In 2005 a sleeping giant awoke to the realization there is huge money to be made in the gay marketplace. The giant I’m referring to is the straight adult industry.

With their market saturated, and virtually every micro niche imaginable already tapped, the straight companies are looking for fresh sources of revenue. It didn’t take long for these industry giants to discover a brand new pot of gold exists at the end of the rainbow. In 2006 I expect these resource rich companies to invade the gay marketplace like a swarm of locusts. Most companies, currently operating in the gay marketplace, will be caught off guard, and powerless to mount a defense.

There is only a hand full of gay companies with the resources to compete against the enormous market reach of their straight counter parts. And with rare exception most established gay companies are still operating like it’s the year 2000. To make things worse, the gay adult business community has fragmented into small adversarial clicks. This leaves little chance of a unified defense against the tsunami like wave that is about to hit.

Early evidence of this impending doom can be found in AVN’s announcement of their new GAYVN Magazine, scheduled to debut in January of 2006. Gay owned companies are just kidding themselves if they think the new magazine is validation. In my opinion AVN’s new magazine is not positioning to attract advertisers from the established gay marketplace. To the contrary, AVN sees an opportunity to expand with their existing advertisers, comprised mostly of straight companies.

If anyone doubts the market reach of the straight industry, they need only look to their affiliate base. Those “in the know” will tell you the best affiliates, for gay traffic, are the straight webmasters. And that resource is what the straight companies will use to deliver a deathblow.