A nation obsessed: Porn Time hits 1 million downloads

By Lulu Chang July 4, 2015

porn time hits 1m downloads online pornography — Image used with permission by copyright holder

After less than a month on the market, Porn Time has hit 1 million downloads. The inconspicuously named app does exactly what you think it does — it’s the X-rated version of Popcorn Time, which allows you to stream video torrents. But in the case of Porn Time, finding a torrent file, downloading its contents, and playing it back are all handled in one fell swoop. Windows, Mac, and Linux users were able to first use the app on June 7, and the Android community followed soon thereafter on June 18.

The popularity of the app is relatively unsurprising given the shocking ubiquity of the porn industry and porn sites on the Web. According to an infographic by porn website Paint Bottle, 30 percent of the Internet’s data is occupied by porn. In fact, porn sites receive more monthly traffic than Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter. Combined.

According to the documentary Hot Girls Wanted, around 40 percent of porn depicts violence towards women, making this vast and enthusiastic consumption of often graphic imagery rather concerning. Even more so considering the Paint Bottle infographic suggests that 70 percent of men watch porn.

In an interview with VentureBeat, Porn Time’s lead developer, who goes by “Richard,” said he was stunned by the success of the app. “Porn Time has exploded in a way that in my wildest dreams did I, not the team think was possible,” he said. “Frankly I don’t think Popcorn Time had this many downloads in their first month …”

In celebration of the 1 million benchmark, the team also gave users a new feature, “The Panic Button,” meant for situations in which watching porn is entirely unacceptable (like your desk or grandmother’s house). Pressing the Z letter on your keyboard three times will conceal your current video and “switch to random geeky movies on YouTube.”

So what’s next for Porn Time? A stint in virtual reality, says Richard. “We can’t wait for the release of Oculus Rift beginning of 2016 … We’re still not sure how we’ll do this, but we know that it’ll be the perfect match,” he told VentureBeat. “Oculus Rift and Porn Time. And making Porn Time support and offer content to be viewed on Oculus Rift is our ultimate goal.”

So if porn is a problem in the United States, it’s not going away anytime soon.

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