LOS ANGELES — This week, the recurring "Love Remotely" segment of "Vice News Tonight Remote" spoke with Evelin Stone, Chad White and Alejandro Freixes, XBIZ Managing Editor, Digital Media, about performers who have successfully pivoted from studio-shot content during the coronavirus pandemic.
"Pornography has always been a leader in technological progress, adapting to new mediums from VHS tapes to virtual reality. Now we’re seeing it’s a proof of concept that working from home can really work," said "Vice News" anchor Krishna Andavolu as he described "a new golden era" for adult entertainment.
Correspondent Dexter Thomas cited "a historic spike" in Pornhub traffic in March and "200,000 new daily users" for OnlyFans.
"Since this all happened, everything went up, my custom videos, the amount of interaction on my site. I’m honestly working more than I have most of the year in this month," Stone revealed.
White, who manages the content feeds for a number of performers, echoed her assessment.
"We’re not actually plateauing like we thought we would," said White. "They’re still buying porn.”
Fans, however, crave more than sexual gratification, Stone observed. "You’re not just buying sex, you’re buying an experience with somebody," she said, noting that a content request can be as simple as watching her prepare her morning coffee.
"The pandemic isn’t just going to change porn in a business sense," said Thomas. "It might also get people to think differently about the kind of work that porn performers do."
Freixes agreed with that assessment.
"There’s been a pivot towards two things, and that’s authenticity and intimacy," he said. "We crave realness, we crave connection even from adult entertainment."
He noted this sea change was already underway. The pandemic, however, "poured accelerant and lit a match on things that were already heading a certain way. You know, talent having more power than ever. And part of the reason talent has more power than ever is their traffic is especially potent. As these independent content creators get more successful, and have nicer cameras, they start becoming like miniature studios."
Click here for the complete episode.
Image source: Screencap by XBIZ
