Obscene Losses

A pretty fascinating article in Portfolio tells the story of what may be the decline in the traditional pornographic business, due almost entirely to competition from free Internet content, and specifically, a new company called YouPorn. Traditionally, the technological changes have led to increased consumption of pornographic material and increased revenue. But with Web 2.0 technology, for the first time they are diverging. And it's partly because, even though it's been years now, no one in this business has been able to monetize this new technology so to maintain growth. YouPorn brings in about $120,000 in ad revenue a month, and so is but a tiny fraction of what large adult businesses generate annually (hundreds of millions, and over 12 billion for the industry as a whole), but it appears to be crippling the industry. Fascinating article, and worth your read only if you aren't offended by the content.