South Africa is home to nearly 60 million people, spread mainly between the three capital cities of Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein. The country is so massive, it encapsulates the entire landlocked country of Lesotho. Its people are incredibly diverse, speaking 11 official languages: isiZulu, Afrikaans, English, isiXhosa, siSwati, Sesotho, Xitsonga, Sepedi, isiNdebele, Setswana and Tshivenda. And, like most places on Earth, South Africans have a healthy sexual appetite. Interestingly, South Africans spend 1 minute, 40 seconds more than the global average on adult sites like Pornhub, which is good news for adult industry entrepreneurs interested in investing in regional opportunities.
EASE OF ACCESS TO PORNOGRAPHY
According to Alexa, South Africa is the largest consumer of porn in Africa. There is a ton of money to be made serving specialized ads and premium memberships.
There’s a misconception that porn is illegal in South Africa. While there are laws in place to protect minors from being featured in content, they are less draconian and cumbersome, so legitimate content can more easily get posted without falling prey to censorship efforts. This gives South Africa a leg up over more overbearing countries whose adult entertainment platforms are constantly under excessive scrutiny, where even fully legal and consensual content may be challenged by ever-changing regulations and uneven enforcement.
Pew Research Center found that, in 2018, over 50% of South Africans owned a smartphone — a number which has undoubtedly increased since then. That statistic puts South Africa up in front as a leader in smartphone adoption across the African continent, meaning South Africans have greater access to adult websites and content than their northern neighbors.
WHAT TYPE OF PORN IS POPULAR IN SOUTH AFRICA?
Productions and searches related to the diverse ethnic makeup of South Africa, which includes white, Black and Indian — the city of Durban contains the largest concentration of Indians outside of India — account for a high percentage of porn in the region, with cross-cultural niches and highly specific language translations proving fruitful fodder for traffic.
HOW DO SOUTH AFRICANS PAY FOR THEIR PORN?
For the longest time, South Africans have relied on traditional banking to pay for their services. Their technology sector is ahead relative to neighboring countries, but behind in comparison to America, Europe and Asia. Only recently have mobile payment systems become popular as more South Africans are gaining access to smartphones with internet connections. They can, of course, pay for goods and services with typical cards like Visa and Mastercard, but new payment technologies are also cropping up that will allow South Africans to tap into crypto and more loan-based banking. This trend towards higher-tech is a reward for decreasing corruption and higher stability and trust among financial institutions in the region.
Credit card payments account for 41% of online payments in South Africa, bank transfers come in at 20% and e-wallets at 17%, according to Statista. E-wallets have recently soared in usage, due to COVID-19. The e-wallet market is expected to grow from the current $79.3 billion to $154.1 billion by 2025. The top five e-wallet solutions in the region are R Pay, Digipay, Velmie, Coruscate and Kineto, according to blogger Richard Ananth.
As Africa, and specifically South Africa, turn from emerging markets into more powerful economic mainstays, investors in all types of internet services may wish to participate early, before online real estate becomes fully covered in the region. Adult entertainment leaders are taking special interest in South Africa’s economic outlook due to its mix of circumstances that make it fertile ground for affordable, plentiful and specialized pornographic content.
TIMING YOUR JUMP INTO THE MARKET
While many are eager to get involved in this market, it is not wise to get too involved in the South African adult industry without a solid business foundation. At the core of any adult website is a strong financial hub. Turning subscriptions into cash is a lot more difficult in emerging markets than in more established countries, which is why we strive to help make cash flow smoothly even when payment systems are different on the sending and receiving ends.
According to Alexa, South Africa is the largest consumer of porn in Africa. There is a ton of money to be made serving specialized ads and premium memberships. Many investors are eager to jump on this opportunity, but fail when they don’t have a proper way to take payments that is secure, private and efficient.
As South Africans enter an exciting stage of discovery with increasing access to the internet, they will become adopters of already-matured content consumption and online payment technologies. There has never been a better time to hop on niche adult market opportunities with solid outlooks. More phones means more access to the internet and, as we well know, the internet is for porn.
Ilya Firsov has a background in the automotive, finance and various adult industries, with experience in sales, affiliate marketing and IT projects. He is currently the head of sales for Certus Finance and responsible for marketing and branding. With a strong background in high-risk processing, the ability to process for companies in the U.S., EU and other regions sets Certus apart in Australia and around the world.
