Coronavirus Pandemic Providing Boon to Pornography; Spending, Traffic Both Up

Americans apparently ran out of wholesome pursuits during coronavirus pandemic lockdowns and upped their spending on adult entertainment, mostly using their phones for their lascivious perusals.

The porn industry is a multibillion-dollar business with estimates valuing it as high as $97 billion annually, with the pandemic proving a boon for business. PornHub, which offered free passes to what’s billed as the world’s largest porn site, saw traffic nearly triple March 14-17 as lockdowns were imposed worldwide. In the U.S., traffic just about doubled during the period.

Last week, the site offered free advertising to small businesses.

“We noticed that when it comes to which businesses are more easily bouncing back from the pandemic – size matters – and over 100,000 small businesses have already permanently closed due to coronavirus,” PornHub Vice President Corey Price said in a press release last week.

“To give a little extra love and support to small businesses during this uncertain time, we’re introducing our ‘Big Package’ for small businesses to give small businesses the opportunity to tap into our audience of 130 million daily visitors and gain the exposure they deserve during the pandemic.”

Americans increased their spending on pornography in recent months to $1.14 billion a month, compared to $885 million a month last year, the premium social network for female models IsMyGirl said in a report released to International Business Times.

“There are so many sites that now offer customization where fans can literally request specific videos from their dream girl or guy. It's almost like they get to be the director of their own film, rather than watch a random studio film that doesn't feature any of their interests or fetishes," CEO Evan Seinfeld told IBT in an email. "It’s a win-win scenario in that the content creators are getting paid for whatever they create [and largely cutting out the middle man] and people are receiving premium content directly from their favorite models and creators.

Per person, that came to $8.12 a month, compared to $4.11 last year. Britons and Australians spent even more: Spending among Britons soared to $16.03 a month each from $10.49, and for Australians, to $21.56 from $17.23.

And you know those jokes about dirty old men? They’re apparently spot-on. The report found baby boomers spent $13.19 per month, compared with $8.87 for Generation X and $4.31 for millennials.

The report also broke down areas of interest. Millennials were interested in Asian women and attractive married women with children while Gen Xers were interested in big-breasted women, redheads, lesbians and tattooed women. Boomers searched for ebony, transgender, mature and closed captions.

The most popular device for viewing porn was the cellphone (72%), followed by desk top computer (20%) and tablet (11%). That held true for people in the U.K. and Australia as well although the percentages differed slightly.

And where in the United States is viewing porn most popular? IsMyGirl said 12.3% of its accounts are for people in the District of Columbia, followed by Alabama, 10.7%; South Carolina, 10.2%; New York, 9.6%, and Louisiana, 9.4%.