Wired: Valentine's Day Romance Blooms on Webcam Porn Sites

LOS ANGELES—Wired.com published an article today on the newest Valentine's Day trend—webcam porn romance. According to Max Willens for the site, "There are several million single guys in this country, and many of them will spend Valentine’s Day online with webcam models: sex workers paid to chat — and usually a whole lot more — via the magic of the internet." Making it all sound gloriously romantic as well as profitable, he adds, "Valentine’s Day is the big, heart-shaped exception to the rule that holidays are rough on the internet porn biz. Come February 14, traffic surges, money flies, and models know they can earn thousands of dollars in mere hours." Willens backs up his claims of a Valentine's Day crush by speaking with a few webcam girls in addition to the operators of some well-known sites. One performer, Natalie Star, who cams by appointment only, told him, “It is the big money-generating day. If you think about it, there’s hundreds of thousands of lonely guys, they don’t have wives, they don’t have girlfriends. It’s huge, not only for the customers that know you, but for the girls who are trying to build their audiences.” Another, Lily, "charges as much as $50 per minute for private shows, and says she’s received individual tips of as much as $10,000 as recently as last month," reported Willens. "She says customers typically go the extra mile on Valentine’s Day." She told him, "It is that time when guys can show extra attention to the model, spoil her. This is a great way for a guy to stand out, get noticed more by the girl.” A few online chat platforms approached by Wired supported the idea that the day set aside for romance manifests itself online as well as in person. "On Valentine’s, we’ll have longer shows, romantic shows,” said Flirt4Free channel manager, Jamie Rodriguez. Chaturbate's Shirley Lara told Willens that on Valentine's Day customer tips of $500 to $1,000 are “typical” for Chaturbate performers. Willens added, "None of the sites we talked to would cite hard numbers, but they all said traffic and revenues spike in the days before Valentine’s Day, often by as much as 25 percent. Most sites charge by the minute for private shows, and the meter tends to run longer on Valentine’s Day." The takeaway seems to be that live cam relationships are often more "complicated" than people might assume, and also, as Willens puts it, that "non-sexual interactions often bring models the biggest bucks." In that regard, live camming is definitely a two-way street. “The performers are definitely getting smarter,” said Sean Philip from job board sexyjobs.com.. “They’re getting better and better at connecting.” Star agreed, saying models are wise to meet the needs of their online fans. “There’s a lot of girlfriend experience type customers," she told Willens. "They just want to see their webcam girlfriends happy and smile and giggle, something that a normal boyfriend and girlfriend would do. These guys want to believe that if they spend enough time online, they’re going to be able to ride off into the sunset.” Just like the rest of us.