While below Instagram, Yahoo, Amazon and Youtube, it ranks above Amazon, Walmart and TikTok. Pornhub is in the top 15 websites in the United States. The Canada based company founded in 2007 has soared in popularity. Porn is a global $97 billion industry with about $12 billion from the US. In their annual data release, they give insight into what Americans are thinking behind closed doors. Public declarations, shifting dynamics among age groups and more makes the data even more interesting. Pornhub’s statisticians make use of Google Analytics to figure out the most likely age and gender of visitors. This data is anonymized from billions of visits to Pornhub annually, giving us one of the richest and most diverse data sets to analyze traffic from all around the world.
The Big Picture
About 40 million American watch porn annually. Gone are the days of the porn superstar. The reality category grew by 169% to become one of the top 20 categories, while popularity of the amateur category dropped slightly by 19%. Their statisticians theorize that as more amateur models have become full-time performers, the quality of their videos has improved, but visitors are still seeking a real homemade porn experience. Women view reality 37% more than men making it their 12th most popular category compared to men’s 15th.
Women are also watching more porn with a 36% increase over last year. Overall, 25-34 year old men and women watch the most and the 65+ watch the least. And 86% watch on a mobile phone.
Feet are the most specialized type watched with an increase of 38%. This was driven in 145% more women watching the toe-curling action.
Last year “lesbian” become the favorite search in the United States, replacing the previous favorite “hentai”. In 2019 and 2017 the top US term was “lesbian”, as was “milf” in 2018. “Ebony” and “Latina” searches moved ahead of “Asian” to round out the Top 5 US Searches.
Red vs Blue States
The top 10 states to watch porn are red states and mostly Southern. Alabama, Louisiana, South and North Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky are joined by Indiana and Missouri for spending the most screen time. Meanwhile Washington, Delaware, Oregon, DC and Colorado seem to have other things to do.
Across the board, it looks like Monday night at 11 pm is the most popular time with Tuesday at 5 am the least popular.
When you drill down to states – there are some surprises when it comes to top searches. Oregon is into Furrys, Nevada into cartoons, and Colorado is into Goth. Florida likes BBC, Maine loves anime and South Carolina search GlLF the most.
Trans are also showing a 22% increase from men and is driving a whole subset of speciality entertainment.
Popular with Gen Z (18-24 year olds) are threesomes, cosplay and cartoon. Gen Y prefers Asian, feet and tattooed. Boomers (the 55 and up crowd) likes handjobs, mature and babe rounded out with vintage porn.
As the classic country song goes “when you get behind closed doors”.
Dreu is the owner of VanHoose Hemp Co in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
“My aunts and uncles, they were really big on herbal natural alternative medicines as a way of healing oneself. So I’d like to say I come from a family of healers all the way from my grandfather, which comes full circle.”
Dreu VanHoose
Born and raised in the DMV area (District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia), Dreu VanHoose attended Drexel University, where she developed a fascination with plant science. Having endured chronic back pain, Dreu began researching plant cannabinoids and the human endocannabinoid system.
Upon moving back to D.C., where growing weed was legal at the time, she taught herself how to cultivate cannabis and began tending to her own set up, researching and absorbing every detail and best practice. When the Farm Bill passed in 2018, Dreu, whose grandparents live in Alabama, decided to begin growing cannabis on a 10-acre plot of land that she inherited from her family.
As she worked to obtain her cultivation license, Dreu became the recipient of the Young Farmers Grant, and continues to partner with HBCUs like Tuskegee and Alabama A&M to do cannabis cultivation research. Through her company, VanHoose Hemp Co., Dreu aims to do more than grow cannabis. Her goal is to advocate for and create a space for women, individuals with previous cannabis-related charges, disabled veterans, and others to flourish in the industry. “Our slogan is Real, Organic and Rooted, and like I say we’re real people,” she says.
The South may be the last frontier for state cannabis legalization, but the region could be a boon for the industry once the floodgates open.
A report from cannabis consulting firm Global Go posits that Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana could provide value for entrepreneurs sitting on the sidelines of Florida’s limited vertical model — especially given Alabama’s approval of medical cannabis last May and further expansions in the other three state’s existing medical programs.
But the success has little to do with the “overall political leanings of (a state electorate),” said Tom Adams, principal analyst and CEO of Global Go and author of the report “Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana: A Second Shot at Southern State Cannabis Profitability.”
Photo by Anton Petrus/Getty Images
Instead, it has “everything to do with how liberally medical programs are regulated,” he wrote. Factors for that include:
Limits on types of products allowed.
Qualified conditions approved.
Rules for prescribing doctors.
Store count limits and local opt-out rules.
“Politics absolutely matters, but it’s because it affects these factors that really determine how successful a market can be,” Adams told Green Market Report.
Access is key, in part because cannabis consumption is notoriously underreported. For example, more Oklahomans signed up for their state’s laissez-fair medical cannabis program than admitted to using the product in surveys conducted before legalization.
In Louisiana, participation in the medical program also ballooned after the legislature passed a law to allow more retail sale of flower.
However, the fact that Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana do not have ballot initiative processes remains a critical issue. Adoption and expansion of the programs depend on the will of the state legislatures — and lobbying and educating elected social conservatives in the Bible Belt on the cannabis question has proved sluggish.
Growth Potential
“Still, even if the region only sees Missouri’s $33.08 per capita spending in 2021, just over half Florida’s level, the combined markets could grow quickly to nearly $800 million,” Adams wrote.
Andrew Livingston, director of economics and research for Denver-based cannabis law firm Vicente Sederberg LLP, noted that the word “potential” is key when it comes to speculating growth stories.
“All the states have huge potential,” he told Green Market Report. “They just need to either pass medical cannabis laws or take their existing limited medical cannabis laws and expand them to allow patients to fully come into the markets.”
Livingston noted that state-level medical cannabis laws help demonstrate the legitimacy of cannabis patients and business.
“That legitimacy changes the lives of voters at the state level and those state level voters put pressure on federal legislators to evolve and recognize,” he added.
He believes that Mississippi, which permits flower sales and does not cap the amount of licenses operators can hold, “will show over time the potential of a market that allows the patients to truly actualize their demand.”
Photo by OlegMalyshev/Getty Images
Pressure from Florida
Despite tight Southern medical markets, the possibility that Florida will adopt adult-use consumption next year could open the floodgates for cross-border traffic and potentially persuade neighboring legislatures to open up their markets to capture that revenue for state coffers, Adams said.
“Because, boy, if Florida goes adult use, and anybody from Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana can go down there and get cannabis, that’s just money left on the table by the legislatures of those states,” he said.
“The big move will happen when Florida goes adult and and suddenly, there’s hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue at stake.”
