My name is Evgeniy, I live in St. Petersburg and I am over 30 years old. Of these, I have been working in the webcam business for about 10 years - as an operator (model assistant), administrator, manager. And two years ago I realized that it was time to create my own studio. I won't give out its name or address, because I am extremely strict about security and try not to advertise my activities too much.
There are several options for working in the webcam industry. If we divide broadly, then these are foreign and Russian sites. My studio generally does not work on the latter, and large studios also avoid them. This is due to safety for the model (the risk that friends or relatives will see her on the site is reduced) and to the not very high average bill of a Russian user. I don't consider sites like Runetki.com and BongaCams promising, at least for their models. There is potential there, but it is much more pleasant to receive a salary based on exchange rates than to be tied to the ruble.
For me, creating a studio is simply a logical continuation of development in the industry. This is business as usual - for a foreigner it is not even a gray area, in many countries it is a legal business.
I don't want to name the exact budget for opening, but I will say that you can open a webcam studio with almost any budget ; another thing is how profitable it will be and what role a person will occupy in this studio. If he is ready to take on administrative work, then it could be a million rubles or even less. The budget of top studios, where there are at least 10 rooms, the right advertising campaign and good renovation, starts from seven to eight million. In general, it's like with any business - if you want to open a store, you can do it for a million rubles - a small one, or you can open a huge hypermarket for a hundred million. I opened a medium-sized store because I didn't want to take credit money and did everything exclusively at my own expense.
The idea started right away - I found out that a friend was renting out a room that was very suitable for me, and I started thinking about moving to the next level. A studio can be opened in an ordinary three-room apartment, or in a more or less “acceptable” commercial space for about 200 thousand rubles per month.
I needed a place that met two criteria: location and safety. It is best to keep a studio in the city center, because if a person lives in the north, he will not go to the south to work. There are exceptions, but they only prove the rule. In addition, you need an acceptable level of security: not very close neighbors, a safe yard or street with windows facing.
If we talk about large studios, they are located in some former communal apartments, or simply in large premises in the center. There are a bunch of settled communal apartments where they do all sorts of things, including webcam studios.
Modest surroundings, common in webcam studios
I only worked at large studios and didn't want to quarrel with anyone, so I didn't poach employees and models from previous jobs. Although this is the easiest way to find models. As for the administration, when hiring a person you need to look at whether he has at least some understanding of business and administration skills - he must be well versed in computers and technology.
If we talk about models, the main thing is to find one that will work regularly. She won't come twice and then leave, or she won't come once a week, but she will work constantly, about 30-40 hours a week. This is the norm for our field and, in general, a standard six-hour working day for an ordinary person. Unless the work schedule can be shifted: someone likes to sit for a day, all 20-24 hours, and then rest the whole day or two days, and someone likes to go to work from 9 to 18.
I work with all models - women, men, and couples (it can be more than two people). In general, there can be only three categories in this case. Some studios only work with girls, but I don't have such a bias.
I explain to models what to do better if they feel burnt out. We advise employees to go on vacation about twice a year. Mostly at their own expense, but there are studios that reward models with paid leave and some amount of money.
Many models leave in the first two weeks of work, this is a simple screening. If it remains, then the next such crisis period will be in about a year. Some are uncomfortable, others are not satisfied with the money the model earns. Some studios promise mountains of gold at low costs, which is not entirely true in our field. Sometimes people fall for it and are disappointed, when at first they do not receive the money they expected. But I am more than sure that if they had stayed and worked for a year, they would have received the promised money.
There are several basic rules of behavior at work. Firstly, models must strictly adhere to the schedule: if she signed up for a shift, she must come. You must be notified 24 hours in advance that it will not be available.
Secondly, no alcohol or drug intoxication in the workplace. Even just arriving in this state is unacceptable. Other studios allow it, but prohibit consumption in the workplace. There are studios where on-site consumption is allowed, even encouraged. But these are dying rules, because now many studios treat this as a business, and not as some kind of brothel, and the rules should be like in any business.
The third point is not to tell unnecessary people about your work, its location, and so on. These are the basic rules offhand. I haven't re-read them for a long time.
Five years ago there were no problems with finding people; there was active recruitment in all studios. Now there is a certain shortage of models, but we are talking more about new studios. All newcomers to small studios expect that they have, for example, one model, which maybe someday will bring someone else. But rent must be paid now, and therefore studios are experiencing a fairly acute shortage. A lot of money begins to be wasted on advertising tools due to a lack of understanding of what costs and how much and what tools need to be invested in.
Models salaries vary from studio to studio, but generally they promise from 100 thousand rubles per month. Models get this money. Maybe not right away, but this is a real amount, not at all exorbitant. Some earn this amount in the first week of work, others can earn that much in a day, but this is more for the experienced. Some people don't reach that level in their entire career, but then I don't see any reason for them to work in this field.
This is normal practice - if there are two rooms in a studio and three models apply for one shift, then those who earn more will be chosen.
