We all know the sad fact that sex is what drives the Internet. The vast majority of traffic, Web sites and online spend is in some way involved with the porn trade, but we accept that as the price we have to pay in order to have access to everything else the Net has to offer.
Okay, we also have to put up with endless spam messages detailing the latest XXX videos or Web sites, which is rather unpleasant, particularly when one considers the type of pond slime that masquerades as these so-called "respectable" merchants.
Now pimps in the Asian city are luring customers by sending hi-tech digital images of prostitutes to potential clients via the new cellphones.
Rodney Weidemann, Journalist, ITWeb
Of course, I suppose most of us would agree that anyone who sends spam messages could be lumped in the same category as the above-mentioned pond slime.
However, some of those from the seedier side of the street are at least a little more enterprising than the typical spam merchants.
Recently, I heard a story about a group of "sex workers" (to use the politically correct terminology) in the US who, after finding that competition was hotting up and they were losing business, simply taught themselves programming of a sort, created their own Web sites and began looking for business that way.
What was really unique about this little escapade was that the group worked together, passing on specific requests that they couldn`t (or wouldn`t) be able to fulfil, so for example, if a client wanted someone who was blonde and came through to a brunette, she would simply pass his request on to one of the blonde workers in their little group.
There`s nothing quite like capitalism at work and I guess it just goes to prove that networking really is what it`s all about.
Some pimps in Hong Kong have now gone one better than that, using the convergence of technologies to boost their business.
Hong Kong residents have one of the highest rates of cellphone ownership in the world, with more than eight out of 10 of the territory`s 6.8 million population owning a handset and the new-style phones with colour screens have become increasingly popular in the gadget-hungry city.
Now pimps in the Asian city are luring customers by sending hi-tech digital images of prostitutes to potential clients via these new cellphones.
While no one has yet been arrested for soliciting by cellphone, a police source said that the first to maximise the technology are the pimps in the red light area. Before they make the deal they show the client a photo preview on the cellphone.
Personally, I find it rather ironic that the oldest profession in the world seems to be the one that is most involved in driving the newest technology.
But then I suppose we are always attracted to the concept of sex. Just mentioning the word in a headline is enough to guarantee two or three times as many hits on a story.
Fellow journalist Paul Vecchiatto`s story last week Friday headlined "Domain name safe for sex.com" generated far more hits than many stories of a much more newsworthy variety, just as this story will, thanks to its titillating title.
It certainly got you to take a look, didn`t it?
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