Located in Cali, with offices in Medellin, Armenia, Pereira, Cartagena and Bogota, AJ Studios is one of the best positioned company in Latin America in the video chat sector, thanks to the legality of their actions, the commitment towards their team of professionals and strategic allies, in order to provide a high quality service achieved by cutting-edge technologies, and the dedicated support for their models. Last but not least, AJ studios team is also the main organizer of Lalexpo, the most important international webcam event in Latin America.

How was your studio born?
Before AJ studios we were in the travel and consulting business, we had an upscale bed and breakfast in Colombia focused on international clientele. Besides accommodation we offered a wide range of services such as private interpreters, bilingual Car service, private investigators, consulting on purchase of real estate in Colombia or investment opportunities among others. We got a client from the US who came to Colombia with the project to set up a cam studio and hired us to help him get started and signed a one year management support contract. So that’s how we came in contact with the cam business.
We started in the industry when the word “monitor” was only used to refer to the computer screen, there was no such thing as a broadcast manager, payments were received through
Epassporte and the popular sites back then were Naked, Cams, PeekShows and PrivateFeeds.
Since then, we have come a long way of experiences that today has positioned us as one of the best studios in the world.

Since you started your studio, what was your most challenging period?
Definitely, it was in our beginnings. During the process of getting into the industry, we had a loss of 240 million pesos during the first year (over $62,400 today), which we took as a somewhat expensive crash course on the do’s and don’ts of running a webcam studio.
Starting AJ Studios was not easy, we have had obstacles just like so many other businesses, but if you never quit and are passionate about what you do, it pays off in the long run. This business has become extremely profitable, and has opened so many doors for me to travel and to meet exceptional people from all around the world. The industry is full of possibilities and opportunity.
Currently In Colombia, the industry faces several challenges, starting with the absence of legislation that regulates the activities of this industry. This leaves in limbo those who are part of it. The lack of a regulation not only affects the Colombian government, it also puts at a disadvantage the men and women who work daily and who do not have the protection and benefits enjoyed by a common employee as medical benefits, justifications for applying for a loan in a financial institution or employment recommendation letters.
In view of a mostly moralistic society, which in many cases mistakenly associates the webcam business with illegal activities, the Colombian Association of E-Commerce for Adults (Asocea) was created by us, with the mission of generating better opportunities for companies in the industry.

What kind of marketing strategy have you adopted: social media platforms, adwords, referrals?
Since our brand has a very high reputation, referrals are one of the most common recruitment and marketing channels for us.
Also our strategies are focused on the management of social media platforms, which is one of the most active media channels in the industry. This has allowed us to achieve a very important position and create a community for our models and the girls who want to belong to our studio.
Through our social networks we provide valuable information to our models about training, tips for their broadcasts, support, contests and additional benefits. Read full article here

Flirt Studio was opened in 2011, in Izhevsk, Russia, by Artem, an ex-model in St. Petersburg, who after studying the market, came to the conclusion that it is more tempting to open a studio in a province where there are no other studios. The lack of competition and a minimum investment gave him a fairly quick start, and after years of sincere and hard work, Flirt Studio became one of the best studios in Russia, relying more on a “flirt and relation” strategy than shows.

Artem, did you receive any advice/consultancy from any other studio or from any other experienced person in this field when you started?
Yes, I originally made an agreement with two experienced people in the industry who helped me with opening the studio, for which I am still grateful, but then our paths diverged. At that time the studios didn’t communicate with each other as they do now, and to get or give advice to a competitor was something out of the realm of fiction, so there was no place to get information and I had to rely on my own experience. Well, it gave a certain hardening in business. Taking the Russian market as an example, I think we made a huge change by organizing Russia’s first webcam summit – WTF; changes that were influenced by Romanian summits.

Is there any financial difference between last year and this year’s 1st quarter? Is there any increase in profits?
We have quite a big drop compared to last year, as our partner site has changed the terms of cooperation, so it is quite difficult to switch to them to cover the losses and change the style of work.

