual
urges.
“I
look forward to the increase of business. Free their minds;
their libidos will quickly rise to the occasion,”White
said.
A California-based
Web site designer known by the moniker ::MX:: offered a
more sobering view of the financial landscape. “The
upcoming liberation of the people of Iraq has definitely
put a dent in our business. Unemployment is up, gas prices
are shooting through the roof, and the stock market’s
still tanking!”
However,
the Scandinavian-born Web architect sees the thrifty attitudes
of adult Internet consumers easing up toward the end of
this year. “Once we’ve exterminated Hussein
and his followers, there will be a great chance that we
might see the light at the end of the tunnel,”::MX::
said.
Clearly
thinking ahead of the curve, Lord Austin, a Texas-based
Web designer recently created ArmedConflict.com. He didn’t
expect it to do as well as it has. In one week traffic grew
from about 100 hits a day to more than 100,000.
“In
the course of running my CreamAsia.com TGP, I get tons of
Asian hardcore galleries, which I just delete. CreamAsia
is soft Japanese AV idols only. One day I decided to go
ahead and use all that fucking hardcore freaky shit and
turned ArmedConflict.com into a hardcore Asian TGP,”Austin
said.
Reconfiguring
existing TGP content and adapting it to a timely niche has
resulted in the site generating a fair amount of revenue,
while still retaining its original style. “I like
to think of it as ‘Asian hardcore with an attitude,’”he
said.
I do
not think the war will hurt my business. War is always good
for the economy; more jobs and more spending is always good
for my business. I think our industry will profit from the
upcoming conflict, ”Austin said.
Jay
Servidio is President of Teleteria,
Inc., a company that has been building and hosting commercial
and adult custom Web sites since 1994. Teleteria's
clients are located all over the world.
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