profile

Country Snapshot: Hungary

Birthplace of one of our industry's industrious globetrotting photographers — JFK of FUBAR Webmasters — Hungary came to be regarded as one of the most prosperous emerging European countries after the fall of communism back in 1989.

Indeed, my initial reaction after having visited for the first time was that I was experiencing a dose of Übercapatalism: well-known brands competing for attention in the newly built shopping temples that would put many in richer countries to shame, and casinos in practically every neighborhood. I recall thinking that Lenin must be turning in his grave.

However, it would appear that Hungary's fall in light of the global credit crisis has been just as swift as its rise: it recently became the first European Union country to finalize an emergency rescue by securing $25 billion from the International Monetary Fund to avoid going bankrupt.

Hungary has a population of about 10 million people, 42 percent of which have access to the Internet at this time.

Before the credit crunch, Hungary had the fifth largest payment card market in Central and Eastern Europe in terms of cards issued. However, both the issue and use of credit cards are expected to slow down considerably in this new era of austerity, making phone billing one of the only viable billing mechanisms if you are to continue making money from such countries.

Indeed, Hungary was one of the first ex-communist countries to liberalize its telecom sector and introduce pay-per-minute and pay-per-call premium rate phone billing, with rates to up to FL720 per minute. That's about $3.57 in U.S. dollars as I write, but this figure will probably decrease as the value of the Forint continues to tumble.

For Hungarian surfers, we serve the less expensive FL288 per minute numbers to pay-per-minute customers and FL432 per minute numbers to all pay-per-access customers, all in their native language of Hungarian, considered to be one of the most difficult languages for speakers of English to learn well.

Hungary was one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world during the past decade, with its capital Budapest widely regarded as one of the most beautiful in the world. Its women are also beautiful; the countless models in Budapest's numerous strip clubs bear witness to this and the red-light district rivals that of Amsterdam. Sex sells, and Budapest knows it.

Another thing that struck me the most recent time I was there was the ususually high number of couples openly kissing one another. I viewed this as a sign of a wonderful place and look forward to one day returning to this amorous country.

Related:  

Copyright © 2024 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More Articles

profile

WIA Profile: Samantha Beatrice

Beatrice credits the sex positivity of Montreal for ultimately inspiring her to pursue work in adult entertainment. She had many friends working in the industry, from sex workers to production teams, so it felt like a natural fit and offered an opportunity to apply her marketing and social media savvy to support people she truly believes in and wants to see succeed.

Women In Adult ·
opinion

Understanding the Latest Server Processors

Over the last decade, we mostly stopped talking about CPU performance. Recently, however, there has been a seismic and exciting change in the CPU landscape, due to innovation by a chip company called Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Brad Mitchell ·
opinion

User Choice, Privacy and the Importance of Education in AV

As we discussed last month, age verification in the adult sector is critical to ensuring legal compliance with ever-evolving regulations, safeguarding minors from inappropriate content and protecting the privacy of adults wishing to view adult content.

Gavin Worrall ·
opinion

Maintaining Payment Processing Compliance When the Goalpost Keeps Moving

VIRP is the new four-letter word everyone loves to hate. The Visa Integrity Risk Program went into effect last year, and affects several business types — including MCC 5967, which covers adult and anything else with nudity, and MCC 7273, dating services that don’t allow nudity.

Jonathan Corona ·
opinion

Making the Most of Your Sales Opportunities

The compliance road has been full of twists and turns this year. For many, it’s been a companywide effort just to make it across that finish line. Hopefully, most of us can now return our attention to some important things we’ve left on the back burner for months — like driving revenue.

Cathy Beardsley ·
profile

YourPaysitePartner Marks 25-Year Anniversary Amid Indie Content Renaissance

For 25 years, YourPaysitePartner has teamed up with stars and entrepreneurial brands to bring their one-stop-shop adult content dreams to life — and given the indie paysite renaissance of the past few years, the company’s efforts have paid off in spades.

Alejandro Freixes ·
opinion

WIA Profile: B. Wilde

B. Wilde considers herself a strategic, creative, analytical and entertaining person by nature — all useful traits for a “marketing girlie,” a label she happily embraces.

Women In Adult ·
opinion

Proportionality in Age Verification

Ever-evolving age verification (AV) regulations make it critical for companies in the adult sector to ensure legal compliance while protecting the privacy of adults wishing to view adult content. In the past, however, adult sites implementing AV solutions have seen up to a 60% drop in traffic as a result.

Gavin Worrall ·
opinion

Goodbye to Noncompete Agreements in the US?

A noncompetition agreement, also known as a noncompete clause or covenant not to compete, is a contract between an employer and an employee, or between two companies.

Corey D. Silverstein ·
opinion

The Search for Perfection in Your Payments Page

There has been a lot of talk about changes to cross sales and checkout pages. You have likely noticed that acquirers are now actively pushing back on allowing merchants to offer a negative option, upsell or any cross sales on payment pages.

Cathy Beardsley ·
Show More