opinion

Capitalizing on the Colombian Adult Industry

Capitalizing on the Colombian Adult Industry

Colombia is a highly profitable region for the adult industry, largely due to the booming live cam industry, which ranks it high up in the multi-billion dollar global market alongside the likes of Romania. Unbeknownst to many, a search for the “Latin” category on many adult websites will bring up results with 98% Colombian models, according to our research, with the remaining 2% divided between Mexico and Brazil.

The “teen” niche is the most popular search in the country, followed by “big dick” and “lesbian.” The “hentai” and “anal” niches round out the top five most-viewed categories, according to a recent Pornhub insights report.

Colombia presents endless opportunities for entrepreneurs wanting to break into this highly lucrative market.

Why is Colombia so heavily represented in adult entertainment? First off, there’s no denying the beauty of local models. After all, when Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutiérrez was nearly crowned Miss Universe in 2015, she was offered $1 million dollars to do porn by Vivid Entertainment’s Steve Hirsch. Also, porn is largely unrestricted in Colombia compared to the rest of Latin America, making the country an ideal candidate for cam studio owners. Here’s a brief breakdown of legality in two neighboring countries:

  • In Brazil, anyone producing or consuming pornography must be at least 18 years old.
  • Strangely, depiction of many taboos that are considered obscene and illegal in North America is legal in Colombia as long as the material is not sold in public places. Furthermore, adult media cover art may not depict genitalia when sold in public.
  • In Chile, adult entertainment was booming from the 1950s to the early ’70s until a coup d'état installed a military dictatorship that clamped down on the industry. Porn distribution has been heavily restricted since, though it’s beginning to ease up.

Now, while creating and selling adult entertainment is a popular career path in Colombia, it does come with some political baggage, since regulations against prostitution can often lead to mistreatment of cam models.

WHERE DOES COLOMBIAN TALENT COME FROM?

Colombia has long been home to brothels and other such establishments, but more and more citizens are signing up to become cam models as a safer alternative, capitalizing on demand. Additionally, recent COVID-19 restrictions have led new performers to connect with local studios to supplement or replace income lost during the pandemic.

WHO WATCHES COLOMBIAN ADULT CONTENT?

According to Pornhub, millennials are driving porn traffic in Colombia, accounting for 67% of viewers. Around 46% of them access porn via a smartphone, which is slightly less than the global average. A quarter of viewers are women, along the same lines as the worldwide average.

Alexa, a site that collects and analyzes web statistics, lists popular cam sites Chaturbate and BongCams among the most accessed in the region. For some perspective, Twitter ranks No. 27.

In addition to a solid viewing audience, Colombia boasts many actresses who are known across the globe: Bliss Dulce, Jamie Valentine, Isabella De Santos, Valerie Rios, Monique Fuentes, Melanie Rios, Esperanza Gomez, Veronica Leal, Franceska Jaimes, Ariella Ferrera and Canela Skin, to name a few.

E-COMMERCE IN COLOMBIA

In LATAM, Colombia has proven to offer one of the region’s most stable economies for the past 10 years. The online market is continually growing and is expected to hit a growth rate of 23% this year.

According to Statista, Colombia expects to have 22 million ecommerce consumers by year’s end, accounting for more than 60% of the country’s internet-using population. The Colombian ecommerce market ranks fourth among all Latin American countries.

Currently, Colombians prefer to pay for online goods and services using bank transfers (PSE banking system), cash and local solutions like Efecty, Baloto and SuRed. However, payment cards like Visa and Mastercard are continuing to experience growth in the online market. Visa leads the way with 50% of the card usage, followed by Mastercard at 40%, Diners at 5% and American Express at 5%. Cryptocurrency is also gaining traction in the country, with more than 3.1 million residents owning some form of it.

For cam studios entering the market, partnering with the right payment service provider and financial consultancy allows consumers to feel safe when making transactions for performances and content.

