trends

Cams Report: Snapshot of the Market

One of the most popular destinations for seekers of online adult entertainment, live webcam sites have continued to grow in popularity over the years, earning legions of loyal fans and providing an income to countless affiliates, companies and performers — but the familiar face of this vibrant market segment is poised for a radical transformation at the hands of new technology.

Today’s multibillion-dollar live cam market is so multi-faceted that trying to get a comprehensive grasp on it is a daunting challenge that encompasses many factors. With this in mind, to better understand the current cam scene it may be best to begin with the makeup of the typical cammer and cam consumer — who are they, where do they come from, what languages do they speak, and what do they want?

My cam system was designed by my business partner, so the technical challenges involved creating an entirely new stereoscopic VR webcam, which was quite a process. -Ela Darling, VRTube.xxx

To learn the answers to these questions and much more, XBIZ sought the input of top industry insiders.

Here’s what they had to say about the latest trends for live cams in 2016 and beyond:

According to Steve Ranieri of SNR Productions, the company’s typical customer is a male, aged 25-34, from the U.S. or other English-speaking country — while for his own part, Shay Efron, ImLive’s vice president of marketing and business development, says that this is the million-dollar question.

“It’s very hard to say, as it has a direct connection to the product that the webcam platform is offering, the paying abilities on sites and even the business model of the site itself,” Efron says. “For our platform, I would say the audience is from all over the world, but the majority is from English-speaking countries.”

“I can say for sure that most webcam clients are people who look for a connection with a real person, for controlling the situations themselves, before they look for any porn,” Efron says. “They have all the free porn they want, but still pay for cams because something about real person-to-person interaction is more suitable for webcam users.”

Chaturbate COO Shirley Lara told XBIZ that the company’s typical user is a Millennial, and that they all have one thing in common — playing video games.

“Millennials grew up playing Nintendo, PlayStation and PC games, so Chaturbate developed a way to mix sex with gaming,” Lara explains. “The standard way of sitting in chat hoping for someone to find you attractive has evolved into broadcasters playing ‘Spin The Wheel,’ ‘Hangman,’ ‘Token Keno,’ etc., with fans in their chat room.”

“The winner (which is everyone),” Lara adds, “will then see the sexual aspect after the game has ended.”

David Strauss, CAM4’s media and events director, said there are three major trends that are currently redefining the live cams space in a big way.

“Tele-dildonic devices, such as Kiiroo and the OhMiBod, OBS (Open Broadcasting Software) and virtual reality. Innovation is all about solving a problem and in this case, these tools help solve two major issues inherent to live cams, intimacy and interactivity,” he says.

AWEmpire’s Bence Pipo told XBIZ that the company pays extra attention to the diversity of its visitors.

“We can easily say that our platforms are popular enough all around the world,” Pipo says. “The most used language is English of course, but thanks to the broad variety of our model base, Spanish and any other universal language-speaking visitors can easily find a chat partner, too.”

Cams.com Model Manager Steve Hamilton says his company’s customers are also very diverse.

“The majority of our customers are English speaking, but Spanish, German, French and many others are frequently spoken on the site,” Hamilton says. “Our members are predominately from the U.S., Canada, Europe and South America, but India and the Middle-East are emerging markets.”

Supermen.com consultant Douglas Richter told XBIZ that regardless of where people are from, or what language they speak, everyone has the capacity to become a lifelong cam user.

“When the product is compelling, authentic and offers a unique experience, it is hard not to become a regular indulger,” Richter reveals. “After nearly 20 years in this business, I still spend personal time and money chatting with cam boys.”

A Perspective on Performers

Although the majority of cam consumers may fit a certain demographic, the performer pool tends to be more diverse — including substantial representation from regions such as Columbia, Hungary, Romania, the U.S., and elsewhere.

While they say that variety is the spice of life, not speaking the same language as the person you are interacting with poses potential problems — but fortunately, technology, along with many performer’s multilingual abilities, is aiding communication between cammers and customers.

“Our model base is as colorful as a rainbow,” Pipo tells XBIZ. “We have models coming online from South America through Europe, all the way to the Far East, not to mention that a really high percentage of them are professional enough to speak English. We have also implemented a translation program on our chat interface, so communication problems are never an issue.”

