The content of Pornhub itself needs no introduction. Its visitors enter the portal, take what they need... and leave. The process is casual, natural, and works quite well, something Pornhub's own administrators recognize. Behind the scenes, however, works a complex mechanism that assimilates a wide range of factors, including the last video viewed by users before leaving the site, and its percentage of playback.
A Suggestion from ShowerThoughts
It all started as one more post in the ShowerThoughts subreddit, full of small ideas and epiphanies shared by its users. The comment from grasseffect suggests that Pornhub should have an option to sort videos based on how many times visitors left the site after watching them. That option would basically reveal that the videos in question have the necessary "pepper" to deliver the entertainment and relief users are looking for. As far as I've been able to verify, this parameter doesn't exist yet, but Pornhub's representatives on Reddit confirmed that it is part of the registered telemetry.
The Strategy Behind the Algorithm
According to Katie_Pornhub, the last video viewed in combination with the percentage of playback is one of the many factors feeding their algorithms in the background. Now, the idea of delivering the best first so the user "finishes their visit quickly" seems counterproductive in a Web world that depends on advertising, but that is exactly Pornhub's plan. If you spend too much time on the site it's because you have problems finding what you want, and when that happens, you most likely won't return. If you can find the best video in the shortest time possible, it becomes a very powerful reason to come back.
This is just one of the many small secrets that make Pornhub work day after day. As the most popular adult content portal and a core part of the Web's Top 50, we can say without a doubt that its strategy works marvelously.
