“We have solved the problems facing the VR porn consumer.”
Last year marked the launch of VRotica, a company that has set out to develop virtual reality goggles specifically for the consumption of pornographic content. The first hundred headsets are already sold out and have met with highly positive feedback, so the course for 2018 seems pretty clear: Get more VRotica headsets out there! We interviewed Erol Opal, Project Manager at VRotica, to learn why this is a perfect product for adult retailers, and why adult oriented VR entertainment will sweep the world.
Erol, when we last spoke you had just released the VRotica Headset, a headset especially designed for the needs of erotic VR content. How have the first month in this business been for you and your company?
Erol Opal: Hello! The first month has been great. We released our first 100 headsets and they quickly sold out. We have also received very favourable reviews from many outlets including Variety.com, askmen.co.uk, TheMemo.com and many other websites in dozens of different languages. Everybody that has tried the headset has loved it and now we are working on getting it more exposure and getting it into stores.
Could you sum up what makes the VRotica headset special for those of our readers, who haven’t heard of it yet?
The VRotica headset solves the two major problems that adult VR faces. First of all the content problem. The adult VR films are on the VRotica platform and can be directly downloaded to the device, you do not have to go around downloading, copying, hacking your VR sets just to watch the content.
Secondly the VRotica is an all in one VR headset. You do not need your phone or a PC connection for it to work, and it has been streamlined to make it the easiest to use VR headset there is. Just press the “ON” button and you are good to go!
The past decades have seen a shift in the way people buy and consume porn, where the brick and mortar trade hasn’t been on the winning side. Would you say the VRotica headset offers a way for the erotic trade to get back into the game?
The VRotica platform offers a unique and overwhelming immersive porn experience unlike anything users can find readily online. The headset has been designed and streamlined to provide a top class VR porn viewing experience and hosts hundreds of videos from the best labels in the industry. This provides brick and mortar stores with the opportunity to offer consumers something different and unique and so we believe it will bring back porn viewers to the shops.
How does the commission you offer for every movie, watched through your headset, work?
For any content users purchase and download directly to their headset we are offering distributors 10% of the total spend. Distrubutors of the VRotica headset will therefore continue to make money after the sale of the headsets. We are currently experiencing a 35€ per user per month average income rate.
You are also offering movies on USB sticks, to be bought in stores. Could you tell us more about this concept and which expectations do you have for this business model?
We are offering USB sticks for sex shops to sell alongside the headset. Each USB stick has four videos that can be copied on to the device by the user. This way users of the VRotica platform will be returning customers for the shops to supply content for their headsets. We are aware that shops want to retain their clientele and we are aiming to achieve this with the USB option. Users just have to stick the USB sticks into their VRotica devices and then they can copy the videos directly to the device.
Besides the normal VRotica headset you have also created a different version, which you call “Peep Show” and whose target audience are sex shops and their customers. How is this version different from the original and how does the business behind it work?
The “Peep Show” version is a version of the VRotica headset we have created with feedback from some European sex shops. The headsets come with six preloaded videos and users can take the headsets from the counters at the shops and watch them for 15 minutes. At the end of the 15 minutes the customer pays for a top up and the clerk at the counter adds another 15 minutes with a USB stick and the client keeps on watching.
These headsets are currently being used successfully in a number of shops around France and are very popular.
Talking about VR porn in general, it seems as if after a fourious start with a lot of media coverage, the enthusiasm for VR content in general is decreasing. How would you assess the current state of VR content in general? Is it growing as you expected?
The initial enthusiasm for VR porn was down to the fact that VR provides a much richer and more immersive experience than traditional porn. The subsequent stalling of interest has been down to the actual options that have been offered to people have been sub par. Unfortunately the adult VR experience has become known as a smart phone with a gogglebox and sideloading your videos. The hardware and technology made available has hindered the VR porn experience for the average user. These issues are the main reason we developed VRotica in the first place. We have solved the problems facing the VR porn consumer and we believe that the ease of use we are offering will mean the interest in VR porn will start to rise again.
“The hardware and technology made available has hindered the VR porn experience for the average user.”
Even though more and more people own a VR device, we are far from having one in ever household. What is in the way of a large-scale breakthrough in VR technology?
Just with every new technology there are certain barriers to adoption. I believe with VR the initial cost of VR setups and the low quality mobile option has hindered the uptake. However will gradually decreasing costs and improving hardware I believe VR will become a househould technology sooner rather than later.
Right now, virtual reality is still a young technology and creating content for it is relatively pricy. But with time, this will also change. Which advice would you give content creators and the market in general, so that we don’t see such a price decline as we have seen with traditional porn? Or is such a development unavoidable?
The price of VR porn content will sustain so long as it provides the immersion and extra value that traditional porn does not and so long as it is not easily accessible for free online. As long as mainstream VR platforms continue to limit access to VR porn there is no reason for prices to decrease.
What will be the next steps for VRotica?
In the immediate short term we are looking to distribute the VRotica headset to the mainstream consumers. We are looking to get it into brick and mortar shops all over the world and are hoping to create a large network of distribution.
In the medium and long term we are looking to add interactive content like virtual girlfriends and blackjack games as well as adding bluetooth masturbators to enhance the already immersive experience. The VRotica platform is constantly updating and renewing itself and adapting to neew needs and opportunities so keep a close eye on us!