Since you started your studio, which was your hardest period?
I think it was 2018, by that time we had made some serious progress in the industry, we had our first summit successfully and the studio was growing at a steady pace upwards, but unfortunately your success in Russia is quickly noticed by other people, well due to the fact that this business is quite “gray” in Russia, the police became interested in me. This was my second criminal prosecution (the first was in 2013), but rather more serious in terms of charges. It’s hard to tell about it in two words, these stories are enough to make a short series on Netflix. Thankfully all ended well, but these wars set the studio back a couple of years in development.
How did you handle it?
My very good and very expensive lawyers handled it ha-ha, and honestly, it was just pure luck.

Read full article here

Since the beginning of the adventure in the video chat industry (2001), the BEST STUDIOS team has focused on performance. Vision, work and professionalism, determination and devotion, confidence and courage characterize them, ensure their success and make them one of the best!

In less than a year since its launch, BEST STUDIOS has reached an impressive level of notoriety, being recognized as a top brand worldwide in the industry. Testimony in this sense are the awards and certifications obtained, the financial results registered by the organization in general and by models in particular, as well as the interest shown by potential investors in accessing their franchise system.

We had the pleasure to talk to Maria Boroghina, Best Studios Operational Manager, and found out some insights of the Best Studios Company, together with lots of tips and some spicy facts from the videochat industry.

How did you start to work in the live cam industry?
At one point I was looking for a job, back then you could find a job in the newspaper. At first, I found a studio in Bucharest, I went to an interview, they even asked me money to open up my model account, I didn’t find that pro enough. I have searched again, and then I found an ad for a studio based in Holland, so I said I will give it a try.

Were they asking you money back then to start an account, because I know they are free now?
They don’t cost anything now, and not even then, but they were also studios that were offering you this service for a fee.

How is Maria describing herself?
I’m a totally normal woman, happy most of the time, and sometimes unhappy, full of life, surrounded by many beautiful people.

How do you think your colleagues are seeing you?
Well, now it depends on who you’re asking. My colleagues are at the same time my staff. For some of them I’m their boss, for some I’m a friend, for some I’m even more than that, I’m their family. And then we also have the models, the old ones I consider them my friends, the new ones only know me from Youtube, and for other models I’m that presence in the studio from whom they can learn something.

What is it like to be the operational manager of Best Studios Company?
Hard! It’s even harder than people imagine. Everyone thinks that at a videochat studio, the manager is doing just a bunch of tasks, and even that what we do for them is not a big deal. We are a huge company, we have 97 people in our staff, so there is a need for lots of managers. We have a General Manager, a Development Manager, I am the Operational Manager, a Manager for the franchise, a Models Recruitment Manager, an HR, and then everybody is taking care of his own part. I’m doing a lot of marketing tasks, and also a lot of recruiting and training for the models, and also I’m helping them to integrate into the studio. I can say that there are sometimes quiet days, and then there are days in which I have tons of things to do and I worry that I don’t have plenty of time to finish my tasks.

In which section do you have to invest, so you can have constant profits? In the marketing section? In the training of the models? In their traffic?
We don’t buy traffic for our models, and I believe the most important thing you have to invest in is your staff. Even if you have the most beautiful studio in the world, or the best technology, if the staff is not a quality one, then you will never have success. I would say that you must have people with a good heart, with whom you can go further. This is the major investment you can make. And after this, if you are a big studio, of course you need pretty buildings, beautiful rooms, a good internet connection, the latest technology, connections with the cam sites. There are many factors that can bring you benefits, but 90% of the process is about the human resource in your studio.

Which is the biggest challenge for your studio?
Depends on the day. One day the challenge might be to maintain the studio clean, on another day is to keep your staff happy, and on some other days to keep the models happy. But I think the most important thing is to maintain the standards we have now. It’s quite easy to reach a high level, but very hard to maintain yourself there. I think this is the biggest challenge for us.

How do you see this industry in the next few years?
I don’t really know what to say. If you had asked me 2 years ago what would happen, I wouldn’t even think about the pandemia. [..]You can see the whole interview on our Youtube Channel #VideoChatStories and while you are there don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and stay tuned for more interesting, unveiled stories! Read more articles here