GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - What created the greatest explosion in porn sales and what can we learn from it?

kane · 02-08-2009, 12:58 PM

I still have to think it is the internet. Sure, a lot of people online don't buy. That is a given, but many do buy. Before the internet if you wanted porn you had to either buy it (could be expensive) or rent it. Either way you had to go to a porn store and risk being seen by friends, co-workers, neighbors or whoever. The last thing people wanted was to be seen by your kids teacher leaving a porn store with a copy of "Triple Anal Gangbang" in hand.

The internet made all of that anonymous. It allowed people to join a site and check out all the porn they wanted and be anonymous in doing so. Millions from around the globe now had access to porn where they may not have had access before. Before getting porn could mean having to drive a long way (depending on where you lived) and now it was just a few clicks away.

I actually don't think overall online porn sales have dropped that much. I think they are now just spread out more than ever. Back in the earlier days there were a lot less companies and those companies controlled much of the traffic and many of the sales. Now there are tons of small webmasters and programs all over the globe and the sales are now spread out across them all. For example in 1999 you might have had 100 webmasters that were all sending 50 joins a month spread out among a couple of different programs. Now those 5000 joins are still being sent, they are just spread out over more programs and instead of 100 webmasters there are 400 webmasters sending them. So overall sales in the industry haven't dropped that much, they are just diluted among more programs and more webmasters. With tube sites the sales are starting to now switch to cams and dating because that is all those types of sites can sell.

The VCR and movie rentals revolutionized the porn industry. The internet helped it really realize its potential and brought it to every corner of the globe, giving access to millions who would not have otherwise had access. Yes, there are a lot of freeloaders that don't really exist as much in the the brick and mortar world, but I would offer this thought: The last time I was in a porn store was probably around 1998-1999. The store that was closest to my house had a lot of movies for rent (or purchase), magazines and toys. They also had a bunch of booths where you could spend a buck or two and jerk off to a movie. In the 20 minutes or so I was in there I saw about 5 different guys come in, get 1-2 dollars worth of tokens and go into the booth. They were in and out in a few minutes and never even stopped to look at the movies or items for sale. To me those guys are kind of like freeloading surfers. They don't spend much, but they count as customers to the store and help the bottom line of the store. If I run a TGP and I get 100,000 freeloaders a day I may not sell them a membership, just like the porn store didn't sell the guys in the jack booths a video or toy, but I can use them to make money. I can sell advertising based on the number of visitors my site gets. I can also sell the traffic in general to a broker. I can trade the traffic with other sites and I can redirect them to other offers/sites which could net me a return. So maybe I don't sell them membership or a tangible good, but I can use them to make money. In that case you can argue that any visitor to a site is worth something. Even if they don't spend anything on my site they can help with the bottom line.

02-08-2009, 12:58 PM
kane Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: portland, OR Posts: 20,684	I still have to think it is the internet. Sure, a lot of people online don't buy. That is a given, but many do buy. Before the internet if you wanted porn you had to either buy it (could be expensive) or rent it. Either way you had to go to a porn store and risk being seen by friends, co-workers, neighbors or whoever. The last thing people wanted was to be seen by your kids teacher leaving a porn store with a copy of "Triple Anal Gangbang" in hand. The internet made all of that anonymous. It allowed people to join a site and check out all the porn they wanted and be anonymous in doing so. Millions from around the globe now had access to porn where they may not have had access before. Before getting porn could mean having to drive a long way (depending on where you lived) and now it was just a few clicks away. I actually don't think overall online porn sales have dropped that much. I think they are now just spread out more than ever. Back in the earlier days there were a lot less companies and those companies controlled much of the traffic and many of the sales. Now there are tons of small webmasters and programs all over the globe and the sales are now spread out across them all. For example in 1999 you might have had 100 webmasters that were all sending 50 joins a month spread out among a couple of different programs. Now those 5000 joins are still being sent, they are just spread out over more programs and instead of 100 webmasters there are 400 webmasters sending them. So overall sales in the industry haven't dropped that much, they are just diluted among more programs and more webmasters. With tube sites the sales are starting to now switch to cams and dating because that is all those types of sites can sell. The VCR and movie rentals revolutionized the porn industry. The internet helped it really realize its potential and brought it to every corner of the globe, giving access to millions who would not have otherwise had access. Yes, there are a lot of freeloaders that don't really exist as much in the the brick and mortar world, but I would offer this thought: The last time I was in a porn store was probably around 1998-1999. The store that was closest to my house had a lot of movies for rent (or purchase), magazines and toys. They also had a bunch of booths where you could spend a buck or two and jerk off to a movie. In the 20 minutes or so I was in there I saw about 5 different guys come in, get 1-2 dollars worth of tokens and go into the booth. They were in and out in a few minutes and never even stopped to look at the movies or items for sale. To me those guys are kind of like freeloading surfers. They don't spend much, but they count as customers to the store and help the bottom line of the store. If I run a TGP and I get 100,000 freeloaders a day I may not sell them a membership, just like the porn store didn't sell the guys in the jack booths a video or toy, but I can use them to make money. I can sell advertising based on the number of visitors my site gets. I can also sell the traffic in general to a broker. I can trade the traffic with other sites and I can redirect them to other offers/sites which could net me a return. So maybe I don't sell them membership or a tangible good, but I can use them to make money. In that case you can argue that any visitor to a site is worth something. Even if they don't spend anything on my site they can help with the bottom line.