The Death of the Pornography Industry?

In a report on the online sex industry, TIME raises some questions about the future of the pornography industry’s business model:

Porn — perhaps because it, unlike prostitution, is often legal — is a much bigger business online, though reliable numbers on the industry are hard to come by, and misinformation abounds. (Both proponents and opponents of online porn have reasons to exaggerate.) One factoid making its way around online, and  even into the pages of Wikipedia , is that “the internet pornography industry has larger revenues than Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Apple and Netflix combined.” That’s just plain wrong. Several years back, the Adult Video Network estimated the total revenues of the online adult entertainment industry in the U.S. to be $2.8 billion; others in the industry suggest this may be exaggerated. (By contrast, Microsoft’s revenues  in its most recent quarter  were $20.9 billion.)

While $2.8 billion is nothing to sneeze at, porn is hardly the golden goose many assume it to be. CNBC suggested in a  recent report  that the porn industry “stands at a precipice as it heads into 2012,” with “revenue from films . . . shrinking, due to piracy and an abundance of free content on the Internet.”

Perhaps we’ll see industry players try to protect their business model by supporting regulations on online smut. I, for one, would welcome any such assistance, however self-interested the motive and unsavory the ally.