Country snapshot : Finland

The Republic of Finland, situated in the Scandinavian portion of Northern Europe, was recently rated the best country to live in by Reader’s Digest.

Bordered by Sweden, Russia and Norway, Finland has a population of about 5.3 million people, and yet covers an area of some 130,000 square miles making it the least densely populated country in the European Union.

The Finns were way ahead of the curve in internet adoption when the web first took off about a decade ago. Hardly surprising, when you consider the long, dark and cold winters they have to endure!

One area in which Finland has established itself as a world class player is in the mobile space. Anyone not heard of Nokia? What you might not know is that that the seeds for this leading global brand were sown in a small Finnish town bearing the same name.

According to the company’s own estimates there are already two billion mobile phone owners in the world and that every third mobile phone sold in the world is a Nokia.

This has made some native shareholders very rich indeed - creating a small army of “Nokia millionaires”, thus revealing a key characteristic of the Finnish character: Reserve. The Finns regard the flagrant flouting of wealth as somewhat vulgar, no brashness or showing-off here!

Finland has also been a swift developer and adopter of mobile technologies such as Pay-by-Phone for vending machines and SMS ticketing for public transport.

It was also amongst one of the world’s first countries to adopt domestic premium rate billing, for which we pay you $3.60 every time a Finnish surfer buys a password with his or her Nokia or regular phone to view your (or our) web content.

It’s not the largest of countries, but is certainly one of the more tech-savvy ones.


According to the World Audit Democracy profile, Finland is the freest nation in the world in terms of civil liberties, freedom of the press and low corruption levels.

Just pity about the weather…

Country snapshot : Netherlands

Sometimes referred to as Holland which actually only constitutes a part of it, the Netherlands is one of my favourite countries. It has a cosmopolitan and international feel to it, and even old people there seem to radiate a youthful exuberance sorely lacking elsewhere. Maybe it’s something to do with all that biking. The bike-park outside Amsterdam Central Station just has to be seen to be believed!

As for their coffee, it is second to none - which is why I always make a point of visiting a coffeeshop whenever I am there :-)

My only criticism would be the landscape, most of which is flat - making it spectacularly unspectacular.

The Dutch are a net-savvy lot who according to InternetWorldStats.com enjoy the highest internet penetration level anywhere in the world at an astonishing 87.8% of their 16.5 million strong population.

Astute business people, the Dutch are also on the cutting edge on many of the emerging technologies in both the fixed line and mobile internet.

The Netherlands is world famous for its tolerant attitude towards both drugs and porn, making it a hedonistical heaven that draws millions to Amsterdam’s red light district every year, with extreme niches such as scat and bestiality openly on display in shop windows – so perhaps Amsterdam should not be the first choice when deciding where to go for a family holiday!

Inevitably, thanks to this tolerance, the Netherlands became a magnet for ‘extreme’ webmasters, due to the historically liberal laws concerning the hosting of such material there. This, however, is due to be outlawed soon due to an EU ruling.

As for Dutch consumers, I am not sure what floats their boat, but what I do know is that despite relatively high levels of credit and debit card ownership, the Dutch love to pay for regular web porn using their phone or cell. A Dutch webmaster friend of mine recently pointed out to me that this is probably because the Dutch prefer the anonymity and convenience of this “buy now, pay later” way of purchasing premium web content.

Another fascinating trait of the Dutch are their linguist abilities, with most seeming able to speak some level of German, English and of course their native Dutch. And unlike in neighbouring Germany, US and UK movies are shown in original soundtrack with subtitles, which undoubtedly helps.

Being half British and half German myself, I always make a point of speaking English when I am there since I always seem to get a warmer reception when so doing, and I put this down to football!

Phonesex - the original money maker

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Mention phonesex to some webmasters and they give you a look of pity, shake their heads in disbelief and mutter something along the lines of 'so yesterday'.

But they miss the point. Phonesex works. And in an era of increasing market saturation, non-compete upsells like Phonesex can drastically help improve your bottom line.

One of the reasons for this is that of perception from the surfer’s viewpoint.

By that, I mean the tube generation automatically assume that adult web content should be ‘for free’. Conversely, it is widely accepted and understood that phonesex never is.

Moreover, the telephone remains an inherently intimate medium that delivers good ‘ole ‘one to one’ with none of countless distractions of the noisy internet!

What is more, there are a whole army of people out there who are hardcore devotees of aural pleasure – who instead of just watching pics and vids want the added kick of talking dirty, or listening to other do the same.

With this in mind, a leading phonesex program have recently released recordings of genuine steamy phones sessions which customers had previously agreed could be recorded and published. It would appear that User Generated Content has even arrived in the relatively conservative world of phone erotica!

Furthermore, repeat callers will make your income snowball. Phonesex is addictive, making it sticky in more ways that one - with customers constantly coming back for more, puns intended.

When it comes to paying, customers in US and other developed markets usually call a toll-free number and their credit card details are captured so that they can buy time.

Elsewhere, premium numbers are employed whereby callers pay a higher than normal per-minute charge which they pay to their phone or cell company in the usual way. This money is then split between that company, your phone sponsor and you, the promoter of the number.

In countries like India where local premium billing is not possible, then prospective customers are invited to dial a regular IDD (International Direct Dial) call to get his or her kicks. The phone company to which the call was sent then pays a proportion of the call revenue.

When employed in conjunction with products such as pre-recorded Arabic stories, webmasters can make money from a global audience, practically all of which have access to a phone or cell.

Such numbers can then easily be promoted on blogs, tours, member areas, galleries – anywhere that gets eyeballs

And when it comes to product, it really is a case of ‘if it ain’t broke, don’ fix it’.

Phonesex, arguably the first form of e-commerce, has always sold well and I suspect always will

Country snapshot : Kazakhstan

A few years ago, most people were scarcely aware it its existence, but that is no more, as ‘Borat’ has managed to move Kazakhstan into our collective consciousness.

It is the world’s ninth largest country and covers an area larger than all of the countries in Western Europe combined; and yet has a population of only about 15.2 million.

Kazakhstan is the world’s largest landlocked country; and is bordered by Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and China. The capital is Astana.

According to www.internetworldstats.com, 1,247,000 people, or 8.2 percent of the population, are already online. Usage growth from 2000-2007 was an impressive 1,681 percent, with plenty of room of continued exponential growth.

In tandem with the above, credit card ownership is set to dramatically increase in the next few years, with several major banks aggressively promoting the virtues of plastic to this virgin market.

As with so many developing countries, the mobile cell phone network is vastly superior to its fixed-line cousin.

So far, we have paid $2,637.49 to webmasters who have sold passwords to surfers from there, and we expect to see the figure rise dramatically as the market matures.

Whilst not the official state language, Russian is more widely understood there than English, which is why we serve a Russian call-to-action to surfers from Kazakhstan who wish to pay for web content by means of their phone – and we plan to add Kazakh later this year.

As some markets in the developed world are beginning to show signs of having reached critical mass, countries like Kazakhstan represent an enormous opportunity for content owners to start making some serious money from the hot new Asian growth markets.

With this in mind, we are inviting all our partners to advertise their websites free on a new portal that we will be advertising extensively via the Hotbird TV satellite, whose footprint rather conveniently includes Borat’s home country of Kazakhstan.

Chinese internet

The interweb sure is a great place to meet new people! Like Jon...