What age group is most likely to buy onlne porn?

[Paul Markham]

Just paysites and cams, don't consider most dating sites as porn. most are conning customers.

This was a topic a few of us were discussing at the Prague show. One person was convinced it was 18 to 30 year olds, I thought it was older another thought it was much older.

Understand it's hard to tell as different sites appeal to different people, so just a general guide will do.

Of course marketing people should know exactly the age group and demographic they appeal to. Doubt if we do.

It's just the group most likely to buy.

[Paul Markham]

Sorry, didn't make it a poll.

[19teenporn]

40 and older.
Youger than that have incorporated in their minds that everything online can be found free and don't pay for anything.

[Jack Sparrow]

Wait.

You are being the wiseguy all year long and you dont know?
Lol.

[theking]

? Worldwide pornography revenue in 2006 was $97.06 billion. Of that, approximately $13 billion was in the United States (Internet Filter Review, 2006).

? Every second, $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography, 28,258 Internet viewers are viewing pornography, 372 Internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines, and every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is made in the United States (Internet Filter Review, 2006).

? Twelve percent of all websites are pornographic websites. There are 4.2 million pornographic websites, 420 million pornographic web pages, and 68 million daily pornographic search engine requests (or 25% of total search engine requests) (Internet Filter Review, 2006).

? 79% of youth unwanted exposure to pornography occurs in the home (Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later, 2006).

? The largest group of viewers of Internet porn is children between ages 12 and 17(Family Safe Media, December 15, 2005.

It does not mention who actually pays for porn...and the stats are several years old.

[drmadcat]

ive never bought porn

[GregE]

Near as I can tell the demographic for m/f spanking porn is mostly 40 something and up with a lot of hyper enthused 80 and 20 somethings tossed into the mix.

The 20 somethings have, for the most, been lost to the tubes and file lockers however so they no longer matter.

[Jel]

tubes, fhgs, too much free porn. No-one can do it right now, content is harder no wait easier to shoot, and traffic is easy as fuck to come by unless it's quality traffic and even then 100k is impossible or is it 1 million that's impossible and don't get me started on terrible quality members areas and the 999 people who don't buy regardless of how old they are, that's a bidness? You must be mad.

Now tell me I'm wrong, and why.

[Chosen]

? Twelve percent of all websites are pornographic websites. There are 4.2 million pornographic websites, 420 million pornographic web pages, and 68 million daily pornographic search engine requests (or 25% of total search engine requests) (Internet Filter Review, 2006).

I thought at least 50% of all websites are pornographic websites

[GARY LEE]

White american male between the ages of 30-55. In California we are starting to get more and more customers of mexican and arab backgrounds. As computers get cheaper (especially used) more and more mexicans are putting them in their homes. These home typically have 20 people or more living in them. Credit cards made it hard to sell to them but when Wal-Mart and other stores made debit cards so easy to get we have seen a major increase from these mexican households. The bad part is everyone in the house can get on the computer with the same password but I guess one sale is better than no sales.
These are paysite figures only. Since I don't operate any tubes I don't have access to any of their data.

[plsureking]

i did market research for a client a few years ago. we took 1000 members and did background checks on a random 10%. what we found was at least half were over 50, almost all had children, and very few were unmarried. out of the 100, there was less than 5% under 25. 80% were in the US, mostly in the southern states of FL, GA, TX. median household income was over $40k.

this was for a pretty large and popular site 5 years ago. it cost us about $10k to do the report.

i think now everybody buying is at least over 35 and likely over 50 because everybody else knows how to get it for free (or is fucking some strange on a regular basis).

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by Jel

tubes, fhgs, too much free porn. No-one can do it right now, content is harder no wait easier to shoot, and traffic is easy as fuck to come by unless it's quality traffic and even then 100k is impossible or is it 1 million that's impossible and don't get me started on terrible quality members areas and the 999 people who don't buy regardless of how old they are, that's a bidness? You must be mad.

Now tell me I'm wrong, and why.

How long and how much would it cost to get quality traffic that converts 1-50 of actual surfers?

