"people use this site to not only satisfy sexual urges."
Online porn may be seen as controversial, but that has not stopped India and Pakistan from it becoming a major part of their sensual lifestyle.
Pornhub Insights unveiled its annual ‘Year in Review’, which shows a complete recap of the trends, technology and types of porn that was searched over the course of 2018.
The number one porn site released a report in 2017 to mark its 10th anniversary which revealed the habits of its global viewers.
The website later unveiled figures which focused on Indian visitors to Pornhub which showed a staggering increase. In 2018, India has the third-highest percentage of visitors, no change from 2017.
2018 saw a total of 33.5 billion visits to Pornhub, an increase of 5 billion from the previous year. The year also saw searches for hit video game Fortnite skyrocket.
Searches for porn parodies of the battle royale game drastically increased every time a new character was released.
In April 2018, searches for Fortnite increased by 60% over a 24-hour period when the game’s servers crashed.
Dr Laurie Betito, Director of the Pornhub Sexual Wellness Centre, said:
“Searches like these serve as an indication that people use this site to not only satisfy sexual urges but also to get a different angle on something they are already interested in.
“To see a famous character or hot topic in a sexual context.”
India’s porn habits and site visits prominently feature on the 2018 data collection. However, Pakistan’s porn habits are coming to light and are increasing rapidly, despite the subject being considered taboo in the country.
Habits of Indian Visitors
As the third-ranked country who visited Pornhub in 2018, the country’s interest in homegrown porn continued with many of the top searches containing the words ‘Indian’ or ‘Hindi’.
On average, the majority of traffic comes from millennials aged between 18 and 34, 61% in fact!
India has by far the largest proportion of millennials making up 85% of traffic. The average age is 29 years old, which is the youngest of the top 20 countries.
This is compared to the average age of worldwide users being 35.5 years old.
Searches which experienced a rise include ‘Indian college’ and ‘Indian college girls’. While these may be taboo, they are searched because there is more of a fantasy involved with engaging in sexual activity with people it is not considered natural to be with.
These categories both increased by at least 10 spots and with more Indian people gaining access to the Internet, this trend shows no signs of slowing down.
It is no surprise that Sunny Leone is still the most searched pornstar in the country even though she quit the industry to go into Bollywood movies.
When it comes to porn categories, ‘MILF’ is the number one search in India.
Many people see the reason due to the searches for ‘mallu aunties’ and older more mature women.
Even though there is an increase in ‘college’ porn searches, mature porn remains a popular porn search in India.
But when comparing between genders, there is still a heavy male presence amongst Indian Pornhub users. The site reported 70% of male visitors while 30% were female.
The most searched category worldwide among women is ‘lesbian’ and it is very likely that female users in India will have searched the category. Homosexuality in the country was illegal until September 2018.
In addition, they also searched for ‘female friendly’ content which suggests that Indian women still feel wary of porn. They are keen to watch videos which ease them in with less threatening behaviour.
Pornhub’s average visit duration increased by 14 seconds to 10 minutes and 13 seconds in 2018.
It may be down to visitors taking more time to watch videos. It also reflects on broadband speed and mobile bandwidth available in different countries.
Still topping the list of the longest time spent on Pornhub is the Philippines with an impressive time of 13 minutes and 50 seconds. This is a 22-second increase from 2017.
Indian visitors have an average duration of eight minutes and 23 seconds. It may be quite short in comparison to other countries, but it is an increase of two seconds compared to 2017.
India’s porn habits and regular access have been well documented for a number of years, but Pakistan’s access to online porn and habits are increasing rapidly.
Pakistan’s Porn Habits
While it has been considered a taboo subject for many years, talking about sex is becoming more accepted in Pakistan.
Subjects such as pre-marital sex and sex toys are discussed more often. This is the same with porn.
Pakistan misses out on the top 20 of countries with the most traffic, but their searches have not gone unnoticed.
In 2015, they topped the list of most porn-searching countries, according to data released by Google.
Like India, Pakistan stays close to home as searches like ‘Pakistani’ lead the way. Many tend to be ‘amateur’ videos, usually of poor quality.
This may be down to a lack of education on the subject, many people just type ‘xxx’, which is why it is the most porn-searching country.
Users typically watch it on cheap phones and have cheap internet, it is barely watchable but they are okay with it.
Now, as smartphones are becoming more accessible in the country and porn being talked about more often, searches are more niche.
Sunny Leone also tops the list of porn actresses which are searched in Pakistan, which is no surprise given how famous she is among the South Asian population.
Lebanese-American former pornstar Mia Khalifa is also a popular search among Pakistani people.
Although she only had a brief career spanning from 2014 to 2015, even being ranked the number one performer on Pornhub, her videos are still being highly enjoyed by Pakistanis in 2018.
One unexpected porn search term in Pakistan is ‘gay sex’, they actually top the searches, despite it being one of the most homophobic countries in the world.
Many of the searches came from Peshawar, a conservative stronghold, rather than major cities such as Lahore and Karachi.
The rapid increase in viewing online porn is due to the importance of smartphones. The smartphone market in India is huge and it is also significantly growing in Pakistan.
Over 70% of all traffic in 2018 came from smartphones, which is an 8% increase from 2017. Porn consumed through desktop has decreased by 19%.
With data plans relatively cheap and becoming more accessible in India, it is no surprise that mobile usage there reached 95%.
These porn habits revealed by Pornhub in India and Pakistan highlight their sexual desires during 2018. However, the use of porn as a substitute for sex education is becoming a worry in these countries especially.
A school of thought in India even blames porn for the high rate of rapes and sexual violence in the country. Indian ministers agreed on a porn ban in October 2018 in an attempt to curb its use.
However, Pornhub gave Indian visitors a workaround, and Indians also worked out a way to access porn sites using VPNs (Virtual Private Networks)
With young people using porn as a means of learning how sexual interaction takes place, it does have a profound impact on real relationships and sexual conduct.
Porn in many instances is either staged by professional actors getting paid to do what is needed; or it is of the amateur nature, which usually involves people filming their intimate acts for the voyeurism of others.
Therefore, with it being used to learn how to perform sexual acts, it does leave the door open for huge misinterpretation. Especially, by males performing sexual acts on women.
Pornhub’s annual data collection shows that once again, India is an avid consumer of porn. The traffic coming from Pakistan is increasing at a rapid rate.
Therefore, in countries like India and Pakistan, where porn is illegal and not produced openly, the reliance on sites like Pornhub is most likely to grow even further.