Some like it hot: erotic internet sales boom
The sale of sex toys is one of the fastest growing internet businesses in the Czech Republic, the daily e15.cz reported on Friday. Over the past year, sellers have posted an increase of business by over a fifth.
“The market grows each year by about 30 percent, partly at the expense of brick-and-mortar stores,” Adam Durčák, the owner of an erotic e-shop Růžový slon told the daily e15. This year, his company expects to earn 25 million crowns and he hopes to increase that sum to 40 million crowns next year.
The overall sales of the country’s biggest chain of erotic brick-and mortar stores, Erotic City, amounted to 192 million crowns in 2015. That is an increase by 11 percent, which is substantially lower than figures recorded by internet stores. Erotic City has also launched an e-shop but refused to provide data on sales over the internet.
Czechs, who shop for erotic toys online, prefer to use their mobile phones over computers to keep anonymity.
Despite growing number of erotic videos available for free on the internet, the number of pre-paid television channels has been increasing. This year, UPC cable TV launched two more erotic programmes, increasing the overall number of erotic channels to five.
“The interest in this type of channel does not fade away, because they are offering exclusive and premium content, which is not available on the internet. And even if it is, it has to be paid for,” Jaroslav Kolář, the spokesman for UPC TV, told the daily e15.
Other programmes are also available on the O2 internet TV, and on the satellite programmes DigiTV and TV Skylink.