If you think quality traffic is 1-100 of people who actually go to the site after 300 have consumed the product for free, which is actually 1-400. Then you and I have a totally different definition of the of the word quality.

It's like porn. Shooting naked people today is easy, never been easier. It was pretty easy with the invention of the video camera and that was 30 years ago. Shooting porn and what you and I think of as porn is harder today.

OK let's say quality porn. And it's nothing to do with definition of the video. Never was and never will be.

Go back to being an idiot and stop trying to talk about your level.

[Eyeball]

Originally Posted by plsureking

i think now everybody buying is at least over 35 and likely over 50 because everybody else knows how to get it for free (or is fucking some strange on a regular basis).

More or less what i was thinking. I reckon over 35's are more interested in paying for quality and if you are not a kinky fucker you can get it for free on a vanilla tube.

[MaDalton]

i would have said 30+ to 50+

[drewb]

in my experience 40+. Younger than that they are happy to knock one off to shit quality tube videos.

[Mutt]

like most others are saying - older, and getting older every day. under 30's - they're lost to us, they believe that porn is free and only a total loser would pay for it. and 30 something's aren't much better. so it's 40+ guys who weren't raised in the internet age who will still pay for porn.

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh are we fucked. totally irreversibly fucked.

unless you built an empire on stealing content or bought an empire built on stealing content.

[goresmeerlap]

I'm 26 and I can honestly say I've never payed for porn.

It's mostly 40+ or 50+ that are still paying. With the amount of free stuff that's available out there, who in their right mind is going to shell out hard earned cash for a wank?

[plsureking]

Originally Posted by Mutt

like most others are saying - older, and getting older every day. under 30's - they're lost to us, they believe that porn is free and only a total loser would pay for it. and 30 something's aren't much better. so it's 40+ guys who weren't raised in the internet age who will still pay for porn.

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh are we fucked. totally irreversibly fucked.

unless you built an empire on stealing content or bought an empire built on stealing content.

older guys are the only ones buying generic/standard porn - but young guys are paying for cams and private/solo sites. they are also paying for strippers, dating sites, escorts, bachelor parties, and every other kind of sexual stimulus.

young guys are more likely to get addicted to a girl than an old guy. there's plenty of young guys giving out tokens on mfc. old guys look for value and pay for mega sites. hence all the 2-for-1 specials from sites like MET & Playboy.

conclusion - mega sites and huge networks are losing (have lost) value. solo and cam sites are gaining value. the solo and cam girls making money are the ones that can make a personal connection and keep it going (like a good Thai whore). that is where the porn money is at now and in the future. this biz is far from dead.

[Eyeball]

Originally Posted by goresmeerlap

I'm 26 and I can honestly say I've never payed for porn.

It's mostly 40+ or 50+ that are still paying. With the amount of free stuff that's available out there, who in their right mind is going to shell out hard earned cash for a wank?

I have never understood adult webmasters with that attitude. How can you have the drive to sell something that you wouldn't pay for yourself?

[goresmeerlap]

Originally Posted by Eyeball

I have never understood adult webmasters with that attitude. How can you have the drive to sell something that you wouldn't pay for yourself?

I'm not a webmaster nor am I trying to sell paysites. Even if I did have paysites, I would try and figure out who WAS paying for them ;) You don't always have to be your own target audience, you just need to understand them.

I run loads of scammy adsense sites yet never click on any adsense ads myself? I'm just stating my own experience here. As a 12 year old (back in 1998 when I was just discovering internet:P) a friend of mine showed me The Hun. Never payed for it since ;P

Why on earth would I pay for porn when I can get it for free or download it? Maybe a service like a dating site, that I could understand. But I don't think I have ever met someone who has payed for a paysite/porn in general. There's just too much free stuff on offer. My guess is that it's mostly people with too much money/too little time/not technical enough to find free porn/super longtail niches.

[DamianJ]

Not sure what the point of this is?

One of my clients makes most of their revenue form phones and we know that a HUGE HUGE percentage are 18-25.

