What is your basic need?

weekly roundup There's a standing joke that if you're looking to start a lucrative business that guarantees fast and steady returns, then you should go into the business of selling adult content--or to put it more blatantly, porn.

It's pretty straightforward, sex sells. In fact, it's so profitable that the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona last year dedicated an entire floor to showcase adult content and applications developed for the mobile platform. The doors leading to that part of the exhibition were guarded, of course, and entry was permitted only to those of legal age.

According to Juniper Research, adult mobile content pumped up some US$1.4 billion in sales worldwide last year. By 2011, it will account for US$3.3 billion of mobile content sales.

Indeed, even seemingly repressed Singaporeans are drawn to porn sites.

But wait, before you dub me Madame Moulin Rouge, I'm not advocating that the porn business is the ideal business. Rather, I'm using it to demonstrate that, in order to continuously drive revenue for your business, the key is to offer services that satisfy your customer's, erm, basic needs.

Google succeeded because it fulfils the desire to seek out data; YouTube worked because people find gratification in watching others live life; and Apple appealed to its customers' fashion sense.

What is your basic need, one that is still unaddressed?

In other news this week, find out how the CIO of Hong Kong's City University improved student learning and why dual-mode mobiles may not take off as some have predicted. Also, Linux fans may want to try out for the Red Hat Challenge, while Indian companies deny they're using the U.K. as a sweatshop.

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Eileen Yu

Eileen Yu began covering the IT industry when Asynchronous Transfer Mode was still hip and e-commerce was the new buzzword. These days, she gets stirred up over issues concerning Internet regulation, intellectual property rights and software patents, online privacy and data protection. Eileen is senior editor at ZDNet Asia, where she oversees the business tech news site.