"The message is: anyone can be a porn star!”
India’s porn habits are under the spotlight once again as Pornhub released their 2019 Year in Review.
It is an annual reflection on the changes, global trends and Indian searches when it comes to porn.
The year 2019 saw more than 42 billion visits to Pornhub, meaning that there was an average of 115 million visits per day.
There were also over 39 billion searches, which is 8.7 billion more than the number of searches made in 2018.
The year also saw a record number of video uploads, over 6.83 million new videos were uploaded to Pornhub.
What is surprising that the search, which has defined 2019 is ‘Amateur.’ This was in part due to the vast number of new verified amateur models that joined the site.
Dr Laurie Betito, of the Sexual Wellness Centre, said:
“It seems that people are looking for more realistic depictions of sex. “Real” people vs actors seems to be the draw.
“It’s interesting that more and more people are putting themselves out there as amateurs.
“Sex has become so much less taboo that those who get a kick out of exhibitionism can do so with very little experience or equipment. The message is: anyone can be a porn star!”
Other defining searches which are out of the box include ‘Alien’ and ‘ASMR.’
The top twenty countries make up 79% of all daily traffic and it is no surprise that the USA remains at the number one position.
Japan moved up to second while the United Kingdom dropped down to third. But the biggest change is India who dropped 12 positions from its 2018 position of third place.
This is partly due to the Indian government blocking access to some porn sites.
However, that hasn’t stopped them from watching porn videos as the average time spent per visit increased by a whopping 88 seconds, taking it to nine minutes and 51 seconds.
India’s porn habits are also quite intriguing. While homegrown searches like ‘Indian’ and ‘Indian college girls’ remain at the top, there are some searches which have significantly increased.
One is ‘Indian Hindi audio,’ which went up 135 places, suggesting that some viewers prefer listening to porn as opposed to watching it.
‘Japanese’ related searches are also prominent, meaning that they are having a preference for nationalities outside of India.
When it comes to gender, men continue to be prominent porn viewers at 67%. However, there was a three per cent increase in the number of female viewers compared to 2018.
Dr Laurie stated: “This statistic clearly demonstrates that porn is not just for men!
“Women are increasingly viewing porn, which hopefully means they are engaging in some self-pleasuring.
“This is good news, as it indicates that women are taking charge of their sexuality, discovering their bodies and identifying what they like.
“Less shame, less taboo around female sexuality equals more exploration.”
In terms of age, India still has the largest proportion of millennials making up 85% of the country’s traffic, especially when the average age of worldwide users is 36-years-old.
It is not just specific categories and searches that Indians go for, many have their preferences when it comes to pornstars.
It is no surprise that American adult film star Lana Rhoades is on the top five list, given that she is the most searched pornstar on Pornhub for 2019.
She moved up three places, racking up over 345 million views over the course of the year.
While she is fourth on the list, she does not compare to India’s most popular pornstar searches despite them no longer being in the industry.
Adult model turned Bollywood actress Sunny Leone remains at the number one position.
Although Sunny officially quit porn in 2013, she remains India’s most popular pornstar, which is no surprise given how famous she is in the country and throughout South Asia.
She is followed by Lebanese-American Mia Khalifa who has also quit the industry to pursue other interests.
Mia had a brief career spanning from 2014 to 2015 but during that time, she became the number one ranked performer on Pornhub.
Her videos continue to be enjoyed in India and worldwide as she was the second most searched pornstar of 2019.
The overall increase in porn viewing is down to the presence of smartphones. Over 76% of all porn in 2019 was viewed on a smartphone.
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 highlight their sexual desires during 2019. However, the use of porn as a substitute for sex education is becoming a worry.
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.
However, Pornhub’s annual data collection shows that once again, India is an avid consumer of porn despite their drop in the list of countries by traffic.