In a discussion a few days ago regarding mobile search marketing the stats were presented to me again about the top search phrases in mobile Internet I have mentioned in a previous post (when will mobile Internet take off?). This obviously wasn’t news to me and I have documented my thoughts on it in the past but it did get me thinking, what is driving such a surge in people searching for porn on the mobile Internet? What is motivating these people to search out explicit content on their 2”x3” mobile screen and are they liking what they find?
Is it simply that the mobile allows an element of privacy not necessarily afforded by the home PC? Are people using their mobiles to bypass any firewalls or tracking software which could uncover their dirty little secrets? I can’t imagine (and obviously wouldn’t know!) that the mobile device, no matter how advanced, is the best for digesting this content. Is it just people experimenting to see whether the content is available on mobiles or are these people actually consuming large amounts of content via their mobile phones?
One thing which could be linked to the volumes of searches for adult content is the trend in mobile Internet usage by time of day. Some of the busiest times in the week are Thursday, Friday, Saturday evenings, post pub/night out. It would be interesting to see if the searches for “sex” and “porn” which appear at the top of the most searched keywords list coincide with the activity at these times. Intoxicated people either succumbing to their primal instincts or merry males having a joke whilst sat in the pub. The digging I have done on this topic hasn’t managed to bring up any usage or sign up stats from the porn industry but it would be very interesting to see if these searches are resulting in business for the industry.