From all the model's earnings, a commission is taken from the site that broadcasts the process, and a commission from the studio is taken for the work and provision of the platform. There are sites that take a 70% commission for themselves, that is, from every 100 dollars the model receives 30, and the model must share this with the studio, because the studio provides equipment, electricity, internet, consultations, and so on.
Even if a model “rents” a room to work, that also costs money. Accordingly, the studio also receives from these 30 dollars, but it receives no more than the model. It is very rare when the percentage of models in a studio is less than 50. It all depends on how she works. She may receive a third of the initial $100, but the sites take most of the original amount.
I can't say that all the girls at my studio earn more than at others. When it comes to transferring money, I use cash. In my practice, there were several studios that transferred money to the card. As far as I know, they set up shell companies and simply transfer salaries to employees. It's like they're working a regular job. This is a complex scheme; you need to have certain financial resources to organize it all. I prefer the “in an envelope” method; it seems to me the most optimal, including from a security point of view.
Interior of a St. Petersburg studio (not the one owned by the hero)
In terms of administration, I have about four people on my staff. Models - 10-30. Although I worked in a studio with about 100 models. They worked three shifts. But you need to understand that there is an operator who works together with the model. This is a person who communicates for the model if she does not know a foreign language, mainly English. She can use the services of an operator who sits either in the room with her or remotely, contacts the model and tells her what to do, and translates some text. Essentially, he acts as a director. The model, like an actress, listens to the director and does what he says. And the director, that is, the cameraman, communicates with clients. They share the earnings. If the model does not know English, she can work with the help of a translator, but with an operator she will earn more.
Having your own webcam studio is a very profitable business due to tax evasion. I won't give specific numbers, but I will answer that the five average models cover all costs in full, followed by net profit. This is now my only source of income, and I have enough money.
There are two types of studios that attract models - by lies and by honest discussions. I am for the latter, because a person who comes to contact you is an extra security failure. And since I took safety very seriously, this was the main criterion when I opened the studio.
Some are veiled, some say you just need to communicate, some say you just need to dance. There's such a gray area here, because they don't seem to be lying, you can actually earn money that way, it's just not the right kind of money. There is a separate category on sites called non-nude, that is, not naked. This one also has models who make good money, but there are much, much fewer of them than in the more explicit category.
At my studio there are trainings, the main task of which is to teach the model how to work with websites, talk about new innovations or how to work with a particular utility. Sometimes they tell you how to attract better clients, how to communicate with them better, for example, if they start to rude to you. Sooner or later, any model is faced with the fact that they begin to be rude to her.
There are situations when a model married a client, this is not condemnable. But it is frowned upon to pass money past the studio: if a client directly sends money to a model's card, this is not welcome. During trainings, we describe situations when a model and a client meet in life, and warn about pitfalls. Basically, even what comes to marriage does not end with a happy ending.
There is a popular thesis that webcam is the first step to prostitution and escort. I don't agree with him. Rather, prostitution is the first step to webcamming, because priestesses of love also come to our sphere. They earn more, but they need to do more.
Direct contact with clients hits the moral side quite hard and generally affects the girl's condition. But here you can just turn off the computer and that's it, you're safe. There are also cases when people go into prostitution after a webcam, but I don't think that this is a springboard, because people go into prostitution not only after a webcam.
Many people call St. Petersburg the webcam capital of Russia - this is absolutely true. A special city, which is famous for its large number of creative people, and webcams can still be classified as a creative profession; there is a lot of creativity and self-expression here. However, now quite a lot of studios are opening in regions. Another thing is that if one studio opens in some conventional city N, then everyone will immediately know about it, and it will be under close attention. When there are more than a hundred studios in a city, security increases.
Large Russian webcam studios focus on foreign audiences. But not because many foreign webcam sites are blocked in Russia and you cannot access them without a VPN. For studios this is not a problem, everything is very simple. This is a question of money, because for a conventional client from Switzerland, spending 100 euros means going to the store.
Mostly models are viewed from the USA - this is 80% of the audience, all other countries - 20%. But it depends on what shift you work. If it is night in America, there will be fewer Americans and more Australians and Europeans.
There are cases that clients recorded video from the screen during private scenes and then posted it on third-party porn resources. There is no way to track this, so we tell models not to reveal their real address or even their city of residence. You can fight [screen video recording] in certain ways, write to Google so that it removes it from search results. But it will remain on third-party sites; what ends up on the Internet is on the Internet forever. We are preparing models for this - sooner or later, perhaps one of your friends will recognize you.
Russian girls are some of the most beautiful in the world , so they are in great demand. However, some models take quantity or price: there are a lot of Latinas on the sites. They have a small price tag and a more varied menu. But yes, Russians are well regarded.
During the pandemic, many people were left without work, which is certainly sad. And they went into the webcam industry. This area is not regulated, so decrees that we cannot work do not apply to us. You just come, sit alone in a room, work, leave and get your money even more than as a waitress in a restaurant.
At the beginning of the pandemic there was a large influx of new models. Prostitutes started working because people stopped turning to them due to direct physical contact and fear of getting sick. But now everything is returning to normal.