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE COLOMBIAN LIVE CAM MARKET

Colombia presents endless opportunities for entrepreneurs wanting to break into this highly lucrative market, which is why understanding the region’s laws, taxes and regulations is a key component in establishing a successful cam studio. Rather than hiring various professionals to ensure a business is compliant with regulations, set up ideal financial structures and devise tax optimization strategies, studios can look to a single financial services partner that can navigate those complicated waters for them.

Ideal partners will strive to offer that type of consultancy to clients, along with directly providing high-risk payment processing and the ability to accept, and make payouts with, local e-wallets, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

With an estimated 30,000-plus live cam performers in Colombia, competition among studios can be intense. Studios that can promise their performers steady and timely payouts, via methods they trust, create a true competitive advantage. When finances and performer payouts are handled seamlessly by trusted services, studio owners can focus their energy and resources on growing their businesses.

Ilya Firsov has a background in the automotive, finance and various adult industries, with experience in sales, affiliate marketing and IT projects. He is currently the head of sales for Certus Finance and responsible for marketing and branding. With a strong background in high-risk processing, the ability to process for companies in the U.S., EU and other regions sets Certus apart in Australia and around the world.

Related:  

Copyright © 2024 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More Articles

profile

WIA Profile: Patricia Ucros

Born in Bogota, Colombia, Ucros graduated from college with a degree in education. She spent three years teaching third grade, which she enjoyed a lot, before heeding her father’s advice and moving to South Florida.

Women In Adult ·
opinion

Creating Payment Redundancies to Maximize Payout Uptime

During the global CrowdStrike outage that took place toward the end of July, a flawed software update brought air travel and electronic commerce to a grinding halt worldwide. This dramatically underscores the importance of having a backup plan in place for critical infrastructure.

Jonathan Corona ·
opinion

The Need for Minimal Friction in Age Verification Technology

In the adult sector, robust age assurance, comprised of age verification and age estimation methods, is critical to ensuring legal compliance with ever-evolving regulations, safeguarding minors from inappropriate content and protecting the privacy of adults wishing to view adult content.

Gavin Worrall ·
opinion

Account-to-Account Payments: The New Banking Disruptor?

So much of our industry relies upon Visa and Mastercard to support consumer payments — and with that reliance comes increased scrutiny by both brands. From a compliance perspective, the bar keeps getting raised until it feels like we end up spending half our time making sure we are compliant rather than growing our business.

Cathy Beardsley ·
profile

WIA Profile: Samantha Beatrice

Beatrice credits the sex positivity of Montreal for ultimately inspiring her to pursue work in adult entertainment. She had many friends working in the industry, from sex workers to production teams, so it felt like a natural fit and offered an opportunity to apply her marketing and social media savvy to support people she truly believes in and wants to see succeed.

Women In Adult ·
opinion

Understanding the Latest Server Processors

Over the last decade, we mostly stopped talking about CPU performance. Recently, however, there has been a seismic and exciting change in the CPU landscape, due to innovation by a chip company called Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Brad Mitchell ·
opinion

User Choice, Privacy and the Importance of Education in AV

As we discussed last month, age verification in the adult sector is critical to ensuring legal compliance with ever-evolving regulations, safeguarding minors from inappropriate content and protecting the privacy of adults wishing to view adult content.

Gavin Worrall ·
opinion

Maintaining Payment Processing Compliance When the Goalpost Keeps Moving

VIRP is the new four-letter word everyone loves to hate. The Visa Integrity Risk Program went into effect last year, and affects several business types — including MCC 5967, which covers adult and anything else with nudity, and MCC 7273, dating services that don’t allow nudity.

Jonathan Corona ·
opinion

Making the Most of Your Sales Opportunities

The compliance road has been full of twists and turns this year. For many, it’s been a companywide effort just to make it across that finish line. Hopefully, most of us can now return our attention to some important things we’ve left on the back burner for months — like driving revenue.

Cathy Beardsley ·
profile

YourPaysitePartner Marks 25-Year Anniversary Amid Indie Content Renaissance

For 25 years, YourPaysitePartner has teamed up with stars and entrepreneurial brands to bring their one-stop-shop adult content dreams to life — and given the indie paysite renaissance of the past few years, the company’s efforts have paid off in spades.

Alejandro Freixes ·
Show More