Earlier this week it was revealed that Pornhub, the UK's most popular porn site, lost more than one million visitors in just two weeks after new age verification laws were introduced in the UK as part of the Online Safety Bill, requiring websites hosting adult content to confirm its visitors are 18 or older.
Now, data experts from Similarweb have revealed a dramatic drop in the number of people visiting Pornhub between July 24 and August 8. During that time, numbers dropped by 47 percent, while daily visits dropped from 3.2 million in July to 2 million in the first week of August.
While there's no confirmation as to whether the dramatic reduction in visitors is the result of the new age limits, regardless of the cause, it's an incredible blow to the adult website. But what are the financial implications?
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How much money lost?
Well, according to one financial expert Leon Turkin, from Turkin Mortgage, Pornhub could be losing up to $40,000 (£29,500) in ad revenue every single day, and the losses certainly don't end there.
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"From a financial perspective, losing one million visitors per day is a substantial blow for a traffic-dependent platform like Pornhub. In the adult entertainment industry, monetisation comes from a combination of CPM-based (cost-per-thousand impressions) advertising, premium subscription sales and affiliate or partner payouts," he told LADbible.
"For context, mainstream adult sites can generate between $5 (£3.70) and $15 (£11) CPM depending on geography and ad format. If each visitor views an average of three to five pages per visit, one million lost visitors could mean three to five million fewer ad impressions daily."
Enough of the advertising jargon though, how much does that actually mean? Well, when estimated on a mid-range cost of $8 CPM, Turkin says they could be losing between $24,000 (£17,691) and $40,000 (£29,488) in ads every single day, which equates to between $720,000 (£530,780) to $1.2 million (£880,000) a month.
More problems for Pornhub
"The real revenue damage, however, likely extends far beyond ad impressions," Turkin warns.
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"Adult platforms often rely on converting a small percentage of visitors into paying subscribers at rates of $9.99 (£7.37) to $29.99 (£22.11) per month. Even if only 0.5 percent of those lost visitors were potential subscribers, that’s 5,000 fewer sign-ups per day, which at an average $20 (£14.75) a month equates to $100,000 (£73,738) in lost recurring monthly subscription revenue."
He continued: "Additionally, there’s a long-tail effect: lower traffic reduces the platform’s negotiating power with advertisers and partners, impacts SEO visibility, and could lead to permanent user migration to rival platforms."
Topics: Money, Technology
Emma Rosemurgey