-> Editorial
->
-> Are Portal Sites Promoting Porn?
-> -------------------------------
-> by Jason McCabe Calacanis
->
-> Does a Disney property carry advertising for pornography? Sound
-> pretty outrageous, right? Well, on June 18, Disney agreed to take a
-> 43 percent stake in Infoseek Corporation (Nasdaq:SEEK) in exchange
-> for ownership of Starwave and $70 million in cash.
->
-> Search for "PORN" or "SLUT" or "BLOW JOB" on Infoseek and watch the
-> anatomically-enhanced banners fly. "Been Missing All the Action?
-> Click Here," one such banner reads. The link takes you to the
-> ifriends.com porn site, which hosts live streaming video sex
-> shows. The first page of ifriends contains dialogue like "You guys
-> did me so good last night," and talk of sexual positions, sex toys,
-> and the like (sparing you the raunchy details). The site contains
-> thumbnail images of hardcore pornography. Is this how Walt
-> envisioned his brands making money? Off of advertising for
-> interactive peep shows? Is this why Michael Eisnor is bullish on
-> the Internet? I doubt it.
->
-> Infoseek is not alone. All of the major search engines (the
-> portals) carry porno advertising. Yahoo!, Lycos, Excite,
-> WebCrawler, and AltaVista all contain ads promoting porn that take
-> you to sites that, in some cases, include full-frontal nudity. Even
-> if you're a laissez-faire, Police-Your-Children liberal like
-> myself, you have to ask yourself if the search engines are being
-> responsible Netizens. Or are they just desperate for revenue?
->
-> In conversations with various advertising representatives, SAR
-> learned that AltaVista and Lycos are both sold out of keywords like
-> "porn," "blow job," and any other word you can think of. These
-> keywords average a $50 to $60 CPM rate, and according to a sales
-> person at both Lycos and AltaVista, are sold out through 1999 in
-> most cases. AltaVista gets 50 million porn keyword impressions
-> per month according to a sales representative at the firm. Here's
-> the math: If AltaVista is getting 50 million impressions per porn
-> keyword, and the going rate is $50 CPM, AltaVista would rake
-> in $2.5 million dollars a month.
->
-> DoubleClick reported revenues of $17,293,000 for the second quarter
-> of 1998, 49 percent of which came from selling AltaVista advertising
-> according to their SEC filings. That equals about $2.5 million in
-> revenue each month from AltaVista. This could lead one to believe
-> that banner advertising for pornographic websites makes up a
-> significant portion of advertising dollars created by search
-> engines. (NB: DoubleClick's contract with the engine expires in
-> 1999.)
->
-> According to the advertising sales people at search engines, adult
-> advertising was only allowed on specific keywords, banner ads could
-> not show nudity, and sites that were linked to were required to
-> carry an obligatory age verification page.
->
-> If the search engines fancy themselves as the new networks, and
-> that argument justifies their amazing valuations, then perhaps they
-> should look at NBC, CBS, and ABC for an example. When was the last
-> time you were propositioned for porn during prime time?
->
-> Of Infoseek.com, Rebecca Buxton of Disney's Buena Vista Internet
-> Group says, "The relationship is very new, and we have not
-> disclosed any details of the proposed portal. We will discuss the
-> policies around the portal at the time we launch."
->
-> Infoseek gave a forthright explanation, saying that while certain
-> keywords do produce hardcore returns, the search words must
-> be "very specific," and that each banner must be deemed non-
-> explicit enough by Infoseek for display.
->
-> Lycos has protection, called SafetyNet, that allows parents to
-> block searches on pornographic keywords, and that can disable chat
-> and message boards. Of course, this requires that parent know that
-> the SaftyNet software exists, and takes the time to install it.
->
-> According to a spokesperson for DoubleClick, the agency abides by
-> their site's policies.
->
-> That sex sells is nothing new, the question is who's profiting
-> from it?
->
-> Contact: Jason McCabe Calacanis; 917-749-5671,
-> editor@siliconalleyreporter.com
-> http://www.siliconalleyreporter.com
->
<< end of forwarded material >>
--Don't go lookin' for snakes you might find them. ...Metallica
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