Virtual sex workers: how the webcam business works in Romania

Webcaming is the fastest growing sector of the global pornography industry. In Romania, thousands of girls work as models in video chats from the studio or directly from home. Read all about webcaming from the inside in our material.

The webcam business appeared in the early 2000s and became a revolution in the field of adult entertainment. The annual turnover of the webcam business, or web modeling, is billions of dollars. The sites feature hundreds of web models available at any time of the day. Users can talk to them for free, but in order to see the show, you have to pay: usually a private session costs from two to nine dollars per minute. The amount is withdrawn from the client's credit card, after which the agency shares the income with the girl. Typical clients are men aged 40 to 60 years in search of an erotic show, some of them are very rich and famous.

The business has attracted tens of thousands of models from all over the world, ranging from female students to single mothers and middle-aged housewives. There are also young men in the industry - they work for gays and a growing female audience.

Romania has become the undisputed capital of the new trend. Rumor has it that the annual income of Romanian sex video chats exceeds 373 million dollars — this is the most prosperous market of this kind in Europe. Insiders report that more than 5 thousand studios work across the country, employing about 100 thousand models. At the same time, at the official level, everyone pretends that this business does not exist.

The owner of one of the Romanian studios, Maria (in the title photo), explains the three components of the success of the webcam industry in Romania: widespread poverty, a large number of beautiful women who speak English, and the availability of cheap high-speed Internet.

Now about 15% of Romanian youth are out of work, and the minimum wage in the country is $ 327 per month. Therefore, it is easy for webcam studios to find a workforce among students and yesterday's graduates.

The webcam industry is doing everything possible to attract young girls.

But the reality turns out to be much more prosaic. Many webcam models get much less than they expected, and, disappointed, give up a "stellar career": turnover in this area is very large.

"It's not so easy to make money here," says Vera, an experienced webcam model who once trained girls for one of the major studios, and now owns her own independent company, where she works in front of the camera.

Vera explains that in order to become a successful model, you need to spend a lot of time and effort, build up a base of regular customers or come up with your own chip that can interest a special circle of people. Ideally, a successful model should know at least one foreign language and be well versed in cultural differences. In most studios, girls are offered free English lessons, and some even have their own beauty salons and gyms.

Vera's clients try to use her to realize their fantasies, which they cannot realize in real life.

LiveJasmin is the world's largest internet hosting service for webcam models. From 35 to 40 million users visit it daily, at any moment there are about 2 thousand models on the site. In general, it is not difficult to understand how and why the webcam industry brought $ 2-3 billion in profit in 2017.

Unlike other sites, LiveJasmin models undress completely only if customers invite them to a private chat, 10 minutes of which cost $ 125. LiveJasmin calls it a "girlfriend package". The models working here offer not only private erotic shows, including variations from striptease to masturbation with vibrators controlled by the client, but also intimate conversations and advice on life, love and anything that comes to the client's mind.

Perfect Lexy is a petite, short-haired, red-haired girl who has been working on the LiveJasmin website for 4 years, ever since she quit her old job at a car factory in a small town in southern Romania, where she earned about $270 a month. On the day when the journalist met her at the LiveJasmin office in the center of Bucharest, she was already receiving almost $1,700 for an 8-hour shift.

During the 8 hours spent together, they managed to chat, have lunch and even take a nap.

Cases when clients fall in love with models are not so rare. But sometimes relationships can become really toxic. In such cases, the girls are forced to stop them. For example, one of Lexi's clients threatened to commit suicide, begging to meet in real life.

Although they say that in some cases, girls not only meet their clients in real life, but even marry them. Recently, one of the LiveJasmin models moved to Dubai with one of her clients. And a fan of another girl came to Romania from the other side of the world to discover that his passion is happily married.

Recently, the number of male models has been increasing in this business. Ana is the owner of the only webcam studio in Bucharest that works exclusively with camboys. She says that 21 employees work for her in three shifts seven days a week.

Ana herself worked as a model for several years, and then decided to open her own studio, realizing that the potential of the male model segment in this business is seriously underestimated. 21-year-old Dylan Green is the most successful camboy in the studio. Last year, he was recognized as the best male model at the Bucharest Summit, and this is the most prestigious award in the Romanian webcam industry.

Dylan started modeling when he was just 18 and still in high school. One day a gym friend told him about such a job. Interested in the opportunity to earn good money, the very next day Dylan went to audition at Ana's studio.

On his first day at work, he earned $ 50, while completely not understanding what to do in front of the camera, and communicating with customers using a Google translator. Now, three years later, he can earn up to 12 thousand dollars in one working day.

Of the money paid by clients, Dylan gets 75%, the rest is taken by the studio. He works 6-7 hours a day, mostly he dances for the camera, poses and masturbates, from time to time dressing up in gladiator, gorilla or Superman costumes. During all this time, Dylan has built up a base of loyal customers, or fans, as he prefers to call them.

Dylan is heterosexual, but his fans don't care.

Dylan believes that he is successful in this field because he loves what he does, and it's not just about money. He advises colleagues to make friends with their fans and talk to them as if they were drinking beer with friends together.