Do web hook-ups hurt the sex industry?

In a profession notoriously resilient to hard times, online dating sites threaten to do what the global financial crisis could not - send Australia's sex services industry broke.

The A$1.2 billion industry has bled A$74 million over the past financial year, with brothels taking the hardest hit. In contrast, the market for exotic dancers and strippers, albeit starting from a small base, has steadily grown.

Sex is up there with tobacco and alcohol, according to the independent business information analyst IBISWorld. Recessions and depressions appear to have little impact on abstinence.

But while prostitution has proven through the ages to have the stamina to withstand the vagaries of the economic climate, the digital age may prove to be the profession's nemesis.

A senior analyst at IBISWorld, Edward Butler, who used industry surveys and Australian Bureau of Statistics data to crunch the numbers, said the 6 per cent contraction the sex industry experienced in the last financial year was most likely attributable to the surge in online dating sites which allow people to be frank about their penchant for casual sex.

''It's not the most precise science compared to other industries,'' said Mr Butler, who conceded the project was probably the most unusual he has tackled in his economics career.

''We've had to be more intuitive, but we're pretty confident of the results. The rapid growth in online services means it has never been easier for like-minded individuals to organise casual liaisons for little or no cost.''

About 1.5 million Australians now have accounts with sites such as RSVP, LavaLife and eHarmony, the majority expressing the intention of finding a long-term relationship.

A ''casual liaisons'' community set up by website RSVP (owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of the Sydney Morning Herald) six months ago now has more than 1600 members, but that pales in comparison to many of the website's other niche communities, such as Christian singles, with more than 7000 members, and ''Tradie For a Lady'' (more than 10,000).

But other sites which are more upfront about their purpose, such as FlingFinder, adultmatchmaker.com.au and benaughty.com are proliferating. Such claims as having more than 4 million members were patently ridiculous, Mr Butler said, but they were clearly having an impact on the traditional sex industry's trade.

The Adult Business Association of NSW's spokesman, Chris Seage, said he was surprised the drop in revenue had been only 6 per cent in the past year.

''Brothels aren't the goldmine they used to be 10 or 20 years ago,'' he said. ''The regular punters aren't coming as often. Rather than weekly, they're coming fortnightly or monthly and they're also cutting down on time, opting for the half-hour instead of the full hour.''

Mr Seage said the industry as a whole had not identified the growing popularity of casual sex websites as a problem.

''But I believe it is having an effect on trading. It's a lot cheaper to hook on a matchmaker site, pay a much smaller fee and engage in casual sex that way. It's an emerging issue for the industry.''

''Lee'', the manager of La Petite Aroma in Chatswood, is not buying Mr Butler's theory. She is convinced the drop in her business is due to the growing number of illegal establishments sprouting up in her local area.

''They don't pay tax and they're exploiting our industry,'' she said. ''They're putting a lot of genuine people out of business.''

- © Fairfax NZ News