Cape Town - The global market for internet video pornography is set to grow by 55% as people in developing countries come online, new research has found.
According to research organisation Juniper, around 136 billion adult videos globally will be consumed in 2015 - about 348 for every porn consumer.
By 2020, that number is expected to reach 193 billion as the expansion of high speed mobile internet in emerging markets drives access to adult content.
Though the company's Digital Adult Content: Market Trends, Forecasts & Revenue Opportunities 2015-2020 report found that growth will be the highest in developing countries, it is largely off a lower base than mature markets like the US and Western Europe, which will continue to see the highest net growth.
But while the adult content is likely to experience healthy growth, revenue is expected to come under pressure because of the proliferation of free content.
Massive revenue
Niche porn offerings such as video chat and streaming adult webcams are also set to be standout performers in a sector that is focused on subscriptions as a revenue driver.
Research suggests that global revenue from porn tops $97bn annually, with China being the highest global consumer at $27.4bn, followed by South Korea ($25.73bn), Japan ($18.88bn) and the US ($13.33bn).
That means that revenue from porn is more than double that of Naspers, Anglo-American and SAB Beverages combined.
The top search term for porn is "sex", while South Africans searching adult content on the internet use the search term "porn" more often that Ireland, New Zealand and the UK.
Adult content on the internet correlates to an acute demand for sex and related services, wrote Kimberly S Young in the Internet Sex Addiction Risk Factors, Stages of Development, and Treatment research paper.
"Given the widespread availability of sexually explicit material online, internet sex addiction is the most common form of problem online behaviour among users."
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