Flirt4Free’s director of product, Jamie Rodriguez, and Supermen’s Richter agree that today’s performers can come from all over the world.

“Romanian, Russian, Colombian, Hungarian, Polish and Ukrainian are more common than some other countries, but there is a wide range,” Rodriguez explains. “To help bridge the gaps in communication, our customers can sort models by language, or view the site in a range of languages as well.”

“The global model market has matured and you can now find quality hosts from all countries, languages and cultural backgrounds,” says Richter, noting that “Very few countries are banned from the performer pool at this point.”

Hamilton says that Cams.com’s models are predominately from Romania (around 50 percent) and from Colombia (around 35 percent), with the remaining 15 percent of models from everywhere else including the U.S.

“Since there are many languages spoken, we have integrated a translation system into our broadcaster, so that the member and model can seamlessly communicate,” says Hamilton. “It’s not perfect, but the language gap is certainly closed a bit.”

DatingGold’s digital products manager, David Pfahlert, notes that the company’s performers are also from all over the world, and so naturally speak many different languages.

“We have built a custom language translation engine into our chat interface for both the performers and the users, which has been a great way to break the language barrier,” Pfahlert says. “When broadcasting foreign models, it comes down to having properly trained and highly skilled performers to convert and retain our predominantly English-speaking user base.”

Unlike many competitors, however, Ranieri says that SNR focuses on models from the U.S. and Canada. “We do have some foreign models, but they all speak English,” Ranieri notes. “We don’t have any issues with communication.”

Communication is the basis for mutual understanding, but to truly understand a person or profession, you have to get to know that person or professional better — and this extends to performers as well.

According to VRTube.xxx co-founder and cam star Ela Darling, she first started camming when she joined the adult industry about seven years ago.

“I wanted to take advantage of any monetization options available to me as an adult entertainer, so camming was an obvious choice,” Darling told XBIZ. “I am also a porn performer: I make custom videos for fans and I am the co-founder of VRTube.xxx, the world’s first VR live cam platform (through which I became the world’s first VR cam girl). I’m also working with Cam4 both as a cam model and behind the scenes, helping to bring them to the forefront of virtual reality in the live webcam industry.”

When it comes to making and monetizing fans, Darling says that her primary goal when camming is to develop a long-term personal relationship with her viewers.

“I want to be a trusted confidant with whom they can comfortably and safely confide their feelings, sexual proclivities, and world perspective,” Darling says. “It is also important for me to let my viewers know what offers are available to them and to upsell them if it’s relevant to their desires. It’s up to me to communicate to my clients what their options are — I can’t expect them to guess.”

“At the same time, I don’t want them to feel like they’re being nickel-and-dimed or taken advantage of,” she adds. “It’s a fine line to walk, but failing to do so is a disservice both to the performer and viewer.”

It is a valuable perspective that can provide guidance to cam companies seeking a promotional balance between maximizing revenues and optimizing the user experience. On the topic of promotions, Darling says she is a fan of doing her own self-promotion through social media — reaching out to her viewers wherever they might be.

“For me, a lot of the time that is Reddit. Since I do VR camming, I absolutely love r/oculusnsfw. The people there have been invaluable to me as we’ve developed our live cam platform and they’re kind and insightful when it comes to my work,” Darling explains. “Beyond that, I sometimes advertise on Twitter and Facebook, but I try not to overdo it.”

Darling extends her “hands on” attitude to creating her own performance space; working from home or from a friend’s place for the sake of convenience rather than relying on a third-party studio to provide it.

“My cam system was designed by my business partner, so the technical challenges involved creating an entirely new stereoscopic VR webcam, which was quite a process,” Darling notes. “Now that the camera has been developed, setting it up and breaking it down takes me less than 10 minutes.”

While many models simultaneously perform on multiple cam sites, Darling says she found a solid home.

“I have cammed on several different sites, but I’m currently exclusively camming with Cam4, whom I chose because I think they’re a great company with a performer-centric vision and a lot of potential for growth,” Darling explains. “My VR cam platform is exclusively available through Cam4, so it makes it a pretty easy choice for me.”

