What the porn industry can teach us about digital media in emerging markets

Analysis of the pornography industry provides fascinating insight into how consumer ideology shapes online behavior. When we look at the industry in terms of emerging markets we get to catch a glimpse of new forms of media consumption as they blossom.

In emerging markets like Brazil, South Africa and India, the industry is thriving and will follow international mobile trends when it comes to adult entertainment consumption. It’s big business, in fact it’s the number one commercial industry online. In spite of it not being able to promote itself in traditional channels. One of the biggest online mobile porn distributers in the world is an Indian techstart up called www.indiangilma.com which features hardcore mobile downloads, of which a large part of the content/audience is for global online consumption.

According to Wikipedia, international porn giant “RedTube” is a Web 2.0, video sharing, pornography site which in November 2010, held an “Alexa” ranking within the World’s top 100 sites. Its popularity has been ascribed to its non-sexual name, and efficient navigation and interface.

In 2009, it was one of twelve pornographic sites blocked by the Sri Lankan court because access to the site, which housed images of Sri Lankan women and children, “corrupted society”. This is a great example of the coming battle for entertainment freedom and international policing of content.

Arthur Calamaras, the director of adult retail chain Adult World, which is South Africa’s biggest distributor of porn DVDs and adult material, says movies featuring South Africans are flying off the shelves.

“The ethnic DVD market is very, very popular. They make up for 50% of what we sell,” said Calamaras.

The reality is DVD sales are soon to be a drop in the ocean compared to online potential, and as South Africans and citizens in other emerging market countries develop a taste for localised content we will see localised digital adult film studios popping up all over to meet demand.

In my “research” into this topic I found that South Africa’s pioneering production houses are Sondeza.com, Mapona-Volumes & Las Throw Entertainment. They seem to have given the industry a taste for the South African “amateur” and hence a new breed of consumer. Las Throw Entertainment will be shooting its next movie for release in February 2012. Sondeza however is turning more to mobile online environments as mobile porn browsing becomes increasingly popular.

This article isn’t about porn per se but rather about how parallels to this voracious form of new social media are shaping the way we all consume content on the web. The line between content, content creation and advertising is becoming blurred in subtle new ways. The new modes of porn consumption and distribution sites replace traditional facets of media consumption with two basic functions: search and upload.

Just like YouTube. Zabet Patterson writes in Going Online: Consuming Pornography In a Digital Era, (2003) “The primary subgenre of ‘amateur’ most significantly engages with the opportunities for ‘interaction’ and ‘self-production’ offered by the internet.” These new behaviours or norms of interaction with media are devastating news for traditional modes of production. And it is logical to conclude that the mainstream film industry should take heed of this also. This amateur trend seems to foreshadow the current tidal wave trends of crowdsourcing and “user-generated content” that we see in many digital marketing strategies today.

Porn as a form of media is not sub, marginal, or niche at all. It’s user experience like any other online experience. We click a link and search for a term. There are a seemingly limitless selection of subgenres & niche fantasies. (redheads, interracial, lesbian, S&M , retro, etc.) Eventually users are satisfied, but is it the final image that satisfies or is it rather the satisfaction of exploration and searching. I feel it is the latter that holds the most significance. The appeal of the online pornography user experience lies in being able to explore and play with many aspects of sexual preference at the click of a button (what do I like? What don’t I like?) This process changes the way the online world functions, constantly modifying our personal relationships to the images.

“Pornography is, and it is, a deeply conservative genre. It’s not a genre where everything is permitted. It’s a genre based on a fundamental prohibition. We cross one threshold, you can see everything, close-ups and so on, BUT the price you pay for it is that the narrative that justifies sexual activity should not be taken seriously. The screenwriters for pornography cannot be so stupid. You know, these vulgar narratives of a housewife alone at home, a plumber comes, fixes the hole, then the housewife turns to him, ‘Sorry, but I have another hole to be fixed. Can you do it?’ or whatever. Obviously there is some kind of a censorship here. You have either an emotionally engaging film, but then you should stop bust before showing it all, sexual act, or you can see it all but you are now allowed then to be emotionally seriously engaged. So that’s the tragedy of pornography.” Slavoj Zizek.

This “free environment” places the user under a level of responsibility, when confronted with such a menagerie of choice and sub-genre it gives them the chance to explore multiple points of view and permission to explore multiple facets of their own personalities. I think this is another way the online pornography industry leads the way in branding ideology. Consumers want the chance to test and define their own identities through a variety of commercial choices.

Marshall McLuhan coined the term “medium is the message” so what message are the current modes of pornography consumption and distribution telling us about the global online market place? Not an easy question to answer but it’s definitely a pertinent one for marketers and sociologists.

How conservatism in “emerging markets” like Africa, India, Brazil, Pakistan and the Far East relates to the growing desire for adult content is yet to be fully resolved. The furor surrounding the introduction of Playboy TV box tops has hinted at this paradox. Personally speaking I am not an advocate of censorship in entertainment and moral judgments aside, changes in consumption of any media are changes in the zeitgeist of the online space.