Porn Industry Weighs In On Flash vs. HTML5 Video Debate

If you want to know what technology will eventually become commonplace, you usually need to look no further than the porn industry.  They were the first to start using camcorders instead of film cameras.  They were the first to start using Flash video online (or online video for that matter).  They were the first to start offering recurring membership subscriptions.  And here’s another first…they’ve been offering HTML5 video for over a year.

While the whole Flash vs. HTML5 video debate started making headlines a few months ago, the porn industry had already been a long time HTML5 video user.  Why?  Because they wanted to push their content to mobile devices and Flash caused too many issues.  Or as Ali Joone, founder of Digital Playground (a porn giant) stated “HTML5 is the future”.

Keep in mind the porn industry could care less about the he said/she said arguments regarding Flash or HTML5.  They just go with whatever gets their content in front of the most viewers, with the least amount of issues.  In fact, if it wasn’t for Internet Explorer’s lack of HTML5 support, the porn industry would be using HTML5 video exclusively.  “We are waiting for browsers to catch up. As soon as they are ready, we will move everything to HTML5,” said Joone.

So given the porn industry’s past track record with technology adaptation, it’s a safe bet that HTML5 video will win out…eventually.  How soon that happens will just depend on when an HTML5 video standard is finally announced and when browsers universally support it.