As far as how she prefers to get paid, Darling enjoys different benefits from different billing methods.

“I like tips and group shows because it gives me more of a chance to interact with a group of people and build a community amongst my viewership. I think letting users guide the direction of my show through tips helps democratize the experience for them and gives them a sense of involvement,” Darling offers. “That said, I love the intimacy of a private one-on-one show, because it allows me to get to know people on a more personal level.”

As for what cam companies can do to support performers, making their job easier and more profitable, Darling would like to see more assistance, education and guidance for performers.

“One of the things I love about working with Cam4 is that they offer performer coaching, which I’ve found helpful even though I’ve been camming for years,” says Darling. “[They also offer] step-by-step guides for navigating issues such as removing pirated recordings of your cam shows from tube sites.”

“I would also like to see some sort of support for performers who are facing a crisis because of the work they do as cam performers — whether it’s because a fan is harassing them, their family members are unsupportive of their work, or their home cam setup is threatened by discrimination from a landlord,” Darling says, adding, “I think there is more to supporting performers than just maximizing cash flow.”

Finally, Darling has some advice for other performers, promoters, studios and cam companies:

“I’m obviously biased because I’m a huge VR fangirl, but my advice to performers is to try out VR camming when you’re able to! Also, don’t get discouraged, and always keep hustling,” Darling confides. “For companies, listen to your talent and accommodate their needs. When your performers are happy, their viewers will be happy too.”

Affiliates Remain Essential to Cam Companies

Beyond cammers and consumers, cam companies also continue to invest in affiliates as traffic partners, which deliver the qualified customers that the ecosystem thrives on.

There’s no doubt the traditional notion of what constitutes “an affiliate” has changed over the years — so what does 2016’s live cam affiliate look like? Is it other affiliate programs, cam studios, media buyers, old school webmasters, and individual performers — or is it a diverse mix of all of the above?

Pipo told XBIZ that AWE is seeing less startup sites from new webmasters these days, and those that remain are becoming more sophisticated — and making more sophisticated demands.

“We are also seeing a huge impact on high-level media buyers and CPA networks — while studios are starting to manage larger volumes targeting their own models,” Pipo says. “High payouts are important in a competitive market, but being able to offer the best tools and services is just as important.”

“We believe that a strong product such as LiveJasmin, and a large variety of models, are foolproof ways for affiliates to be successful,” Pipo adds. “Our balanced North American and European customer base helps us keep a large variety of models active, and helps in converting traffic from both continents.”

Lara notes that many of Chaturbate’s performers are also affiliates of the site, saying, “We make it easy for broadcasters to earn affiliate revenue by offering cash payouts or tokens for each registration or sale they refer.”

From Efron’s perspective, it is the big cash companies, dating companies, and affiliate networks that are dominating the live cam affiliate world today.

“The 2016 affiliate is a more educated one, no matter if he’s a small ‘basement affiliate’ with one or two sites to monetize, or a big cash company with thousands of sites,” Efron says. “Affiliates understand now more than ever the need to send their traffic to a webcam platform that has products for every geo and niche there’s out there — and that the webcam platform itself needs to provide perfect video streaming and sound on all devices and platforms, worldwide.”

“Affiliates understand that conversions also depend on sufficient billing options for their users once they land on the webcam site, and are also looking to monetize their traffic to the max by [segmenting it] and sending each piece to the right place,” Efron adds. “At PussyCash we make sure to monetize all of these pieces for our affiliates, so they get ‘all-in’ service at the top level of payments, honesty and approach.”

Richter notes that with regards to the gay side of camming, things look good.

“PussyCash has created a bold new product in Supermen.com, giving gay partners a profitable new option when it comes to an authentic live webcam experience,” Richter explains. “There has not been a lot of impetus to evolve on the gay side over the past couple of years, but I can guarantee that will be changing very quickly in the coming year.”

Pfahlert says that DatingGold enjoys a mix of different traffic partners including affiliates, media buyers and networks, all presenting unique challenges and opportunities.

“Each has their upsides and downsides,” Pfahlert reveals. “Traditional affiliate webmaster traffic can be highly targeted resulting in good overall CPA targets, while networks and some publishers may have a mix of traffic that needs to be monitored on a daily basis.”

The experts concur that affiliates are still a part of customer building for cam companies, but just how important are they in the traffic mix today — and can they offer resources that cannot be matched by cam company’s in-house efforts?

Pipo says affiliates are important to AWE, which has many successful partners that run big tube sites, but also enjoys a large number of small webmasters that provide a unique user base.

“Many whales come from well-targeted niche sites,” Pipo says. “We offer the highest payouts on AWE, because we believe that our product offers a good opportunity to attract whales to a site and to keep them. In cases such as this, we wish to share the largest cut possible with the webmaster.”

PussyCash, Efron says, is one of the biggest and oldest affiliate programs in the industry; with tens of thousands of active affiliates promoting the company’s brands as well as their own webcam sites that were built using the WebcamWiz.com white label generator — and unlike many other cam platforms, sees the majority of its sales coming from affiliate links.

“ImLive/WebcamWiz/PussyCash have already started to storm out with high PPS campaigns for our main brand affiliates, who can get $250 PPS for the majority of sales they send us,” Efron told XBIZ, adding that “affiliates also get a 35 percent lifetime revenue share plus PPS payouts for each white label sale they refer.”

Efron says that because of these benefits, the company opened strongly this year on the affiliate front.

“As a program with multiple brands to promote, we’re offering our affiliates fast converting sites, such as CamsCreative.com, or niche webcam sites such as Shemale.com or FetishGalaxy, alongside flagship brands such as ImLive.com and Sexier.com,” says Efron. “The ability to monetize traffic from worldwide geo’s under any niche out there, and with highly flexible and generous payments, puts us in a position to offer our affiliates all they need, in-house.”

Pfahlert and Richter also agree that affiliates remain a very important part of the traffic mix.

“This is still a very sexy and thriving business,” Richter told XBIZ. “Nearly every deal secured with the leading traffic networks has some element of affiliate or pay per signup attached — the major changes are the way in which affiliates promote and cross promote one another.”

“Having a direct relationship with affiliates is always a great thing,” Pfahlert adds. “[Especially versus] going through a network where you only have the relationship with the advertiser, and the business partnership is not direct.”

Lara says that affiliates will always be of value to live cam sites, and will always find value in promoting the best of those sites.

“Chaturbate’s pay per lead program has been an attractive offer to affiliates, paying $1 (Tier 1 countries) for every free registration,” Lara explains. “The user simply creates a username and password, no credit card or email is needed, and the affiliate gets paid.”

Competition Breeds Excellence in Camming

Being a top-tier program takes more than just saying that you value affiliates, partners and performers — it takes tangible actions. For example, some companies offer educational resources, such as expert help in configuring WL options and setting up APIs; or information detailing new market trends; and tips on driving traffic; or resources and training for performers. It isn’t simply a matter of being helpful, but also a matter of success or survival in a competitive marketplace, where the performer pool is the most important factor, affiliates a vital traffic resource, and cam companies court both.

For example, Pipo says that AWE created a Webmaster Tutorial on its blog, providing in-depth tips on how to start and succeed as an affiliate.

“We also inform our webmasters about relevant news, releases and features that help monetization,” Pipo told XBIZ. “Besides these, our affiliate support does its best to assist affiliates with any questions that may arise.”

Flirt4Free Director of Business Development Jeff Wilson says the company stays in touch with affiliates, educating them and providing the tools they need.

“We send out e-blasts about once per month letting affiliates know what’s going on at Flirt4Free, and which ads to be using, etc.,” Wilson notes. “On the promotion side, we are constantly playing with new ads in new formats — from retargeting, to HTML5 ads, to all of our APIs, we offer almost every way to promote live cams.”

Most companies also take a personal approach to affiliate support.

“Chaturbate has a department of knowledgeable team members that handle all of our affiliate inquires,” Lara says. “Affiliates can easily email affiliates@chaturbate.com with any question and they will receive a helpful answer shortly after.”

Richter underscores the value of offering complete affiliate support, while Efron says that PussyCash is well-known for giving its affiliates A-to-Z service.

