Wow Huge move for Porn.com. Thoughts?
 

Not sure if this has been mentioned here yet. I like to watch trends and study moves by other companies. I have to say I've seen this in the works and have thought a lot about it just haven't had the data or the balls to do it myself. It will be very interesting to see how this goes. Let me know your thoughts on it?

http://www.xbiz.com/news/127943
Porn.com Announces New Pricing Structure
LOS ANGELES ? Porn.com has announced its expanding its market share by focusing on technological quality and lower price-point marketing.

The company said the new price structure matches similar moves by mainstream media providers to a price less than $10 per month and ushers in a significant shift in marketing strategy.

"We have tested a variety of pricing structures and watched closely as many mainstream providers like Netflix and network television studios have moved in the same direction," said David K of Porn.com.

"The new lower prices appeal to a consumer market that knows it can obtain content illegally for free but hungers for higher quality at a reasonable price that doesn't detract form the overall viewing experience.

"Put simply, if a customer is regretting a purchase price while watching a video, they are unable to enjoy the video and unlikely to remain a customer. We want every Porn.com client to feel they are getting the best possible price on the most amazing content collection available anywhere online... because it's the truth."

The company said that full access to videos, pornstars and networked paysites is now priced at $9.95 per month.

The company added the collection includes exclusive content, multiple viewing formats, full download options and ActiveSync streaming technology that allows vieweres to get a fully-optimized video stream.

The new join-page pricing on Porn.com also includes monthly access without any rebills at a price point of $14.95.

Already a thread on the main page discussing this.

I think this is def a smart move....

Personally, I think they saw the thread discussing this the other day, thought brilliant idea and rushed out a press release today to make it look like they've been evaluating this for some time.

I bet it is a rash move.

www.Fundorado.de has become the biggest german porn site this way

I searched for porn.com saw nothing so i posted. I don't read gfy so didn't know. My bad

looking at porn.com tour they don't promote new price at all and surfer wouldn't see price point until sign-up.

compare to http://www.netflix.ca/Default?autoRedirected=1

porn.com looks like generic porn site tour benefits not really spelled out.

REally? very interesting

well it isn't new, that much is certain.

Adult.com did $9.95 sites a loooooooong time ago. :2 cents:

wow 2 typos? unbeleivable... I make them all the time but not in electronic magazines

I wonder is that avail for affiliate promotion and if so on what terms with this new pricing point?

Actually this pricing has been live for over 45 days on the type in version of the tour.

We also have a very successful non-affiliate site: www.watchporn.com that we have been testing even longer.

Review sites like www.thebestporn.com have been using our $9.95 monthly option for YEARS.

Keep dragging your feet guys. It is almost 2011.

:pimp

there's a typo in your post about typos. :2 cents:

yes but biggest diffrence is the quality in this case :2 cents:

another nail in the coffin of the affiliate side of the industry.

i don't believe cutting prices in half or less will result in twice the sales.

i'd rather try a la carte pricing micro payments like itunes rather than lowering the monthly subscription price.

spell check didn't pick it up AND I did state that i do 'produce' typos :thumbsup

the issue with micro payments is the billing structure I think... after affiliates and payment processing etc... mainly payment processing I think

Fundorado Rocks:thumbsup:thumbsup

as long as they got the quality content!
seems like a good move though!

Presumably Porn.com has achieved economies of scale that allow them to price their content like this. As the press release says, they're looking for increased market share, and I think they'll achieve that not just through increased sales, but also by putting their competitors--the ones who can't compete with this pricing--out of business.

Just sent you an email buddy, lets have a chat on icq tomorrow once you get it :thumbsup

I don't know about that. I think you have to look at the world around us. Netflix is what $7.99? I personally believe the music industry and dvd industry fucked themselves by holding on to their high price points.

I love micro payments but the billing structure is a huge problem there.

This really isn't anything like Netflix. Netflix isn't a producer of content and doesn't create anything exclusive. Netflix works for different reasons than a price point. It has an enormous catalog from many/most studios rather than a subset. You can use your account to stream to your computer, tivo, ipod/iphone, etc...

Netflix has an affiliate program too don't they?

Dave have you effectively changed all existing customers to the $9.95 price point? That's one thing I always think about when lowering price is what do you do with your loyal members. The right thing to do is charge the new set price.

You have to look at where people are spending their money for entertainment. It has NOTHING to do with comparing business models. I'm discussing this from the member point of view and their options when spending their hard earned money.

I didn't say it was a bad thing. I just thought it was funny that someone mentioned Netflix pricing yesterday or the day before and there was a release today. More than anything, I laughed to myself realizing its one way to be able to say "the first."

Glad you guys saw good results. I'm not digging up the thread, but I remember someone else saying they tried it and it didn't work for them, which kind of made me sad (not as an affiliate, but I'm convinced the model is eroding anyway and am already shifting from it) because I'd like to see it be successful.

