Germany has the largest economy in Europe and the third largest economy in the world, behind the United States and Japan. It is ranked fifth in the world in terms of purchasing power.
The export of goods is an essential part of the German economy and one of the main factors of its wealth. According to the World Trade Organization, Germany is the world's top exporter with $1.133 trillion exported, from the beginning of 2006.
Now under the stewardship of its first female chancellor, Angela Merkel, Germany is slowly emerging from a prolonged period of economic stagnation.
Once perceived as having one of the most tolerant attitudes to porn, it is now one of the most regulated markets. Your tours should be 'FSK16' – softcore – and your members area cannot be accessed without an AVS. Hardcore content is referred to as ‘FSK18’.
This is mirrored in the offline world. Sexshops are commonplace in Germany's High Streets and, unlike their Dutch counterparts, are fairly inoffensive from the outside.
Inside, private video booths are popular, and the majority of the movies being offered cater to the German's insatiable craving for all things fetish – particularly BDSM and Watersports.
Practically every German town also has a video store, the adult section of which is again off-limits to those under 18 years of age. Invariably, these 'adult-only' sections are the largest and most lucrative section of said stores.
The adult industry is dominated by two heavyweights – Beate Uhse (a publicly listed company) and Orion who are both based in the northern most town of Flensburg, not far from the Danish border.
Frau Uhse, a legend in her own right, was a former fighter pilot in the war before she moved into erotica and is known by 99% of all Germans. Both companies have a sizeable mail-order division and have aggressively expanded eastwards since the collapse of the Berlin Wall back in 1989.
Whist the above operate a significant proportion of the sex shops, there are plenty of independent stores most of which buy their wares from the wholesaler ZBF who are based in Wiesbaden, near Frankfurt. ZBF regularly holds trade-fair days, whereby content distributors can display and sell their wares to the sex store owners.
Within Germany, there exists a north/south divide with regard to sexual tolerance. This can be attributed to the fact that in the south, the Catholic Church still has much more influence.
Paradoxically, this is where the majority of the ultra-hardcore production companies are located, including Europe’s largest producer, Bukkake King John Thompson.
In the more tolerant north, Hamburg with it's infamous Reeperbahn ('the world's most sinful mile') is second only to Amsterdam in terms of it's red-light offerings and is popular with both Germans and tourists alike.
Webmasters with compelling content ignore this market at their peril. And when you throw satellite country next door – Austria – and German speaking Switzerland into the equation, you are looking at a market of more than 100 million potential customers.
Just remember to sell to them in their own native tongue, and use a processor that accepts “Lastschrift” – authorising you to take the subscription fee from their regular checking account.
The Germans are a conservative lot – credit card penetration is much lower there than in other developed markets and those that do have them are often reluctant to use them online, particularly with overseas porn merchants!
To this end, you should also include phone billing as part of your billing arsenal – the Germans love the anonymity and convenience of paying you this way. Indeed, Germany is our largest overall market…
By steadfastly sticking to a “credit card only” sales strategy, you are depriving yourself of significant additional money “made in Germany”.
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