23/8/2019 Porn could have a bigger economic influence on the US than Netflix

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Quartz June 20, 2018

Man takes a photo of a porn actress

You shell out $11 for Netflix, $15 for movie tickets, and
$25 for cheap NBA seats. But how does America’s
porn obsession fuel the economy?

In 2012, respondents to an XBIZ poll estimated the

industry makes about $5 billion a year. According to
Alex Helmy, founder and publisher of adult-
entertainment trade publication XBIZ, that figure would
likely be over $6 billion if the poll ran again today in
What to Read Next
2018.

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smuggling American shoes into Canada

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23/8/2019 Porn could have a bigger economic influence on the US than Netflix

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2 Top Entertainment Stocks to Buy Now
That said,
Search revenue
for news, estimates
symbols for the porn industry vary
or companies Motley Fool

widely. Some believe the industry does not even make

Finance Home Watchlists $6My
billion a year, while
Portfolio others say
Screeners it makes $10 Markets
Premium billion, Industries
$15 billion, or even $97 billion. Because most porn
firms are privately held, it’s impossible to get a
completely accurate estimate, Helmy says.

“The safe estimate is to say it’s worth billions, but I

don’t know exactly how many billion, and no one
does,” said Dan Miller, managing editor of AVN,
another trade publication covering porn.

Private companies and rampant piracy aren’t the only

things that make it tough to estimate porn revenues.
Different researchers use their own methodologies
when considering how to classify porn or adult
California Man Makes $2.8M Trading From
entertainment. Some place amateur porn, web Raging Bull Sponsored
camming, sex toys, and even strip clubs into one big
bucket of sex-industry revenue, while others only
consider the porn industry to be comprised of money
being made by professional media and entertainment
companies.

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How much money does the

porn industry make?

The graph below shows how the low and high realistic
estimates ($6 billion and $15 billion) for porn’s annual
revenue stack up against other entertainment titansAfter Hours: Hasbro Makes a $4 Billion
that drive popular culture. As you can see, the pornAcquisition; Salesforce Posts Forceful Q
Motley Fool
industry is no lightweight economically.

Despite how frequently people use porn—Pornhub

alone claims it racked up 28.5 billion views last year—
its economic power remains hidden among the

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23/8/2019 Porn could have a bigger economic influence on the US than Netflix

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masses. Unlike Search whose
forms of entertainment, Mobile More
What Kind Of Investor Owns Most Of Alli
news regularly gets splashed across the front pageEsports
of Entertainment Inc. (NASDAQ:AE
Search for news,
consumer symbolsrumblings
publications, or companies
within the adult Simply Wall St.

entertainment industry are typically only followed by

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niche Screeners
trade audiences. Premium
Due to the Markets
taboo shrouding Industries

sexual content, a porn company can make hundreds

of millions of dollars through monopolistic practices
while remaining unknown to most consumers.

Many companies that seemingly have nothing to do

with sex also indirectly profit off porn. As Frontline laid
bare, phone carriers like AT&T, satellite TV providers
like DirecTV, and hotel chains like Marriott have
earned millions by piping in smut to their customers.

“It’s the crazy aunt in the attic,” an AT&T official told

the New York Times. “Everyone knows she’s there, but
you can’t say anything about it.”

Meanwhile, people now surf for porn from the comfort

of their basements thanks to technologies that the
industry helped popularize. The internet gave people a
way to privatize their unmentionable habits, and this
dynamic pushed porn firms to become early adopters
of many tech features, such as digital credit-card
transactions, instant messaging, and video streaming.
Current emerging technologies like VR are getting
boosts from porn, too.

The porn industry’s adaptability also transfers to how

they do business. Similar to the music industry’s woes,
piracy cut into porn’s profits. Porn companies adapted
by designing new business models around licensing,
educational courses, live camming, crowdsourcing,
event hosting, and commerce. Porn also has its own
trade publications, industry events, talent agents, and
lobbyists.

Story continues

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