Coronavirus: Pornhub sees spike in 'covid' and 'corona' searches as millions access free service amid lockdown
The world has been on lockdown and people have taken to the comfort of their homes to protect themselves from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Public places and outdoor leisure activities have shut down with governments banning mass gatherings and mandating the practice of social distancing.
Out of all affected countries, Italy continues to be the most devastated with 35,713 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,978 fatalities as of March 18. People have isolated themselves to curb the spread of the deadly virus. Since the country went into complete lockdown, people have resorted to entertaining themselves in various ways while in quarantine and even recorded video messages to warn the world about underestimating the disease.
While 60 million people in Italy await the fate of their country in isolation, Pornhub has decided to come forth as their knight in shining armor. On March 12, the porn site announced that it would donate all the revenue obtained for the month of March from its subsidiary site, Modelhub, towards local hospitals to"support Italy during an unfortunate time". An added bonus is free access to Pornhub premium for a whole month, with no requirement of card details, whatsoever.
Pornhub's tweet reads: "Pornhub is donating its March proceeds from Modelhub to support Italy during this unfortunate time. Model earnings will remain untouched, this is coming straight from Pornhub's share. To help keep you company during these next weeks at home, Italy will also have free access to Pornhub Premium throughout the month. Forza Italia, we love you!"
Similarly, following news of the disease wreaking havoc in Spain and France, the world's biggest adult film site has also offered free access to the premium subscription in these countries and will donate Modelhub's revenues towards their local hospitals too.
Pornhub took to Twitter to make an official announcement: "In light of expanding quarantines, we are extending Free Pornhub Premium for the month to our friends in France! Pornhub will also donate this month's sales from Modelhub (model earnings will remain untouched). Courage France!" In yet another tweet, Pornhub made the same announcement for Spain too.
A blog post by Pornhub detailing its insights suggests that the announcement was well received. The site revealed that its daily viewership comprises 120M visitors. But with the work-from-home situation and self-isolation being imposed, Pornhub had to gauge the effect it would have on the site's traffic. Upon Forbes' advice, the site's statisticians gathered insights on the estimated traffic as well as the searches during these anxiety-ridden weeks.
The Pornhub analytics team has examined search results to determine what visitors have been looking for on the site. Pornhub reports confirm that searches for 'coronavirus' first appeared on January 25 and it has only increased since then. Over the course of 30 days, there have been at least 6.8M searches comprising key words 'corona' or 'covid' and it peaked on March 5, with approximately 1.5M searches. It, however, cannot be ascertained what exactly people are expecting to find by searching the particular terms.
To derive the weekly data, statisticians first examined the daily traffic and how it had changed since the coronavirus outbreak. The stats derived were compared to the average traffic period in early February, and each day was compared to the same day of the average period. Evidently, people were spending more time at home and thus, Pornhub's traffic had risen exponentially. Worldwide traffic on Pornhub was up by 11.6% on March 17.
Pornhub offering free premium services to Italy led to a 57% increase in viewership, the reports say. A similar reception was obtained from France and Spain where millions of people signed up for free premium subscription and the traffic was up by 38.2% and 61.3%, respectively.
North America was late to the party. Action to prevent the virus from spreading was administered later than the European countries. But the US and Canada's stats illustrate that on March 17, the traffic in the two countries was up by 6.4% and 7.2% respectively. More and more home-bound Americans have been logging onto Pornhub, statisticians conclude.
Besides, whether Pornhub will provide free premium service for all self-isolated Americans is not known. Another noteworthy fact amid the coronavirus crisis is that all new productions and shoots have been called off. Pornhub models and pornstars in self-isolation are now taking to social media applications and cam sites to post solo content and earn a living.