In prior blog entries, I’ve spoken about the education we are collectively getting with regards to internet traffic and advertising trends on social networking and user generated content sharing web sites. I have to take the time now and speak up about a great trend. After looking the breakdown of visitor traffic to many of the busiest adult themed social network sites online, I am intrigued to see that such a large proportion of the overall traffic on these sites is focused towards male erotica.

Whether looking at social networking sites such as XPeeps.com and others or the variety of user-generated content social sites, such as Rude.com, PornoTube.com and others, in some cases the proportion of male/gay targeted traffic volume can range from 40-60% of overall users. This is exciting new, from the perspective of supply and demand in the adult online business. Typically, there has been far less available male erotica/gay targeted traffic inventory available for promotion of other sites over the years. From a seller’s perspective, it has been frustrating to be oversold and not have enough qualified traffic in this arena to satisfy the demand of various advertisers. The gay market within adult online has always represented great economic opportunity for the merchant sites. This is due to the demographics of gay households and also due to internet sites being one of very few points of discreet access for male erotica for some men in society who do not label themselves as gay or even bi-sexual, just curious.

We have been told that gay people (men and women combined) could be as much as 10% or more of the world’s population. If that’s correct, it’s interesting to see how many of the newer Web 2.0 social sites are defying this standard with over a third of overall traffic being interested in gay market products.

Beyond the social impact and meaning of all this, one thing is clear – there is and will continue to be a large proportion of user generated content and social networking sites that will generate a significant share of their revenue streams from users looking for male erotica. Industry friends, clients and others have asked me if the gay adult internet market is saturated. I have mostly answered no as there will always be room for innovative and original gay content access sites to claim their share of the limited pie. From a traffic availability standpoint, the gay market has been growing, but at a moderate pace with respect to other forms of erotica online. As of today, I would say that the market outlook for male erotica on the web has never looked better.