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,”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.”

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.

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