Can someone knowledgable of the history of the web confirm this? I assumed the industry played a major role in the development of some web technologies, but can the rise of e-commerce, for example, be mainly attributed to porn?
This goes back to Betmax vs VHS. Laserdisc and DVD. Digital cameras. etc. The porn industry was always an early adopter.
> can the rise of e-commerce, for example, be mainly attributed to porn?
That's a different statement that I would answer "no" to. The rise of e-commerce was basically the credit card industry getting a piece of plastic into every single person's hand. You can't run e-commerce with cash.
Minitel supported chat rooms, including for adult chats ('messageries roses') in the 1980s. CompuServe an innumerable BBSes also had chat rooms in the 1980s.
And the PLATO educational system had chat rooms in the 1970s. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talkomatic .
However, you limited this to chatrooms implemented with 'web technologies' - I can't address that specific topic.
Chatrooms were around much earlier. Perhaps he means on a website?