Playboy To Leverage Online and Mobile for Company Growth

Playboy reported their earnings today and it's interesting to note that their online and mobile businesses create more revenue ($17.7 million) for the company than any other of their entertainment properties which includes domestic and international TV. In fact, online/mobile even generates more revenue for the company than magazine subscribtions do.

We wrote about PlayboyU, the social network that allows students to post non-nude photos and interact with each other around partying. Checking PlayboyU today, it seems they are experiencing a good growth rate in users.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Christie Hefner said, "Looking ahead, our strategy is to grow the company leveraging both the 'high tech' and 'high touch' attributes of the Playboy brand. In the media businesses, our first goal is to return our online and mobile properties to strong growth drivers. These efforts will entail investments in technology, marketing and content, which should begin to show results by the end of the year."

While monetization of PlayboyU appears to come in the form of advertising for Playboy DVDs, would a free ad-supported model work for the Playboy.com Web site? Maybe a combination? Currently most of the photos and videos are behind a (very expensive) pay wall.