Pornhub is a Canadian-owned internet pornography website.[5][6] It was launched in Montreal, Canada, in 2007.[7] Pornhub also has an office and servers in Limassol, Cyprus.[8]
In March 2010, the company was bought by MindGeek (known then as Manwin), which owns numerous other pornographic websites. The site is available internationally but has been blocked by some individual countries such as the India, mainland China, Philippines and Pakistan. It offers virtual reality porn, amongst other products, and hosts the Pornhub Awards annually. As of June 2020, Pornhub is the 10th most trafficked website in the world and the third most-trafficked adult website after XVideos and XNXX.[9]
Incidents have been reported of Pornhub hosting non-consensual pornography.[10] The company has been criticized for slow or inadequate responses to some of these incidents, including the hosting of the high-profile channel Girls Do Porn, which was closed in 2019 following a lawsuit and charges of sex trafficking.[10][11][12][13] In December 2020, following a New York Times article on such content, payment processors Mastercard and Visa cut their services to Pornhub. On 14 December 2020, Pornhub removed all videos by unverified users.[14]
Pornhub was founded by web developer Matt Keezer as a website within the company Interhub, and launched on 25 May 2007.[15] In March 2010, the company was purchased by Fabian Thylmann as part of the Manwin conglomerate, now known as MindGeek.[16] In 2013, Thylmann sold his stake in the company to senior management – Feras Antoon and David Tassillo.[3] As part of MindGeek, Pornhub makes up one of several pornographic websites in the company’s “Pornhub Network”, alongside YouPorn, RedTube, and others.[17] Though not the most popular pornographic website, Pornhub is the single largest such website on the internet, hosting more videos than any similar site.[5][needs update]
The website allows visitors to view pornographic videos from a number of categories, including professional and amateur pornography. Users can share videos on social media websites and leave “like” or “dislike” votes. Users may also optionally register a free Pornhub account, which additionally allows them to post comments, download videos and add videos to their favourites, as well as upload videos themselves. Videos can be flagged if they contain content which violates the website’s terms of service.
In an effort to introduce quality curation to the site, the company launched a service called “Pornhub Select” in October 2013.[18] Pornhub also launched a content curation website on 9 October 2013 called “PornIQ”, which uses an algorithm to create personalized video playlists for the viewer based on a number of factors, including their porn preferences, the time of day they’re visiting the website, what part of the world they live in and the amount of time the viewer has to watch the video(s).[19][20] David Holmes of PandoDaily noted that Pornhub’s data-intensive approach to playlists set it apart from previous attempts at user-generated playlists, and marked a new trend in the switch from content searching to passive curation among Web 2.0 websites.[20]
As of 2009, three of the largest pornographic sites “RedTube, YouPorn and PornHub—collectively make up 100 million unique visitors”.[21]
In June 2015, Pornhub announced that it was going to make a pornographic film featuring real-life sex in space, named Sexplorations. The site hoped to launch the mission and shoot the movie in 2016, covering the pre- and post-production costs itself but seeking $3.4 million from IndieGogo crowdfunders. If funded, the film would have been slated for a 2016 release, following six months of training for the two performers and six-person crew.[22][23]
On 1 February 2016, Pornhub launched an online casino, powered by Betsoft, Endorphina and 1×2 gaming software.[24]
In October 2017, vice president Corey Price announced that Pornhub would use computer vision and artificial intelligence software to identify and tag videos on the website with information about the performers and sex acts. Price said the company planned to scan its entire library beginning in early 2018.[25][26]
On 17 April 2018, the site began accepting Verge cryptocurrency as a payment option.[27]
In December 2020, following a New York Times article that was critical of the company, payment processors Mastercard and Visa cut their services to Pornhub. Pornhub then removed all videos by unverified users.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornhub
