Fortune Report Looks at VR Porn

Fortune Report Looks at VR Porn

LOS ANGELES — As porn and Virtual Reality continue their collision, mainstream media is taking notice.

Calling porn “Virtual Reality’s dirty little secret,” Fortune author John Gaudiosi recently outlined analysts belief that in addition to mainstream movies and video games, adult entertainment will motivate many early adopters of VR technology — a not too-secret secret that will benefit major stakeholders, including Facebook-owned Oculus, Google, Microsoft and more.

Gaudiosi cited Piper Jaffray research analyst Travis Jakel, and his prediction that adult entertainment will be the number three driver of VR content, growing into a $1 billion industry by 2020.

Jakel’s figures show that three percent of VR users will pay $35 for adult content in 2016. This amount is typical of a monthly membership at a higher-end adult paysite — and accounts for $13 million worth of the projected total VR market in 2016.

Adult industry insiders will note that the three percent figure seems extraordinarily low, while the single shot $35 payment could indicate analysts expectations that early adult VR content offers may not match many consumers’ expectations, and thus not induce repeat purchases.

A further note on the three percent figure is that it is the number of users expected to pay for their porn — not the number of users expected to view VR porn — with the adult entertainment industry likely to continue its headlong rush towards giving away all of its content for free, skewing such VR usage stats.

For comparison, the same research predicts that five percent of VR users will spend an average of $56.66 on games (the top slot, at $35 million of the market), while 15 percent of VR users will spend an average of $8.19 on movies (the second place position with $15 million of the market).

Tractica VR analyst Craig Foster believes that the combined revenue for head-mounted displays (HMDs), VR accessories and content will jump from $108.8 million in 2014 to $21.8 billion by 2020, representing an annual global growth of 142 percent, with content quickly coming to the fore.

“As adoption begins to reach a critical mass, the industry’s revenue mix will quickly shift from hardware sales to content,” Foster says. “Content sales will represent more than one-third of total VR revenue by 2017, and will quickly grow to nearly two-thirds of all VR revenue by 2020.”

Piper Jaffray senior research analyst Gene Munster currently estimates porn to be a $25 billion industry with a primarily male demographic that is keen on new technology, and which provides a reliable test audience for product development, ensuring at least an awkward nod to the genre’s value.

“Whenever there’s a shift in content conception, it’s typically adult entertainment that’s the first monetizable app,” Munster says. “History repeats itself and we’ve seen adult entertainment drive sales of VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, high definition, mobile, and online video over the years.”

Many analysts and VR promoters expect it to become the defining visual technology, especially for the younger generations of consumers, with some forward looking adult producers already embracing this “shift in content conception.”

“I see it through a generational lens,” Todd Glider, CEO of BaDoink, an early adopter of VR porn says. “VR porn will not have a pronounced effect on the demographic born before 1980. However, for the generations born after, the ones that reach adulthood in a world where 24/7 access to adult content is just a mouse-click away, that’s the audience for VR porn, and it will be huge.”

As for the broader business perspective, recent analysis by XBIZ Research reveals that more than half of adult entertainment industry insiders believe that Virtual Reality will revolutionize porn; with the biggest segments of the market predicted to be live cams (41 percent), 3D rendered virtual worlds (30 percent), and recorded video content (29 percent).

Related:  

Copyright © 2024 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More News

Justices Alito, Thomas Invoke Victorian-Era Morality Law, Raising Censorship Concerns

Several national publications reported this week on widespread concern among Free Speech advocates after U.S. Supreme Court Justices Samuel Scalia and Clarence Thomas repeatedly invoked during a hearing the infamous segregation-era law the Comstock Act, which was the cornerstone of U.S. censorship of sexual material from the 1870s until the 1970s.

Skinfluential Management's FansFuel Acquires Fanwire

FansFuel has acquired creator account management tool Fanwire.

Nebraska AV Bill Moves Forward Despite Privacy, Free Speech Concerns

Nebraska’s unicameral Legislature has given first-round approval to LB 1092, the state’s version of the age verification bills being sponsored around the country by anti-porn religious conservative activists.

AEBN Celebrates 25th Anniversary

The Adult Entertainment Broadcast Network (AEBN) is celebrating its 25th year in business this week.

Performers in Meta Blacklisting Lawsuit Seek to Preserve Antitrust Claims

Adult Performance Artists Guild board officers Alana Evans, Kelly Pierce and Ruby have informed a California court that, although they want to drop their lawsuit claiming that Meta conspired with OnlyFans to blacklist rival premium fan platforms’ talent, they may still pursue antitrust claims in the future.

FSC, Co-Plaintiffs to Ask US Supreme Court to Review Constitutionality of Texas Age Verification Law

Free Speech Coalition (FSC) and its co-plaintiffs in the challenge to Texas’ controversial age verification law have petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to stay its recent decision upholding the law, because they intend to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to review the law’s constitutionality.

FSC Vows to Fight Florida Age Verification Law

Free Speech Coalition (FSC) has issued a statement vowing to continue fighting Florida’s new age verification law, which was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday as part of a comprehensive bill targeting minors’ use of social media.

Kansas Republican Aims to Create New Bureaucracy to 'Investigate' Porn Websites

Republican state legislators succeeded Monday in moving forward Kansas’ version of the age verification bills being sponsored around the country by anti-porn religious conservative activists, despite serious concerns raised by House Democrats about the cost of establishing a new bureaucracy tasked with investigating websites for pornographic content.

SK Intertainment Launches 'Skinfluential Management' Agency, FansFuel Joint Venture

Mr. Skin/Mr. Man parent company SK Intertainment has launched new creator agency Skinfluential Management, as well as a new joint venture with Showbizz Media's creator stats and affiliate marketing platform, FansFuel.

Industry Attorney, Free Speech Champion Clyde DeWitt Passes Away at 75

Noted industry attorney Clyde DeWitt passed away on Friday in Las Vegas at 75, according to friends and colleagues.

Show More