Between PornHub, Youporn, xHamster and numerous other free porn websites, porn consumers haven't had to type in a credit card number in years. The business model of porn changed, opening up many avenues for free or near-free consumption. The major websites adapted, offering premium services for a fee. This is one of the most noteworthy trends on xHamster's trend report for 2019.
There is a lot to look at on the xHamster trend report and unlike other recent reports from porn sites the one from xHamster seems to be more focused on growth areas and political and sociological effects on porn habits. The biggest growing trend is visits from women to porn sites. xHamster predicts that women will make up 30% of the worldwide audience, based on xHamster's own traffic from women jumping 41% in the United States alone last year.
Also see: LG Roll-up TV Joins Samsung And Sony In Entertainment In Excess At CES 2019
That spike in women hitting the site is reflected in the mobile versus desktop usage stats. Women make up 29.65% of visitors on mobile versus 24.48% on desktop. Some of this might have to do with sociopolitical factors, as in some countries the only place a woman can use a computer with any semblance of privacy is on their mobile devices. As for mobile as a whole, 63.67% of visits to xHamster come from mobile devices, which indicates that more and more people are accessing porn on something other than the home or work computer (don't watch porn at work, it's a bit creepy).
Women all over the world are accessing porn in greater numbers. In the Dominican Republic, women account for 53% of xHamster visitors, offering hope for every other sector of life that could use more women in charge. Over the last year, Australia saw the biggest percentage growth in women, notching a 34.38% increase. The United States was seventh on that list, coming in at 27.84%. xHamster's "Porn for Women" category itself saw a 284% increase in viewers and is the second most popular category in the states.
While there is some search variability between women and men, users are beginning to pay for porn again. While xHamster doesn't charge for content (but does have a Premium Site) it does have user registration, a leading indicator in actual purchases. This, tacked on to sites like Tumblr dumping its porn content as well as an explosion in cam and subscription based fan sites, indicates a growing trend in paying for porn again.
Remember placing affiliate links on your blog to reap part of that pay-for-porn traffic? Well, while those days aren't exactly back, the pay for porn market appears to have morphed into something completely different. Paying for DVDs is very early 2000s, but subscribing to a cam model and paying for private sessions or intimate pictures appears to be the new paradigm of porn purveying. We appear to be more willing to pay for traditional porn than truly embrace new tech such as AR/VR or robotic sex dolls. Frankly, with all the streaming services we already subscribe to, paying for niche porn services seems like an easy transition.
You can read the entire xHamster trend report for 2019 here, complete with colorful charts and graphs.
