Telus Retreats from Porn
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
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Technology
5 opinions for Telus Retreats from Porn
Montreal Gazette
Feb 22, 2007 at 2:24 am
[…] very well.Mark Evans has an interesting take on it. Link to this | E-mail this | Digg this | Post to del.icio.us Published Wednesday, February 21, 2007 3:54 PM by Roberto Rocha Filed under:telecom […]
Rob Drimmie
Feb 22, 2007 at 2:33 am
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?
Mark Wells
Feb 22, 2007 at 10:27 am
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.
jules
Feb 22, 2007 at 6:04 pm
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
Tom
Aug 2, 2007 at 8:14 pm
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
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: