Apr 18, 2022 23:00:00

What is the reality of the 'adult webcam industry' that live-streams sexy acts?

Technology media

Rest of World is approaching the reality of the industry that provides 'adult webcam' services that broadcast sexual acts in front of a webcam.

Meet the off-screen workers who keep the adult webcam industry running - Rest of the World
https://restofworld.org/2022/colombias-webcam-industry-mentors/

Nelson Farias works nine hours a day in a webcam studio in the La Aguacatala district of Medellín, Colombia's second-largest city. On his desk, he has three monitors monitoring nine models performing sex acts live in front of their webcams. The models' performances vary: some sing using a dildo as a microphone, others dance, exercise, and some simply talk to users.

Phileas communicates with the models through messages on one of three screens, which vary from sending messages about lunch breaks to translating messages from users into English and Spanish.

Phileas' job is called 'advisor' or 'monitor', and he also supervises, supports, promotes and trains models working in the studio. Most people do not have a deep knowledge of the adult webcam industry and do not know that there are people like Phileas who support broadcasters. Colombia, where adult webcam services are unregulated, boasts an estimated market size of 40 million dollars (about 5.1 billion yen), and the country has the second largest adult webcam market in the world after Romania .

Demand for the adult webcam industry has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to an increase in the number of advisors like Phileas. Juan Bustos, founder of Juan Bustos Studios, an adult webcam service, estimates that the industry's workforce has grown by about 10%.

Rest of World spoke to three adult webcam studios, and learned that advisors like Phileas supervise, support, promote and train models, and once models go live, they monitor their footage and audio, suggest camera angles and set up interactive sex toys if necessary. In addition, some advisors shoot and edit the photos models post to their social media accounts.

Alex Zapata, an advisor at Juan Bustos Studios, begins his work by creating a broadcast plan for the seven models he oversees. The models will broadcast according to themes created by Zapata, such as 'special show,' 'dressing up,' and 'roulette game.'

André Fernando Bernard, CEO of adult webcam service Camaléon Models Group, said the role of the advisor is to 'identify who the model is, that is, their attributes and qualities, and then make the most of them when necessary.'

Felipe Paniagua, who has worked as an advisor in the adult webcam industry, said, 'Working as an advisor in the adult webcam industry is like playing

The Sims . The difference is that you have to deal with real people, not NPCs.'

'The ability to interact with models is a big part of what's appealing about adult webcam services, and advisors are a facilitator of that interaction,' said Angela Jones, a sociology professor at the State University of New York at Farmingdale who has studied online sex markets.

Juan Bustos Studios, the largest adult webcam studio in Colombia, employs about 2,000 models and 150 advisors. In addition, Julia Zurber, a researcher at the University of Oxford, said, 'The boundary between legal and illegal is blurred in some parts of Colombia,' making it difficult to collect accurate data on Colombia's adult webcam industry.

Also, not all models who broadcast in the adult webcam industry belong to studios like Juan Bustos Studios. Sophie Pezutto, a researcher at the Australian National University who studies the adult webcam industry, points out that 'models who have access to high-speed, reliable internet can earn more than those who belong to studios by broadcasting their own content and promoting it through websites and social media.'

However, according to Jones, in a country like Colombia where the Internet penetration rate is low, it is difficult to prepare a computer, a camera, and a stable high-speed Internet environment, so the only way to do it is to belong to a studio that can provide these. In addition, models working in the adult webcam industry are 'people who have been active in similar industries' or 'people who have received appropriate training after entering the industry.'

On the other hand, the advisors are diverse, with some being former professional athletes, designers, and public relations professionals, as well as a woman who originally worked as a model appearing in live streams but switched to being an advisor in search of a more stable income.

Juan Bustos Studios says its overall sales have increased by 30-40% since the COVID-19 pandemic. Some models have left studios during the pandemic, but in areas with poor internet connections like Colombia, it seems that it is more stable to work at a studio with a strong infrastructure. Juanita Vega, who once left a studio, said, 'It was a terrible experience not having a studio or advisor to help me when the internet was cut off. If the internet was cut off, I couldn't do anything and I had no income.'

Ángel Rivera, who has streamed both from a studio and at home, said he can earn more by streaming from home, but that 'in a home streaming environment, you can only stream to one service at a time.' However, if you are affiliated with a studio, the studio gets half of the revenue generated by streaming.

Meanwhile, advisors working at Juan Bustos Studios will receive a base salary of about $320 (about 41,000 yen) per month, plus 2% of the model's earnings as an incentive. This will bring the advisor's monthly salary to about $455 to $650 (about 58,000 to 82,000 yen). However, unlike models who work as contractors and whose remuneration fluctuates greatly depending on the success or failure of their broadcasts, they will receive social security and medical insurance.