That's a fact. Not just a guess. A fact.

But so what? Different sites have different demogs. This is all basic stuff, surely?

[HerPimp]

depends on the niche

[Mutt]

Originally Posted by plsureking

young guys are more likely to get addicted to a girl than an old guy. there's plenty of young guys giving out tokens on mfc. old guys look for value and pay for mega sites. hence all the 2-for-1 specials from sites like MET & Playboy.

i am on MFC a lot - the big tippers I see seem to be older. not many 20 somethings can spend a couple thousand a month on cam girls.

i agree about MET and Playboy - i can't see any guy under 40 liking either of those.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by DamianJ

Not sure what the point of this is?

One of my clients makes most of their revenue form phones and we know that a HUGE HUGE percentage are 18-25.

That's a fact. Not just a guess. A fact.

But so what? Different sites have different demogs. This is all basic stuff, surely?

It's only about paysites. I know that's limiting but I have a point to make.

What survey did you do to find out the ages?

[plsureking]

Originally Posted by Mutt

i am on MFC a lot - the big tippers I see seem to be older. not many 20 somethings can spend a couple thousand a month on cam girls.

ya i didnt say 'big tippers' tho. i said tippers. meaning they'll buy $20 of tokens and give out 10 at a time. not like the crazy fucks that are giving 500-1000 to some lazy hoe.

i remember when we were doing cams with Matt some guy spent $20k over 3 months on one girl. very little of it actually went to the girl. i always thought he would have been much happier to have a date with her. u can enjoy a good weekend in Paris for $20k

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by plsureking

ya i didnt say 'big tippers' tho. i said tippers. meaning they'll buy $20 of tokens and give out 10 at a time. not like the crazy fucks that are giving 500-1000 to some lazy hoe.

i remember when we were doing cams with Matt some guy spent $20k over 3 months on one girl. very little of it actually went to the girl. i always thought he would have been much happier to have a date with her. u can enjoy a good weekend in Paris for $20k

This is partly why I asked.

It seems to me that in 2011, you have to be a real loser with women to be buying porn. At any age if you're single. Well 16 to 60 then.

In 1966 getting laid was tough. In the hippy days it was easy, if you were a hippy.

Since then it seems to me getting laid is easier and easier, well it was for me.

Girls now want sex, they're on the pill, they feel sex is as much for them as it is for the guy. Getting laid on a first date isn't as tough as it was in 1970. Even hookers are fairly reasonable. So why would anyone who could get the real thing pay for porn?

Yet millions according to the boards do. Paysites, dating, cams and phones. This is without the availability of free porn.

This is Marketing 101. Know why your market buys.

Of course married men don't have the freedom, so not talking about them. They pay for it all the time.

[Just Alex]

80+ y.o.
Most savy computer users I ever seen.

[Paul Markham]

So far 10 people have come up with an opinion.

5 for 40+
4 for 30-55
1 for 50+

[Barry-xlovecam]

A lot would depend on your marketing and your price point ...
The more mobile or micro-pay that you do -- the lower the median age of the buyer IMHO

For us, the 40+ customer is in the larger spending majority ...

For cams; the heavy hitters -- the whales -- are definitely older men.

[Sid70]

never paid for it. i wonder how you can make money at all.

[DamianJ]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

It's only about paysites.

I'm talking about pay sites.

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

What survey did you do to find out the ages?

You don't need to do a survey to find out, you can get the ages from a report from the telco.

[Jakez]

Technically we don't yet know how many of the people growing up with internet access are going to be paying when they're older. Going to take another 20 years to know that.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by Jakez

Technically we don't yet know how many of the people growing up with internet access are going to be paying when they're older. Going to take another 20 years to know that.

This is one of the wisest things you've ever said.

Generally speaking 18 to 25 year olds were always a tough audience to sell porn to. They simply could get off to anything and didn't need to buy porn. Anyone who has sat in a porn shop and seen customers will know this.

People over 25 were always the better market and as the age rose the market got stronger.

Will today's 25 year old develop tastes in porn that need to be satisfied with a membership. Can we wait 20 years?

