Today Is the Biggest Day of the Year for Webcam Porn
Just a man and woman and a camera.
By Rachel Sugar
It's Valentine's Day, and business is booming — for chocolatiers, for florists, for the candy department of CVS pharmacy. Also, for webcam performers: while holidays generally tend to be bad for the sex business, what with all the family obligations and turkey-eating, Valentine’s bucks the trend. According to Wired, February 14th is actually a banner day for the webcam industry. Models, they say, "can earn thousands of dollars in mere hours," largely thanks to bigger-than-usual customer tips — the $500 to $1,000 range is "typical," says a rep for cam site Chaturbate.
Which isn't exactly surprising: Valentine's Day is all about companionship — celebrating it, being sad about it, seeking it out — and the webcam industry knows that. "If you think about it," says performer Natalie Star, "there’s hundreds of thousands of lonely guys, they don’t have wives, they don’t have girlfriends." Lily, another cam model, agrees, pointing out that Valentine's Day inspires men to go the extra mile. "It is that time when guys can show extra attention to the model, spoil her," she says.
What exactly goes down between the model and the customer varies. While a lot of the interactions are about sex, Star says some of her best customers are looking for a different kind of intimacy — there's Valentine's money in graphic encounters, but there's also money in webcam dinner dates. “There’s a lot of girlfriend experience type customers,” she explains. “They just want to see their webcam girlfriends happy and smile and giggle, something that a normal boyfriend and girlfriend would do." Connection pays. And it can keep paying long after the candy hearts are gone. The Valentine boost is huge for performers who already have devoted followings, Star says, but it’s also a major business opportunity for models just starting out — there’s no day like V-Day to meet the webcam model of your dreams.
Image via Gisela Giardino