This model, if widely adopted, will suck for affiliates, but it's their fault for relying on $35+ PPS without a contingency plan.

great move, kudos

After the last couple of years I don't think there has been any doubt it is going to disappear. The only thing that can happen these days is make it disappear a little sooner. Hopefully everybody that is serious about this biz has been preparing for its demise.

Netflix rebills for years and years and years.

Porn manages *about* 3 months, usually.

It's not going to double your sales.

It will keep members forever provided your have more then what most paysites have: 20 videos and 20 photo sets.

Good for porn.com very bad for any affiliates who want to promote pimproll

Understood. The reason I responded was I think a Netflix business model in other markets could work well. I don't know enough about how Netflix pays for licensing or royalties myself to know whether it's doable or not.

I think it's a good move. I'm not a high-pps chasing affiliate anyway. I'll take it if it's there, but I'm more interested in the bigger paychecks. Another example is SuicideGirls affiliate program. "join for $4/month"

I've got a better idea... Why not just give members full access and pay them for joining :2 cents:

Well, in their defense they do have 11,782,953 other sites. :pimp

Why? You can choose to promote this option or not. Or you can complain about conversions like everyone else.

The price might be ok, but they will lose all the rebills from people who forget to cancel or don't care. Which is pretty much most of the rebills nowadays. lol

Lowering the cost of goods can sometimes have an opposite effect as the perceived value is less...

For example, when I was in high school I used to travel around the US selling anime VHS tapes at conventions... You could set your price at $10 a tape but people would walk right by to the $20 a tape table because they think they are higher quality just from the price point...

The same thing could happen here I think the only thing that would overcome the initial perceived value is to have super super high quality content with a fantastic presentation.

EDIT: The fact remains though that the price point is not the major barrier of entry for consumers in the online adult space... it's the part where they actually have to whip out their wallet, regardless of price.

Despite them doing this, I'll never lower my prices... My sites are $29.95 and $24.95 and I have less than 75 girls :winkwink:

That was pretty weak imo

I doubt losing those rebills will be a greater lose versus the rebills gained.

Lower prices will sure get more customers.

I take that back. After seeing your sites that post was completely understandable and to be expected. My apologies.

You can surf www.porn.com inside and out before joining. They can see the raw amount of content they will be getting.

Fixed. :winkwink:

All good Shap, we've been doing this along time :thumbsup

Great move for them, not so great for everyone else. It was mentioned in a post above but was ignored. They aren't doing this for short term. They are doing this to put their smaller competition out of business which in turn means more available customers for them.

The question you should ask yourself is how are you going to counter a massive competitor when they drop their prices to $10 and you can't afford that and have affiliates? There are multiple solutions to this just good luck picking the right one. And I'd recommend not discussing this on these forums... far too many thieves here. But this is just my $0.02

this is what i believe happened to Adult.com's versions of $9.95 sites.

not sure if they are even still running them though.

micropayments with upsells to reduced-price memberships - it's been discussed and discounted here recently. But it does work.

Another example is get them in on a trial, then track them - if they watch >3 movies, auto-email them with a "one-time" offer, valid for 1 hr only - auto convert to full membership now for $X/mo, where X$ is 50% of the regular price (or 25% or anything).

The perceived "bargain" is a better retainer if your main site continues to advertise $20/mo and they are on say a $10 recurring...

It's all about marketing.

Setting single price points then forgetting all about it is bullshit. Track your members and find out how they interact on your site and market accordingly, one on one if needs be.

I know Brazzers tested 9.95 a lot. They seem to be the type of company that makes very educated and calculated moves. They haven't gone back to the $9.95 price point and definitely haven't done it full time. Which indicates to me that they didn't see it as the right long term decision. I believe high quality exclusive content still can charge a higher price as long as you are truly meeting your customer's needs and requests.

We test a variety of sale points and our affiliates have the flexibility to set their own pricing. The only companies that can and will succeed with the low price points are those with the ability to retain customers, obviously. Testing is the only way to determine what is best because intuition or anything else will be proven insufficient.

Years ago we tested a low price and found that it created a value perception problem. People apparently wanted to pay more since it seemed like better quality if it was at a higher price, which ran counter to our assumptions. However, nowadays is another story of course when it comes to content. I think the consumer wants "safe" content, would prefer something like Netflix over illegally downloading for free, etc... but only at a price that works.

The other consideration in this equation is how to attract affiliates with payouts based on low fee memberships. We overcome this by allowing the affiliate to set the price and type of trial. If they want a PPS style payout up front, they can do that. If they want recurring and a payment percentage based on a higher or lower price to earn an average of (x), (y), or (z) per sign up/recurring transaction then we give them that ability to test what works best for their traffic. Seemed to us the only way to make it work for everyone.