The Netherlands: The Main Gate to Europe
- for Klixxx Global Webmaster, with Phillipe Van Ooteghem
A small country with a big adult business, a country of opportunities. Klixxx brings you this exclusive interview with Phillipe Van Ooteghem, chief of the biggest adult company in the Netherlands.
"We believe there are lots of opportunities for new players, but they have to respect the Dutch mentality towards online adult offerings," according to media agency Midhold Media's CEO, Philippe van Ooteghem. The Netherlands, a small country between the United Kingdom and Germany, is well known for its liberal drugs policy, red light district area and lenient policy towards adult erotica of all kinds. "Many people are aware of the potential of Holland for the adult Internet industry. Despite of the size of the country, it's a very interesting market in which to exploit adult pay sites." But, before you incur the effort and expense of investing money in the Netherlands, you should first know the dos and don'ts," advises Herr van Ooteghem.
Midhold Media is a company that is specialized in the buying and selling of Dutch adult traffic. They are the market leader in Holland, and generate millions of Dutch quality hits each day. They don't work with TPG sites or link trades, but generate traffic from general interest sites. About 25% of all Dutch Internet surfers visit their portals.
We had a long talk with Philippe van Ooteghem, and he gave us good insight and information about the on line adult market in Holland. Although there are many similarities between the Dutch and US markets, the Dutch seem to have developed a special way of doing business in the adult arena. Off course they have a long history in pornography, and actually many people believe porn was invented by the Dutch people. If you ever go to Amsterdam and visit the red light district, you'll understand the origins of this belief.
The market size is about 150 Million Euro a year. This is an estimated figure by the Dutch experts. The market is still growing, however not as fast as it used to be. A lot of new adult companies have overcrowded the market which has made it more difficult to make good profits. As a result, almost 70 to 80% of these companies have found refugee in other businesses and left the online adult arena. Again, there now seems to be some space for new players in the Dutch online adult market.
US content is very popular, and most Dutch webmasters use this content. Of course people from the Netherlands prefer the Dutch language, but everybody speaks English. This makes it very easy for foreign companies with English sites to enter the Dutch market. Translating your free area into Dutch will make your conversion a little bit better, but once they are in, it doesn't matter whether the language is English or Dutch.
Differences between USA and Netherlands
In the current situation, the methods of the Dutch adult business are basically the same as in the US market. Yet, we have discovered some big differences. First of all, Dutch people are not used to paying with credit cards. In fact, just a small percentage of the Dutch people own such a card (10-15%). Even if they acquired a credit card, they are very sceptical about using them online. Using the credit card online for adult erotica is only done by very brave and heroic people. Other payment solutions, such as prepaid cards and SMS invoicing are also not often used. However, some companies are experimenting with these billing solutions and once in a while there are successes. To be 100% safe, you have to use dialers and premium rate numbers to optimize your revenues. Combined with other billing solutions, one can improve revenues further.
Broadband is Everywhere
Almost 50% of the Dutch people are surfing the Internet with a broadband connection, so you also have to use a broadband billing solution next to your dialer. The massive use of broadband connections also requires more broadband content. Pictures and small movies are still popular, but streaming, full screen movies can be consumed very easily.
Legal Aspects
Dutch government regulations are very liberal towards the adult industry. The Dutch porn industry is regulated by an institution called "Stic." It's an organization that handles illegal activities. Because of this self regulating mechanism, most Dutch adult companies are formulating their own fair policy towards their Internet activities, and try to be as honest as possible. This is the reason why the Dutch government hasn't yet made strict rules for the industry. Newcomers should know this attitude, because it's appreciated by visitors and rewarded with good payment conversions.
Despite the crowded market, there are not many real competitors. Most of them work on a small scale, and most webmasters tend to work with as many adult programs as possible. Even newcomers in Holland, like Sexmoney, gain market share very fast.
Dutch Trends for Content
The Dutch people follow their own trends in content. Five years ago, teen content was very popular. Later, amateur, mature, grannies and today adult porn stars are very hot. At the moment there seems to be some hesitation about which direction preferences are going. Because of the big influence from the US today, a growing range of different niches is successfully promoted in Holland. Tomorrow will teach us what direction it's all going.
Difficulties
To enter and act successfully, one should analyze the Dutch market carefully. You have to know how the Dutch people react to different words, pictures and site-style. Words like super, very, best, biggest, etc., are not accepted. Glamour girls aren't famous either. They seem to prefer viewing ugly looking girls. Psychiatrists think this is due to the fact that Dutch people like to have their own fantasy, meeting these ugly looking girls. In the minds of most Dutch people, meeting a glamour girl is felt to be unrealistic.
PART TWO: How to Get Good Traffic
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