[will76]

In general 25 - 45. But each yeah that age keeps going up. The next generation of porn buyers have been getting it for free for 5-6 years and if you poll them most will not say they never paid for it, but they will laugh wonder why anyone pays for it.

What was good about this industry, like most, is that every year you have new potential buyers coming into the marketplace. For us, every year there was a new crop of 18 year old that were getting their visa card for the first time, off to college and ready to buy porn. Now that segment is cut off. They are exposed to free porn in the mid teens and conditioned on how to find it for free and that there is no need to ever buy it. When they turn 18, no new sales for us happen.

[SZNY]

on our webcam platform the spenders are mostly between 20 till 50 and older

[Jel]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

How long and how much would it cost to get quality traffic that converts 1-50 of actual surfers?

If you think quality traffic is 1-100 of people who actually go to the site after 300 have consumed the product for free, which is actually 1-400. Then you and I have a totally different definition of the of the word quality.

It's like porn. Shooting naked people today is easy, never been easier. It was pretty easy with the invention of the video camera and that was 30 years ago. Shooting porn and what you and I think of as porn is harder today.

OK let's say quality porn. And it's nothing to do with definition of the video. Never was and never will be.

Go back to being an idiot and stop trying to talk about your level.

whut?

[baryl]

Porn - and especially cams - is just too damn expensive for most people in my opinion. That goes triple for younger people.
I'd like to see the industry go more towards the iTunes, a la carte model. You're never going to kill piracy and the best you can do is compete with it. It just seems logical to me that 100's of times more people would be willing to fork over $5 or so to get the full version of whatever sample they're jerking off to than sign up for a $50 recurring membership to a site they don't even know if they're going to like.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by baryl

Porn - and especially cams - is just too damn expensive for most people in my opinion. That goes triple for younger people.
I'd like to see the industry go more towards the iTunes, a la carte model. You're never going to kill piracy and the best you can do is compete with it. It just seems logical to me that 100's of times more people would be willing to fork over $5 or so to get the full version of whatever sample they're jerking off to than sign up for a $50 recurring membership to a site they don't even know if they're going to like.

That would be easy. Something like a wallet that deducts as they view.

Selling memberships of fix days so 2002.

[jimmycooper]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

So far 10 people have come up with an opinion.

5 for 40+
4 for 30-55
1 for 50+

Demographics are dead.

"Lifestyle has become a more meaningful component of people’s lives in a world that is increasingly becoming a smaller place. Jet transportation and mass media have created a global community; it is easier to get from one side of the world to the other and also easier to move from one place in society to another.

As old institutions fade and social structures crumble, nationality and class are being replaced by lifestyle.

People find their place in the world through intelligence and taste, not merely wealth. It is all about connecting an international tribe of sophisticated modern people with a world whose resonant frequency was precisely the same as their own. There are tribes of taste today and they recognize each other by their sensibility and style. Lifestyle is the way a person distinguishes himself or herself. It is the artistry of living."

http://www.50gramercyparknorth.com/lifestyle_2.html

[epitome]

Older people buy porn because they can afford it or they need their time and can't spend two hours looking for something.

Young people are usually broke and are more likely able to decide how they spend their time --and wife and kids aren't banging on the mancave door.

As they age they will have less free time and more money.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by Jel

whut?

Didn't expect you to come up with an intelligent answer. Still I can live in hope.

Anyway, thanks for the bump and the chance to bump back.

[newB]

Honestly, I think most buyers are college aged - which explains the bump I see at the beginning of summer and December.

[Bladewire]

A LITTLE SECRET: Young people who started off going to tubes are tired of the viruses, redirects, and bullshit. They pay for security and consistency

[harvey]

we did that research for 4 years in a row, 2 of them when adult tubes didn't even exist, yet the age group was consistently in the 32+ to 50 age band. Without any new real data, I'd say that gap has probably narrowed to 35/36 to 50

[adultmobile]

Originally Posted by Barry-xlovecam

For us, the 40+ customer is in the larger spending majority ...
For cams; the heavy hitters -- the whales -- are definitely older men.

