Porn is credited, rightly or wrongly, with popularizing technologies in years gone by, most famously VHS in their competition with Betamax, and by picking Blue-ray in their battle with HD-DVD, but can they do the same for virtual reality?

We may be about to find out with online adult video streaming site Pornhub announcing Wednesday that they have launched a virtual reality category in partnership with BadoinkVR.

The virtual reality porn category offers 180-degree and 360-degree VR scenes on the site for free, and according to The Verge, content can be viewed on the desktop but is best viewed through Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR, or Oculus Rift.

Pornhub celebrated the launch with a giveaway of 10,000 cardboard goggles for smartphones for users who want a slice of the action.

Partner BadoinkVR (who is providing the content on the site) has been making virtual reality porn for over a year aimed at both heterosexual and homosexual men and women, but to access the content previously users have to pay to do so, whereas with the new Pornhub site the virtual reality videos are offered for free.

“At Pornhub, it is our duty to provide our global audience with the latest in cutting edge technology,” Pornhub Vice President Corey Price said in a statement. “Virtual reality is the next phase in the constantly metamorphosing world of adult entertainment and will provide users with a mesmeric experience unlike anything they’ve seen before. Now, our users are not only able to view our content, but be protagonists in the experience and interact with their favorite porn stars.”

Mass appeal

While trying to not be too smutty here, it’s a fact that porn is extraordinarily popular; a study in 2009 found that all men watch porn, and another study found 77 percent of American men watch porn at least once a month.

Without getting hands on with a VR device to test the service it’s not exactly clear how good it is, but if it’s even half decent it could be a game changer for the industry, particularly given that currently two-thirds of people don’t even know that virtual reality headsets exist.

The future of virtual reality and pornography is definitely here, the only remaining question now, like the rest of the pornography industry, is how are they best going to monetize it.

Image credit: Pornhub/ YouTube.