Deep Inside Pornhub's Finances

The financials of the parent company of the controversial website Pornhub were revealed in a Semafor report. This provides a rare glimpse into the money-making machine behind the world's largest porn website. 

MindGeek, which owns Pornhub and other adult websites such as YouPorn, Redtube, and Brazzers, "anticipated making tens of millions of dollars in profits despite MasterCard and Visa refusing to process payments for certain websites including Pornhub, with operating margins of about 27% in 2021 and almost 30% in 2022," Semafor said. 

The Visa and Mastercard ban dented earnings by as much as 40% in 2022. It noted if major credit cards started processing again, it would've increased 2022 revenue by as much as 40% to $455 million -- slightly less than the $460 million it generated in 2018. 

Semafor said these figures were presented to investors before the takeover earlier this year. 

In March, MindGeek was purchased by Canadian private equity firm Ethical Capital Partners. No purchase price or where the funds came from was disclosed in any public domain. 

Meanwhile, several states have implemented age-verification laws for Pornhub users, while the website itself has prohibited the use of VPNs in Virginia. 

Data from website tracking firm Similarweb shows Pornhub's US ranking has recently dropped from 8 to 9. 

What Semafor has revealed, besides all the legal issues MindGeek is in over sexually explicit videos of minors found on its websites, the company is still making money even though there are many concerns the platform is a danger to society.