“Our product is extremely easy to use, but if you need any help, I guarantee our team will work harder for our partners,” Richter says. “We can optimize creatives, test new flows, and build the user interface you desire to promote our products. We even offer to do 100 percent of the heavy lifting for partners who require that level of special attention.”

“Our devoted representative make sure that the affiliate will get whatever he needs in order to start sending traffic in an optimized way,” Efron explains. “We have a 24/7 devoted billing integration team and API development CS that provides our affiliates massive support for all ventures.”

This “massive support” involves more than just a prompt reply to a customer service email.

“Once a project is started, we create an in-house ‘network’ of affiliate service managers that make sure, each in his own field, that our cooperation and integration will be fast and successful,” Efron added. “The account manager provided for each affiliate conducts this whole orchestra, with Oren, our affiliate manager, support or myself as needed.”

Some companies take a more selective approach to affiliate support services, while others open the flood gates by handholding affiliates at every level — with each firm balancing its accessibility with the realities of return on investment — especially given the independence of today’s successful affiliates.

“This is done on a case by case basis,” Pfahlert told XBIZ. “Most publishers seem to have gravitated towards self-managing their campaigns and creative needs, versus in the past when networks provided all of the creatives and tools.”

Pipo tells XBIZ that affiliates, performers and studios looking for a program to work with should choose AWE, as it strives to provide the highest quality service possible, and offers a vast user base, diverse pool of models, and more.

For her part, Lara says that affiliates should promote Chaturbate.com because it is the best converting.

“We offer a very unique product for broadcasters,” Lara told XBIZ. “And if the broadcasters are earning revenue, affiliates and studios are earning as well.”

Wilson says that he may be a little biased, but he thinks Flirt4Free is one of the most dynamic and personal webcam companies out there — in part because at any time affiliates can reach 24/7 support, with the team answering every email, posting on industry message boards and attending every show.

“In 2005, we were one of the first to come out with dynamic IFRAME ads for affiliates that wanted to promote live models. Affiliates wanted to co-reg and one-click their customers, so we built an API for it. Models wanted a plugin for their solo sites, so we built CamShowCash.com,” Wilson says. “We are constantly working to make our program the best possible. If affiliates, models, and studios are looking for a webcam company that they can really work with, I don’t think they can find a better option than Flirt4Free.”

For his part, Ranieri believes SNR Productions offers an advantage in being different than everyone else.

“We’re more of a high-end cam boutique than a typical cam site,” Ranieri says. “Free video and nudity is optional on our sites — we give control completely to the model.”

“I started as a cam model myself, so I built our system how I would want it as a model,” Ranieri explains. “Because we cater to models I feel we host some of the best, which is why affiliates should work with us — they’d be promoting what I feel is the best lineup of cam models out there.”

Efron says PussyCash is well known for monetizing worldwide traffic (not just English-speaking markets), and offers payouts that are among the highest in the industry, including lifetime revenue sharing, PPS and PPL for all platforms and devices.

“We make sure to present highly creative promo tools, very clear traffic stats, and no fine print: what you are offered is what you will be paid, on time, every time,” Efron explains. “I can say I’m also proud of PussyCash’s dedicated team that works 24/7, each with his own affiliates, to make sure that everything works fine and also to make sure affiliate’s earnings go up month-to-month. And obviously we offer top converting webcam sites to monetize the affiliate’s traffic on every niche, geo and language.”

For Richter, size isn’t what matters at Supermen.com.

“We are not going to say we are the biggest, we are not going to say we are the best,” Richter told XBIZ. “We will say that we will always pay you on time, we will work harder for your business than anyone, and we will always do the best job possible we can for you — and respect the fact that you are honoring us with your partnership.”

Hamilton says that over the past year, Cams.com, under the leadership of CEO Jon Buckheit, has truly refocused on how it treats models and studios.

“There are many new advances and ways to make money for models and studios,” Hamilton told XBIZ. “We have a tiered payout system that rewards models that are willing to put in work, and we pay 100 percent on traffic that the model or studio brings in.”

“We feel that we have the best platform on the web right now,” Hamilton notes. “While I can’t disclose the things we have in the works, I can say the innovation that we’ve done over the last year is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many advances we are working on that are going to completely change the landscape of the camming market.”

