6.) Russia
Communist countries are not known for being friendly to adult entertainment, but lucky for the adult oriented entrepreneurs of Eastern
Europe, there are no more communist countries left in that part of the world. The fall of communism in the late 1980s and early 1990s resulted in an abundance of erotica coming from former Eastern Bloc countries, and there is no shortage of adult-oriented entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland or the Ukraine. But the top country for Eastern European porn is, by far, Russia. The former Cold War adversary has embraced capitalism in a big way, and one of the results has been an endless supply of Russian adult films (including the productions of St. Petersburg's well known SP-Company) and adult websites in the 1990s and 2000s. Adult webmaster Jaxon Jaganov, who specializes in reviews of adult-oriented sites, has often commented on how saturated Russia's adult market has become.
7.) Germany
Journalist Mark Cromer, who has written for Hustler extensively, once told XBiz that Germany is a country "whose hunger for debauched sex knows no depth, no bounds, no limits." And research by the Secure Computing Corporation, a Silicon Valley technology and security firm, indicates that Germany is every bit as porn-hungry as Cromer says it is. In 2004, Secure conducted a labor-intensive survey that analyzed
which countries other than the United States were hosting the most adult-oriented material on the Internet; Germany's .de suffix topped
the list with more than 10 million pages of Internet porn. Germany, which has a sizable adult film industry, is the home of adult entertainment giant Beate Uhse, a multifaceted outfit that not only offers an abundance of adult content online, it also boasts one of Europe's largest adult mail order businesses and operates at least 200 sex stores in nine countries.
8.) United Kingdom
In Secure Computing's 2004 survey, the United Kingdom was right behind Germany with more than 8.5 million pages of Internet porn being hosted in the .uk suffix. Despite having some of Western Europe's more restrictive obscenity laws — certainly compared to much of Continental Europe — the fact is that Great Britain has a long history of erotic expression. England helped write the book on S&M/bondage (an abundance of kinky erotica comes from that country), and the U.K. is a leader in amateur porn and what could be considered non-glamour porn. Just as British soap operas like "The Eastenders" and "Coronation Street" favor a working class sensibility that is missing from "The Young and the Restless," much British porn favors an earthier, less glamorous approach than U.S.-generated porn.
9.) Canada
Although Canada's obscenity laws can be restrictive (especially when it comes to S&M-themed material), the Great White North still has a thriving adult entertainment industry. Next to the United States, it is the biggest adult entertainment producer in North America. Montreal, a city that prides itself on its French-European sensibilities, is widely regarded as Canada's adult entertainment capitol. Montreal is the home of successful adult-oriented entrepreneurs like Carol Cox, whose Wild Rose Productions is a leader in the amateur porn genre, Marc Hendrix, Stew Stronski of Eromodel Group and Dugmor. But in Canada, adult entertainment is by no means limited to Montreal; Randy Jorgensen, CEO of Canada's huge Adults Only Video retail chain, lives in Ontario.
10.) Australia
In Australia, the adult industry has been fighting more than its share of battles for free speech and in 2003, author Helen Vnuk addressed some of those anti-censorship battles in her book "Snatched: Sex and Censorship in Australia." But despite the presence of pro-censorship forces, adult entertainment continues to prosper in the Land Down Under. According to SecureComputing's 2004 survey on non-U.S. Internet porn, Australia was right behind the U.K. with a staggering 5,655,800 pages of online porn, and that isn't including all the adult films and DVDs that are coming out of Australia.
Honorable Mentions
New Zealand, Niue and Tonga in the Pacific, Sweden, Italy, Austria, Norway, Denmark, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Argentina and Mexico.
