Many who look at the webcam business think they have a good grasp on it and expect only small changes in the near future, but several insiders were willing to point out some significant new perspectives that are already taking shape and will likely flourish as 2014 moves along.
“The webcam market is going to continue growing very rapidly in 2014,” said one source who asked to remain nameless. “More companies like ours, studios and individual models will find ways to work together to provide live content across all platforms — the days of a solo girl with a cam in her members area or a site that only shows live webcam content are likely going to give way to a lot more sites that integrate live and prerecorded content into a hybrid business model. That way customers can dictate their own terms — allowing monthly subscriptions, tokens, one clicks and virtually any other avenue of monetization, so that customers can get the content they want, exactly the way they want it.”
Cams and dating will continue to be strong sellers for the foreseeable future, we are starting to see many of the mainstream affiliate networks choosing to have cams and adult dating offers within their networks. -Wizzo of JuicyAds
Others pointed out that freemium marketing is continuing to gain traction in just about every sector of digital commerce, with cams hardly being an exception.
“Freemium marketing will continue to extend its reach and we’ll see more and more free cams funded by tips or gifts with less and less pay per minute business being done,” said one executive. “That allows the sites to draw massive traffic from freeloaders and grants real buyers celebrity status beyond the per minute enjoyment of a private show.”
From a traffic perspective, webcams may also have access to entirely new sources of potential customers.
‘Cams and dating will continue to be strong sellers for the foreseeable future,” said Wizzo of JuicyAds. “We are starting to see many of the mainstream affiliate networks choosing to have cams and adult dating offers within their networks. As that trend gains momentum whole new markets may emerge which were previously prohibited traffic sources for many site owners.”
The biggest model site news at the tail end of 2013 may also become a driving factor in the way webcam models manage their personas during the coming year.
“Models will take much more control over their own webcam offerings in 2014 with a lot less need for the infrastructure that cam sites provide thanks to ModelCentro.com,” said Stan of AdultCentro.com. “Now models can build their own sites, manage their own portfolios and profit from their webcam shows with zero investment for a small fraction of the profits. The existing ways webcam sites can provide customers will continue to be important, but with Model Centro now available as a parallel revenue stream, things are about to heat up for models who are able to hold the attention of their audience effectively.”
One thing seems abundantly clear from the execs contacted for this story, nobody plans to wait around to see what happens. 2014 may be a year of much bigger changes than outsiders expect as technologies, business models, mobile platforms, social media, mainstream traffic sources, billing options and direct marketing become more integrated. The concept of a webcam company or cam site is quickly giving way to live content available virtually everywhere as seamlessly as prerecorded video has already become.
