How much money do people spend on Internet pornography?  Obviously, it
is unreasonable to ask this on a worldwide basis, but how about just
the US?  I've seen many different numbers thrown around, with
literally 2 or 3 base-10 orders of magnitude between them.  Good,
solid references required for any numbers you come up with, please. 
Thank you.

-Robin

Hi robinleepowell:

Thanks for the interesting question. 

I did a lot of sleuthing on this for you and found that the large
majority of reputable sources put the *worldwide* online pornography
market between (US) $2 billion and (US) $3 billion, with the U.S.
share of that market being between (US) $1 billion and (US) $1.5
billion. While there were a lot of wild estimates for where the market
might go in the next few years, most of the data I was able to find
fell within the above ranges.


Sources
*******

Online Porn Profits Still Lurk in Shadows
URL: http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/16088.html
Quote: "Forrester last estimated the size of the adult content
business in 1998, when it pegged the industry at $800 million per year
and said it was on track to surpass $1 billion by 2000."

02 May 2002 - Shielding Kids from Online Pornography is Difficult,
Researchers Warn
URL: http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/global/ecom/02050202.htm
Quote: "The online adult-entertainment industry generates about $1
billion a year in revenue from adults who pay for content."

Adult Content Industries Profile
URL: http://www.caslon.com.au/xcontentprofile.htm
Quote: "Frederick Lane, author of Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs
of Pornography in the Cyber Age (London: Routledge 00) and the
Sexbizlaw.com site, claimed in 2000 that the global "online adult
market" was worth around US$2 billion a year, about three-fourths from
subscriptions."

Gambling Is Most Lucrative Vice Online 
URL: http://pokermag.com/managearticle.asp?c=150&a=1513 
Quote: "eMarketer estimates that online content spending for general
online content targeted at consumers will total $1.2 billion by the
end of 2002."

Porn-related spam proves relentless Outrage leads firms, parents to
take action
URL: http://www.websense.com/company/news/companynews/02/122202.cfm
Quote: "Online pornography is a big business, reeling in $ 1.5 billion
a year through more than 150,000 porn websites."

Spat over online porn a moot point
URL: http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2001/06/25/story2.html
Quote: "Sex always has been one of the biggest sellers on the
Internet. By one estimate, online porn generates $1 billion a year in
revenue."


I think that these ranges are the best you are going to be able to
get, given the "clandestine" nature of this industry.


I hope this information helps with your research.     
                           
If you need any clarification of the information I have provided,
please ask using the clarification feature and provide me with
additional details as to what you are looking for. As well, please
allow me to provide you with clarification(s) *before* you rate this
answer.
                           
Thank you.                            
                           
websearcher-ga                            
                                             
    
Search Strategy (on Google):   

"online pornography" billion
"online pornography" billion 2002
"online pornography" billion 2003

---

Request for Answer Clarification by robinleepowell-ga on 05 Jun 2003 16:18 PDT

The problem I have with the queries you apparently used is that it
*assumes* that the numbers are in the billions.  The link that got me
wondering about that (which I should have posted before) is
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/business/dailynews/yahooporn010507.html

However, you have found a number of quite reputable sources all giving
about the same number, so I'm inclined to go with it, I simply wanted
to point out that potential problem in case you were inclined to poke
around more.

-Robin

---

Clarification of Answer by websearcher-ga on 05 Jun 2003 16:37 PDT

Hi robinleepowell:

Thanks for the clarification request. 

I can certainly see your point. I also looked under "million" and
"market size" but didn't find any over-riding conflicting data. Using
"billion" and "million" when researching a market size is a trick that
we Google Answers Researchers have learned to use. It really is the
most reliable way to find data on large markets. :-)

websearcher-ga

The clarification was excellent, and both the answer and clarification
were mighty fast.  Very impressive.  I'll certainly use this service
again.

-Robin