OGDEN, Utah – Whenever a discussion kicks up regarding the aggregate annual revenue produced by the porn industry, you’re almost certain to hear the figure “$97 billion per year” as though it means something.
There’s just one problem with the $97 billion claim: It isn’t reliable in any way, shape or form.
To understand why I can make the above assertion so comfortably, first you have to understand the source of the $97 billion figure: an infographic published almost 10 years ago, which “went viral” among media sources. To my knowledge, not one media outlet among the hundreds that have cited the $97 billion statistic has ever done an ounce of investigation into its validity.
Here is the infographic in question, in all its glory. Make special note of how the source of the $97-billion-per-year claim is documented: “Data based on a 2006 study.”
“Which 2006 study?” one might reasonably ask. One also might wonder why the authors of the infographic would choose not to name the study, its authors or the publication in which the study was published.
The truth is quite simple, actually: There was no such “2006 study.”To the extent any research at all was done for the creation of this infographic, it was done by its creators, not by any academic or private institution with which the word “study” typically is associated.
What the authors of the infographic did was look over various articles and interviews covering the subject of estimated porn industry revenues and in completely unscientific fashion, whipped up an estimate of their own based on adding up the various estimates they had read about each sector of the porn industry — regardless whether the article to which they referred distinguished little details like geographic area, time frame or distribution platform.
In other words, if the authors of the infographic read in an old copy of AVN that overall industry sales were estimated at about $10 billion per year (which was way too high to begin with, by the way), and an article in another publication stated domestic online porn sales were estimated at $2-$3.33 billion per year, the authors of the infographic added the two together and chose the high-end figure.
Thus — voila! — domestic porn sales in the U.S. were pegged at $13.33 billion per year.
AVN‘s $10 billion figure probably intended to be a global estimate, and there’s really no way in hell domestic online sales ever topped $3 billion a year. Details, details, right? So what if the “data” isn’t exactly solid? It sounds impressive, and that was the whole point of this infographic in the first place.
Sure, it’s very likely, even in reference to the good old days of 2006, both numbers are wildly inflated, and yes, it’s pretty obvious “online” sales should be regarded as a subset of “total” sales. From the perspective of people trying to sell internet content filters, however, I think we can all agree a larger number is more alarming to prospective customers — and therefore a much better number for marketing purposes.
I can’t prove any of the above now, simply because the modern version of the infographic no longer includes citation of the individual articles which served as the source for their “2006 study.”
I looked over all the infographic’s claims in great detail when it was first published, however, and even then the data was clearly, inarguably, fantastically wrong.
Would anybody who worked in the adult industry at the time believe, for example, the adult magazine sector produced more than $ billion in revenue in 2006? I’ll tell you who definitely wouldn’t believe it: Anybody who worked in the adult magazine sector in 2006.
The adult magazine sector was in absolute free-fall by 2006, dying the death by a thousand internet cuts. Anybody who believes the magazine sector produced more than $1 billion that year is a fool, an anti-porn zealot trying to scare people with numbers or an huckster trying to sell internet content filters.
The other thing to note about this infographic is it is frequently used as a barometer of the porn industry’s current size, despite the fact the market clearly has fundamentally and massively shifted since the graphic’s publication.
Nevertheless, the $97 billion figure is cited, ad nauseum, by everyone from people who can be excused for being gullible and ignorant (like sociology professors) to people who really should know better (like Christian bloggers).
In a 2001 article, Forbes expressed skepticism the porn industry was producing $10 billion per year (the baseless estimate du jour at the time), ultimately arguing the real figure was somewhere in the range of $2.6 to $3.9 billion.
Sure, the internet spawned a lot of revenue growth for the porn industry between 2001 and 2006, but do you seriously believe it amplified revenues by more than 3,700 percent? I certainly don’t believe so — and neither should anyone else capable of critical thinking.
The next time somebody tells you “porn makes more money than Microsoft, Google and Apple combined,” remind them the year is 2015, and Apple posted $42.1 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2014 alone.
In other words, if you really believe the porn industry makes more money than Apple (let alone Apple, Microsoft and Google combined), you aren’t just gullible, you’re also functionally illiterate and can’t do simple math.
Maybe someday people will stop citing this inane and inaccurate infographic, but I doubt it. The $97 billion figure simply serves the purposes of too many people for whom the truth isn’t sexy or alarming or apocalyptic enough.
In the eyes of many porn industry critics, it’s not enough for the porn industry to be big; it has to be gargantuan. Porn has to be an inhuman Goliath to their humble David, a lumbering, evil giant, bent on destroying the lives of all who defy its appetite for profit and urge to create human misery.
On the flip side of the coin, the $97 billion number is a way for some within the industry to feel like they are part of something much larger than they truly are. “Say what you will about me pushing porn. We make more money than the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball combined, you know.”
Of course, the porn industry doesn’t, hasn’t, and won’t ever make more money than Hollywood movies, pro sports leagues — or for that matter, any single major telecommunications company (AT&T revenues for 2014 clocked in at $132.4 billion), but if we stick out our chests and say it does with enough confidence, I’m sure credulous journalists will eagerly devour every word of our bullshit, no matter how pungent it might be.
On the off chance anybody does challenge the stat, history suggests sending them this URL will remove all doubt in their mind. I mean, just look at all the colors and animated elements; it has to be true!
On a related note, does anybody sell internet content filters capable of screening out bullshit infographics? I’m pretty sure they’re slowing down my laptop more than Apple, Microsoft and Google combined….
