Intellectual Property Law

Googling for Prostitutes

By Cynthia Brumfield

Jason Lee Miller of WebProNews has this absolute must-read post in the wake of Eliot Spitzer's stunning and swift fall from grace. Miller investigated the world of online prostitution businesses; in other words, prostitution businesses that have online presences.

Here's what he found:

The breadth, depth, and scope of prostitution available via online booking is staggering, indicating that just like the online porn industry, sex trade is not just a huge industry, but one that employs cutting edge marketing techniques, and one that apparently is thriving.

It's not clear how Spitzer connected with the Emperor's Club ring but as Miller documents, he may have simply conducted a Google search. Miller typed in "New York Call Girls," "Full Service Escorts," "models," and so forth and found an extraordinary abundance of sites willing to connect people with paid people. And these sites cover every city and every country in the world.

Some of the sites charge as little as $100 per hour for companionship (none use the word "prostitution" or any variation thereof and some explicitly state that payment is for companionship only) and some charge as much as $3,600 per hour, Emperor's Club territory. What's really interesting is that many of the sites are on the cutting-edge of Web 2.0 technology. They use flash, interactive calendars and elements of social networking.

These sites, as Miller notes, "have put a lot of effort and money into online marketing and seem to have mastered every element from site design, to search marketing, to social media, to vertical search and mapping." Well, we all know that any business that doesn't keep pace with web trends is doomed to fall behind. Even the world's oldest profession.

Full post as published by IP Democracy on March 12, 2008 (boomark / email).