Boasting more than 15 years in the business, Pfahlert says that DatingGold prides itself on providing top level support and working with business partners to its fullest extent, so that both parties are successful.

“Our live cam platform, WebCamClub, has been around [for more than eight years] and offers nearly all the features and functionality of our top competitors, which makes for an easy transition for performers and affiliate alike,” Pfahlert told XBIZ. “We have an amazing development team that is available to all of our affiliates and we welcome input and critiques.”

“With WebCamClub being a boutique live cam platform,” Pfahlert adds, “we are able to focus on giving special attention to affiliates, studios, performers and members, and work together to create unique highly-competitive products.”

By offering such a wide range of benefits and services to affiliates, customers and performers, today’s cam companies are providing something for everyone — and serving their own needs in the process — but these firms have other needs as well.

Third-Party, Special Services Cater to Cams

While major cam companies such as AWE attempt to provide all of their own needed services, such as billing, content delivery networks, and more, in-house, there is room in the marketplace for a range of third-party and other services — including professional cam studios (covered elsewhere in this issue), plus other services that are finding traction in today’s cam arena.

“All types of billing, fraud, payout, and DMCA companies should be focusing on live cams,” Lara says. “These are very important to the success of live cams and all cam companies are using them.”

Beyond these general applications, specialized services are also being offered. Take for example the supplementary cammer content offered by SNR Productions, which according to Steve Ranieri, had its best month-to-date last month.

“By supplementary, I mean content that customers can purchase when a model isn’t online, such as fan club memberships, video on demand clips, and store items our models upload and sell,” Ranieri states. “If a customer comes to see a specific model and they’re not online at the time, it gives them an option — and the models love it because they see income coming in, even when they’re not working.”

“Everything pretty much runs through the model fan clubs which members can subscribe to. In those fan clubs, customers can join for a rate that the model sets from $10 to $50 per month,” says Ranieri.

“Within each fan club, models can upload photo sets, videos, activate archived cam shows, update their diaries, or upload store items that can be anything from their Snapchat subscription to custom content.”

Ranieri told XBIZ that models can also sell each individual piece of content when they upload it.

“For example, if a model activates an archived cam show to her fan club (they are automatically stored after each cam show), she can then also set an individual price on it to charge to non fan club members, and those go in our ‘On Demand’ section,” Ranieri explains. “We’re also planning to add an option to text or call our models in the future.”

Another third-party service catering to the cam community are trade events such as CamCon,which coincides with this year’s XBIZ Miami event. According to CamCon promoter Clinton Cox, the popular show offers a truly comprehensive platform that unites models with their fans and the industry.

“The models who attend learn how to create more money for their business, learn about other products to build their brand, and on ‘Fan Day’ meet the fans who they have been interacting with all year, while creating lifelong friendships with other models,” Cox told XBIZ. “The industry gets to be exposed to true career models and newcomers, all wanting to learn how to make more money in this segment, as well as meet the gamut of fans — from the highest caliber ‘whales’ to the curious local.”

Cox says that fans benefit by meeting their favorite models at CamCon and by enjoying a true Miami VIP experience, while other attendees benefit from receiving a positive perspective on the cam industry and where it’s going.

“A cornerstone of CamCon’s mission is to create more awareness in other verticals that are powered by model-generated content. We believe this is where the growth in the next few years will come from,” Cox explains. “New ideas and platforms that are targeting all genres of models and giving them the tools to push their brands are going to grow exponentially, and these will see positive upward trends.”

Cox believes that the cam industry is already pretty mature, resulting in a change in the marketplace.

“We believe the larger, more mature brands, will start going further down the original content road and investing more energies into their highest performing models, creating even more unique content and really building on their success,” Cox adds. “The very obvious trend is VR, and also interactive products for models and fans.”

Cox tells XBIZ that it’s these types of technologies that will really push the user experience and the true evolution of the digital relationship.

“The internet experience is changing right in front of our eyes, and we are in the middle of it,” Cox adds. “There is nothing more exciting than to be a part of that and watching all of this happen in our lifetime — the future is now!”

Cox also sees untapped markets and underserved opportunities in today’s cam market — but those new opportunities may not last for long.

