2 weeks ago, a few of the members of the MiKandi team headed down to the sunny climes of Southern California and spent time at the 2011 Xbiz LA conference. Huge thanks to Moe and his team for putting on a great show and allowing us to attend!

A few things we noticed while we were down there that we found particularly interesting and exciting in the context of our focus on the changing adult consumer:

The content producers are more focused than ever on discerning what consumers want

We particularly enjoyed the Content panel, featuring folks from Hustler, Digital Playground and Playboy. Hearing that these major brands are very focused on the “long tail” and are tuning the content they produce for each territory they distribute to was really encouraging. As was finding out that some of them are really driving production decisions based upon search engine information. In today’s digital media world, it’s incredibly important to focus on revisiting your consumer assumptions once you collect data and we’re really glad to know that the top brands are right there with us.

From the outset, we’ve found that our app store for adults has a really broad set of demands from consumers and the search data we monitor tells us that consumers are really seeking specific, niche content. We’re excited about what this means for when more of the “long tail” content producers launch apps in the MiKandi app store.

Everyone’s curious about how to make money on mobile

Almost every session we attended ended up bringing up mobile, which is incredibly encouraging. From discussions about price points (there seems to be a lot of concern about lower price points resulting in lower overall revenue) to increased conversion rates, a lot of the industry is discovering what we believe to be true about mobile: consumers are willing to spend significant money on mobile, as long as it’s convenient and the price is attractive enough to avoid thinking about it.

Our cocktail conversations and meet and greet discussions with many of the Xbiz attendees really reinforced that people are nervous that the existing adult consumer expects to get the same premium content, but for a fraction of the price. This worry makes a lot of sense to us, given what’s happened to a significant portion of the core revenue base over the past few years.

However, we firmly believe that mobile increases the number of consumers willing to interact with adult content and increases the opportunity to offer value that the consumers are willing to pay for.

We look at companies like PinkVisual, who took home the award for Mobile Company of the Year AND the Mobile World Congress’s “Future Mobile Award for Mobile Adult” and are really encouraged to see them innovating and experimenting with consumer offerings. At Xbiz we were very flattered to have a number of companies approach us and ask about how to really get serious about creating adult apps this year and we look forward to helping them address this next wave of consumer demand.

(Of course, it doesn’t hurt that PinkVisual already has hot apps in our app store, that PV team is awesome!)

Personalized connections matter more every day

The most compelling theme throughout the conference was that of “personalized connections”. Throughout the 3 days, we heard a lot about how personalized marketing and fostering “real” connections between the brands, the talent and the consumers was what was consistently driving revenue success. The massive revenue streams garnered by dating sites, along with the tremendous growth in the Live Cam industry really supports that consumers pay most for really personal connections. This common refrain is really encouraging – it feels like the most natural place to focus on delighting the adult consumer. As a company focused on “what’s next?” when it comes to consumers and adult, we know that being absolutely obsessed with what matters most to the consumer is how we’ll be successful. Personalized connections are a cornerstone of mobile app development and we’re excited to be working with leaders in the industry on really achieving them.