We run cams and I agree with the above. To survey the age in cams it is easy, guys tell their age to the girls then you can ask the girls how old the spenders, age is not so easy to know for pay sites - and these may have other demographics then cams, I can talk for cams only. If I could age-target to filter out whoever under 25 I would be mega happy, pity we miss such technology. But note myfreecams is mostly under 25's (no one older then 25 would tolerate their animated emoticons), still they could let these guys tip.
For (our) cams there are some in 18-25 range who spend not bad too, but more likely to chargeback then 35+ guys. Students will bang the credit card then parents spank them and it ends in chargebacks (friendly frauds or simply bankrupcy).
So younger 18-25 who spend a lot exists (even $5k a month), but they will reduce and stop spending soon, or even chargeback, as their life changes quick and often, finds gf or get broke.
Instead if you get a 40+ one he may spend stable for next 30 years, it is sort of lifetime member, unless he lose job or so. Actually those 35-40+ people will "rebill" and pile up while the younger buy once and go, so after some time the older guys end up being a bigger total just due to natural fidelization.
Also I would add that lots of money in cams is made with non sex talk with clothed girls, basically they talk what they made yesterday I seen this movie my dog is sick I gave such exam or my boss is stupid, at $3 or more per minute. So the existence of endless hi quality free porn in tubes and torrents it is not relevalt. Also if a guy like a specific girl she will not care to see sex from other girls available free as he want her only. I can say I got pay users from banners who ended in porn filesharing sites (I had no idea it ended here until I checked http referer) but I can't say how old those pirates it was.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by Squirtit

A LITTLE SECRET: Young people who started off going to tubes are tired of the viruses, redirects, and bullshit. They pay for security and consistency

A little secret, they end up on the top Tubes that don't have that shit.

[plsureking]

Originally Posted by Paul Markham

A little secret, they end up on the top Tubes that don't have that shit.

you dont know about anything other than shooting for magazines (10 years ago) so why do you have an opinion? oh yea, Markham knows all.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by plsureking

you dont know about anything other than shooting for magazines (10 years ago) so why do you have an opinion? oh yea, Markham knows all.

You don't know anything. Other than selling to newbies who want to have a little part time hobby in porn.

Yes you have a couple of successful people under your belt. The rest?

[theking]

Originally Posted by TheSquealer

So dumb, you have to think he's kidding. But not smart enough to pull off such an elaborate plan to look so dumb all the time... so he you're thinking that he can't be kidding. Then you think back quite a few years and you're thinking "yeah, actually he was always like this but it was just about other shit like politics, it was only after all his business completely tanked did he start babbling about tubes and why porn is a dead business and only he knows how to make money in porn".

He's always saying shit that no sane person can believe and so clearly speaking about things he knows nothing about, so you even though you know better, you still keep thinking "no one is this stupid"... but he's clearly not intelligent enough to pull off such an elaborate plan to consistently look so retarded just to wind people up, so you know that logically, he has to be this stupid... but its a sort of stupid that's just so deep, so profound and so unwavering no matter what facts are presented, that you are still thinking he can't be serious even as you start to realize he actually is.

The guy comes here to this forum to beg for money, admits his wife has to work to help pay the bills, his business is a joke, he lives off the government/pensions, not porn... but lectures non stop about how to make money in porn.

Such an epic mind fuck from the best accidental troll ever. A troll that's so dumb, he doesn't even know he's trolling... he actually thinks he's proving points and making sense. It's a stupid that runs so deep, a stupid that's so pure, that you kinda have to admire it in a way.

Clueless is as clueless does.

[Paul Markham]

Originally Posted by plsureking

you dont know about anything other than shooting for magazines (10 years ago) so why do you have an opinion? oh yea, Markham knows all.

Thank you for the compliment.

Yes my knowledge of porn was from the days before the clever online people decided giving porn away for free in ever increasing numbers was the best way to sell it.

10 years on, we now have an idiot posting 1-1,000 off a Tube site is good traffic.