In my studio (and I know several others that do this), when hiring models, they go through the database and look at her background and connections. If mom and dad are a prosecutor, then no, thanks, girl, we won't work with you.
There are also sent Cossack women. The main danger is agents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and journalists. The latter are less dangerous, but they are simply unpleasant: they come and try to find out everything with their presence. At the same time, I have nothing against journalism and coverage of the webcam sphere; I believe that this area needs to be legalized.
Many thousands of people work in the webcam industry throughout Russia, and these are huge taxes that are simply missed. In addition, this is the attraction of foreign capital, which is very rare for any industry, except, probably, the military. If legalized, I would lose a lot of money (taxes), but I would legalize my business. For myself and the country as a whole, this would be a plus.
An important topic is how studios view their security from the point of view of their relationship to the state and law enforcement agencies. If everything is “caught,” then the studio and its employee may not sign any contracts with each other. Some sign a document stating that they simply provide a room for rent, and then the model does whatever she wants. This is the easiest way for a studio to evade responsibility.
By “everything is captured,” I mean that the state is not very fond of the webcam industry, therefore, as in any gray or even black business, there must be a “protection” among the police. I wouldn't like to say if I have one, but I can say that almost all the big studios have it. For little ones - almost never.
Often, it is smaller studios and those without a roof that suffer from the attention of law enforcement agencies. Sometimes orders come that allow you to ignore, let's say, certain agreements and come to all studios.
Model accounts on webcam sites are created only using passport data - this is a necessary verification procedure. We transfer this data and then store it for a month on encrypted servers, to which only I have access. There can only be a single leak or one, two, three people at a time. There will definitely not be a massive leak, at least in my case. There are studios that even make money from this by selling data to third parties. Just like banks sell phone numbers so that their owners can be sent advertisements.
When hiring, we warn models that the business they are going to work for is in a gray area, they receive their salary in envelopes, and do not pay taxes on it. But I will say that in all the years that I have been following the field, not a single model has been put in the dock, even as a witness. And it won't hit if there are no changes in this direction.
If this suddenly happens, it will probably be a case of white thread with the aim of punishing someone other than the models, most likely some kind of studio. All the articles they tried to present to the organizers of the webcam business were funny. Most often, they try to charge studios with Article 242 - the illegal production and trafficking of pornographic materials or objects. There are studios that actually produce pornography at the same time, but then this article really applies. There is a very fine line here, and I have spoken with lawyers more than once about what needs to be done in order not to fall under this article.
There are unscrupulous people who track down models, find their social media accounts and blackmail them. That's why we hold safety seminars for our models, where we tell them that they should remove themselves from all social networks and not post their photos anywhere. For the same reason, I do not advise models to tell their friends about their work.
At work, the model does only what she is comfortable with. If you don't want to do something, don't be afraid to say no. There have been cases when models forgot to warn about this: in a hurry or on purpose. Sometimes they thought that since a person pays, then she is obliged to do something specific, which may be contrary to her desires. No, that's not true. We will not force her in any way, otherwise this is some kind of slavery.
There are unscrupulous studios that try to earn as much as possible from each model. They blackmail her or start threatening her, for example, to tell her family about her work. But here, too, it's more expensive to make enemies, because she can go to the police and just hand over this studio, say that they sell drugs there or something else, and the studios will have a lot of problems. I see absolutely no commercial sense in this. Such studios remain in regions where it is less developed than in St. Petersburg.
I won't say if I have children, but I certainly thought what would happen if my child wanted to do webcam. I have come to the conclusion that I will decide this when such a situation comes. Because you might ask , “What if your child is a drug addict?” or “What if he joins a terrorist organization?”. These are still very hypothetical moments.
If we talk about the webcam business in Russia 10 years ago and now, I would say that only the level of popularity among journalists and law enforcement agencies has changed for the worse. And the best is everything else. Previously, models sat in a three-room apartment, three models could sit in one, simply separated from each other by curtains, with disgusting quality due to technology, because of the Internet, and so on. Now everything is much better, more pleasant and safer.
The webcam industry will remain for a very long time , because a serious change in laws is needed in order to somehow move this business in one direction or the other: complete legalization or at least decriminalization, and towards a complete ban. Technology always plays into the hands of the porn industry, although I don't like to call webcams the porn industry.
They offered to sell me the studio, but I wasn't happy with the amount and terms. I was thinking about opening a legal business in the future that had nothing to do with the webcam industry. In five years, I hope there will be several businesses from completely different areas. Most likely something offline. I will consider that I have achieved success in the field when I reach a certain income per year. I'll keep it a secret which one it is.
Completely different people are moving more and more into gray areas, and it doesn't matter whether it's a webcam or not. These people have a legal alternative, just with a much lower salary, which is simply not serious to live on, especially if you have children. On the salary of the same teacher. How much is this - 30-40 thousand rubles? Probably, in big cities you can earn 60 thousand by working 20 hours a day. And on webcam, if you're lucky, you can get 100 thousand per day, in cash.
