The future of porn? Men and women huddled around smartphones and tablets watching free "tube" sites, according to a survey of executives and performers in the adult entertainment industry.
The survey, released on Wednesday by Xbiz, an adult industry trade magazine, also found more than half of those surveyed do not plan to buy or use a .XXX domain for their content.
The survey didn't disclose how many of its members responded to the survey, which included "stakeholders" such as adult site operators, distributors, software providers, and ad networks, as well as the performers themselves. But the topics included 3D, .XXX domains, mobile viewing, and the rise of free porn, as well as non-tech related issues such as the mandatory use of condoms.
Porn typically has been seen as progressive in terms of technology: it quickly adopted VHS cassettes, moved to the Internet, and tried out 3D technology and games. But the survey also illustrates that the majority of the porn industry doesn't favor 3D, is against .XXX, and believes the future of online porn is moving away from the PC.
3D
In 3D, for example, 52 percent of those surveyed said that they agreed with the statement, "There will be limited consumer demand; select producers will profit". Twenty-nine percent said there would be no demand for 3D content, and just 19 percent thought it "would usher in great profits for the industry".
Although 3D technology started being ushered in in 2010, concerns about the viability of 3D movies surfaced even then. And two adult film titans quoted by the study put its future in doubt.
"No more than the 1960s when it became the phenomenon of cinema," Larry Flynt, chief executive of Larry Flynt Publications, said when asked about the future of 3D. "I don't think there'll be a great future for it."
"It seems that 3D is certainly not there yet," added Steven Hirsch, the founder of Vivid Entertainment. "This could change quickly when glasses-free 3D televisions finally make their way into the marketplace. Unfortunately, this won't happen overnight and until then it's really a non-starter."
.XXX
In March 2011, the Internet Center for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved the .XXX top-level domain. The porn industry staged protests, claiming that the new domain was merely a shakedown effort to secure more money.
Perhaps as a result, a majority of those surveyed said they had no plans to register an .XXX domain: 35 percent out of principle, and an additional 17 percent because of a lack of value. An additional 22 percent said they planned to buy an .XXX domain to protect a trademark, a practice that other industries, including universities, have employed.
"I do not see the value and I do not support .XXX," said Michael Klein, the president of Hustler, as quoted in the study. "We have been very vocal in our feelings about .XXX, which we feel all it does is cause an unnecessary financial burden to adult companies having to register all their domains under .XXX at ridiculously high prices whereas there there is no value as consumers can easily find what they want at any .com site."
However, Steven Gallon, chief executive of Grooby Productions, said that he snapped up Ladyboy.xxx to develop a new, prominent transsexual site for the Asian market.
Mobile viewing
Whoever thought that the future of porn might be Google TV?
Just under 44 percent of those surveyed thought that smartphones and tablets would overtake PCs as the primary medium for viewing porn. But an additional 17.7 percent thought that Internet-enabled TVs and devices would become the primary porn medium.
"Over the next two years, I'd say that desktops/laptops will remain the primary porn viewing platform. Out more than five years, however, I predict that tablets and mobile devices will become the dominant platform," said Colin Rowntree, the owner of Wasteland.
"Porn viewing is sort of a solitary activity and most people have wives, girlfriends, children and other people in the house to contend with," Rowntree added. "What is really going to take off when there is sufficient market saturation are tablets, because they are cheaper than laptops and you can take them to bed with you."
Piracy and free porn
Piracy, not surprisingly, has penetrated porn in much the same way that it has affected the mainstream movie industry. But the real problem has been the "tube" sites: derivatives of YouTube, where adults can film themselves and their friends, and post it to the Internet, all for free. The blurring of professional and amateur adult content was named as the most significant issue facing the porn industry by 44.2 percent of those surveyed. Tied for second? Economic instability and piracy.
Not surprisingly, the porn industry favors prosecuting pirates: those that share, almost certainly, but even end users in some cases. Thirty-eight percent said that the industry should prosecute pirates, and an additional third said that should include end users. Only 29 percent felt that suits were ineffective.
"I believe three of the results are actually one in the same problem: availability of free porn, market saturation and piracy," said Brad Mitchell, president of MojoHost. "A preponderance of great original content (market saturation) is not a problem, rather the largest part of our opportunity. I believe that original works pirated excessively across free porn sites without revenue participation from copyright holders is the underlying, foremost concern."
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