“There are a lot of media companies looking at this segment and wanting to monetize it. We believe that large mainstream companies, as well as new, young creative minds, will start penetrating with new ideas and new platforms,” Cox explains. “For example, Snapchat leveraged its population and launched SnapCash — I bet those are fun numbers to work with!”

“That’s what’s great about the moment of time we are in,” Cox concludes. “We will see tons of new ideas and some will blow up and be the next big thing.”

As for what that “next big thing” might be, and the other top cam market trends for the coming year, many operators are understandably reluctant to reveal their plans.

“There will be interesting changes in the coming year,” Pipo says, “but we wouldn’t like to spoil it.”

Efron was a bit more forthcoming, noting plans for better integration for big companies through a very advanced and flexible API solution that PussyCash has developed, saying “it will allow our partners to have all our webcam abilities on their side, but for real.”

For Richter, his goal is simple: to make Supermen.com the leading gay cam site with the most authentic user experience available.

Like others, Hamilton, who is also an indie filmmaker, sees more companies creating tools that are able to capitalize on the model being able to engage members while not on camera.

“On a recent trip to Colombia I brought my camera with me, and I met up with two of our bigger studios and filmed two- to three-minute clips of the models, which I edited and gave to the studios to promote the models with. I can see such content with more production value being used for promotions as well,” Hamilton told XBIZ. “Members are looking for more than just what they see while the model is on cam — times are changing, and only nimble companies are going to thrive in this new market.”

Pfahlert confides that as for its take on the future, DatingGold’s developers are currently optimizing the company’s platforms for mobile broadcasting, and testing new solutions for VR, holographic content and interactive toys, which it believes are the market trends for the years to come.

“We are constantly perfecting our platform to make live cams a more immersive, life-like real world experience, and remain competitive,” Pfahlert told XBIZ. “We strive to stay on the forefront with the evolution of technology in our niche and perpetually monitor how our users consume it. Using the data we collect, we fine-tune our products accordingly, which results in an incomparable user experience.”

From better ways to entirely different ways, the live adult cam marketplace is evolving to serve the next generation of affiliates, consumers, performers, promoters and studios. New technology is ushering in a world where sexual partners on different side of the planet can interact as if they are in the same room — and changing the way we think of intimacy and relationships. Performers are being empowered, new opportunities created, and a primary driver of today’s adult entertainment industry poised for ongoing growth and success — making this far from the last time cams will be in the headlines at XBIZ.

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WIA Profile: Holly Randall

If you’re one of the many regular listeners to Holly Randall’s celebrated podcast, you are already familiar with her charming intro spiel: “Hi, I’m Holly Randall and welcome to my podcast, ‘Holly Randall Unfiltered.’ This is the show about sex, the adult industry and the people in it.

Women In Adult ·
trends

What's Hot Now: Leading Content Players on Trending Genres, Monetization Strategies

The juggernaut creator economy hurtles along, fueled by ever-ascendant demand for personality-based authenticity and intimacy — yet any reports of the demise of the traditional paysite are greatly exaggerated.

Alejandro Freixes ·
opinion

An Ethical Approach to Global Tech Staffing

One thing my 24-year career as a technologist working to support the online adult entertainment industry has taught me about is the power of global staffing. Without a doubt, I have achieved significantly more business success as a direct result of hiring abroad.

Brad Mitchell ·
opinion

Finding the Right Payment Partner

Whenever I am talking with businesses that are just getting started, one particular question comes up a lot: “How do I get a merchant account?” It’s a simple question, but it has a complicated answer.

Jonathan Corona ·
opinion

The Taxman Cometh for Every Business

February may be the month of romance, but it is also a time when we need to think about something that inspires very little love: taxes. April is not far away, and the taxman is always waiting. This year, federal and most state income taxes are due Monday, April 15.

Cathy Beardsley ·
opinion

The Continuous Journey of Legal Compliance in Adult

The adult entertainment industry is teeming with opportunity but is also fraught with challenges, from anticipating consumer behavior to keeping up with technological innovation. The most labyrinthine of all challenges, however, is the world of legal compliance.

Corey D. Silverstein ·
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