What’s the real reason why Playboy decided to
stop publishing nude photos of women?
One would assume it is the plethora of free porn on the
Web. As Playboy chief executive Scott Flanders put
it: “You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free.”
But it appears that the real reason is Facebook.
If Playboy is going to survive, it needs to
attract more viewers and subscribers to its subscription ($9.99 per month) website.
And the best way to do that is social media.
According to a report earlier this year, Facebook drives 25% of all web traffic. Altogether, social media now drives
more traffic to websites than organic searching.
As Danny Wong put it on Shareaholic: “Over the years our media consumption habits have changed dramatically. We
rely less on homepages and search engines, discovering news pertinent to us
through social media and direct messaging on
mobile apps.”
So—what does this have to do with Playboy?
Facebook doesn’t permit nudity.
That’s an important reason why Playboy is dropping
its nudes.
Said Peter Nowak, author of Sex, Bombs and Burgers: How War, Pornography and Fast Food Have Shaped Modern Technology: "Playboy is . . . looking to play a
new game, where it wants to attract online readers through its journalism. To do
so, it has to gain traction on Facebook and Twitter, the biggest drivers of
online traffic. Both platforms have rules against explicit nudity, so Playboy is
conforming." *
Whether it will work is an open question. But
the change confirms what we have known for some time: When it comes to online,
the conversation has shifted to social media—and to Facebook and Twitter, in
particular.
In the case of Playboy, which once broke all the
rules and created new ones, it means playing by someone else’s rulebook:
Facebook's.
* Globe and Mail, Oct. 15, 2015.
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