Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Country snapshot : UK




The United Kingdom, often simply referred to as the UK, comprises of four constituent countries namely England, Northern Island, Scotland and Wales.

It has a population of about 60m., 62.3% of which are online according to www.internetworldstats.com.

It is an attractive market for webmasters on many levels.

For starters, the larger US and Canadian programs need not translate their tours and promotools thanks to the shared use of the English language with their British cousins.

Furthermore, the UK is a rich and developed country with high levels of broadband penetration.

British Webmasters often seem to favor a less ‘polished’ approach to porn that their North American counterparts, with many seeming a bit bland or rough by comparison.

The UK also seems to have a love affair with it’s own unique beloved activity know as “dogging”, a British euphemism for engaging in sexual acts in a public place such as a parking lot, or watching others doing so .

When it comes to processing, it is important to bear in mind that there are now more online debit cards in circulation in the UK than there are credit ones.

Use of such cards by surfers when paying for online content results in the funds being taken from their regular checking account – so it is important to think outside the “Visa/Mastercard” box.

About 80% of adults in the UK possess at least one debit card of which Switch is the largest with 23m cards issued. Switch migrated to Maestro in July, which is now MasterCard’s leading debit card brand with more than half a billion cards issued worldwide.

A sister company to Switch called Solo also has about 7m cards currently in circulation in the UK at this time.

However, some processors and webmasters have been reluctant to embrace this payment mechanism since teenagers under 18 have access to such cards and therefore, unlike with credit cards, do not constitute a reliable method of verifying the surfer’s age.

Due to the ongoing and increasing concern regarding online fraud and identity theft issues associated with cards in the UK at this time, phone billing is gaining popularity due the anonymity and convenience for the surfer.

Overseen by ICSTIS, the UK has the world’s most regulated and structured premium telecoms market which regulates such processing.

This is why it must be clearly stated to the surfer how much access time is granted for each password sold.

We pay $5.80 per password sold in the UK and recommend that you grant at least 24 hours access to surfers that pay you using this method. Payment is factored and is made guaranteed chargeback-free every two weeks.

Only by embracing all the possible processing mechanisms afforded by this rich and dynamic country, are you in a position to fully profit from it.

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