< Previous40 @BCAMS 2021 BCAMS MAGAZINE An exclusive interview with the one and only Mistress Kennya. The only Goddess you will ever need to serve from now on, a supreme Romanian beauty, television personality and educator of men. Here is a revealing Q&A with Oana, the woman behind Mistress Kenn- ya, and insights from the BDSM videochat industry. Oana, i would like to start by asking you how Mis- tress Kennya describes herself? I couldn’t describe myself, and I don’t want to be narcis- sistic. How could I describe myself? I’m a normal per- son despite all appearances, a warm person, a woman like all the other women. I don’t think there is a different thing to describe me as Mistress Kennya. I’m a normal human even when I become Mistress Kennya or when I am Oana, even though I always tried to divide these two characters. afterall I realized that I’m not playing a character, but somehow at the middle of the way, both my sides, the dominant one with my normal human one, are meeting. I’ve learned to combine them. I’m an absolutely normal person, the only thing is that I prac- tice BDSM, and fetish. These are the only things I can say about myself. How do you think your employees see you? Before they get to know me, it’s exactly what i was saying before, at first they think i am a very strict per- son, a tough person, very cold. Then, after they get to know me, I think they see me as the best person in their life. The thing is that the people who remained next to me are the people who resonated with me. I don’t have employees, they are my friends. Even STUDIO Kennya Studios OWNER Oana You can see the whole interview on our Youtube Channel #VideoChatStories and stay tuned for more interesting,unveiled stories!41 www.bcams.ro “I’m not playing a character , but somehow, both my sides, the dominant one and my normal human one, are meeting in the middle.” though they say this expression really often in our indus- try “we are a family” , in my studio I really have a family. I don’t like to say that I hired somebody, but I like to say that I’ve adopted somebody. I am, somehow, their mommy at the studio. I think this is the word for it, I think that in my studio they see me as their mother, not as their boss. Let’s talk about regrets! Do you have any regrets since you’ve entered this industry? The only thing I regret is that I didn’t start earlier, I’ve start- ed pretty late, I was already 22 years old. I heard back then about the videochat but you couldn’t have too much ac- cess to the information, and that’s why i’ve debuted so late. And the second regret of mine is the image i’ve cre- ated as a Mistress, because people around me don’t re- ally understand what BDSM is, they think it’s a bad thing and that it’s about fighting and stuff like that.It can be a good thing too, but basically this is my regret, that this image i’ve created keeps people away, they actually look stressed in front of me, and everywhere I go they would know that Kennya comes. They would be like “Be quiet!”. Which is the biggest challenge for you as a studio, or for you as Mistress Kennya? The biggest challenge for me, sometimes,is not to quit be- ing a model. The challenge is to keep up with the changes that come for the videochat industry, and to keep on being a model while I’m a trainer too, let’s say it like that. This is the real challenge, to be able to divide myself between being a trainer and being a model, because I don’t want to give up on the last one. Do you think Romanian models are rated as they should be by the cam sites? I don’t know if I should answer this question. Everybody saw that certain camsites favor certain countries. From us, they ask for the maximum of everything. […] INTERVIEWS42 @BCAMS 2021 BCAMS MAGAZINE FINANCE & BUSINESS With each issue we are going to bring you the latest finance & business news and updates that may affect your money, invest- ments, savings and financial health. After a tough year like 2020, we are kicking off our first issue with a strong focus on how the pandemic impacted the Live Cam Industry in Romania and worldwide, and how it adapted to the new trends. In this issue you can read all about Paxum, one of the most appreciated payment processors in the Live Cam Industry, how they overcame recently a difficult situation that affected their users. Paxum, the trusted payment service Pandemic impact next44 @BCAMS 2021 BCAMS MAGAZINE Paxum, the trusted payment service for the adult industry! Paxum is an industry leader, and has been successfully offering a secure instant payment platform since 2007 to hundreds of thousands of clients that actively use its service. The award-winning payment company provides a cost-effective, user-friendly interface fortified with stringent security measures and multiple ways for clients to access their account funds, including an optional prepaid credit card. Paxum account users can easily send and receive money in- stantly all over the world. For our very first issue, we had the pleasure of interviewing Paxum’s CEO , Octav Moise , and here are some business insights : What was the most challenging thing for you this year? 2020 was a difficult year for most businesses out there. We’ve all had to deal in some way, both professionally and person- ally, with the unexpected challenges created by the global COVID-19 pandemic. As a business with more than 250 em- ployees in multiple offices around the world, Paxum has been able to make some internal changes in order to create a new ecosystem that allows our employees to work remotely for their safety, while also continuously providing the secure and comprehensive support and service that Paxum customers know they can depend on to easily access their hard-earned money. While there was no way at all to predict how 2020 would turn out, Paxum’s previous decade plus long effort of building a secure, elegant, user-friendly payment platform; of forging strong long-term client relations; and establishing robust connections with multiple payment processors to deliver payment satisfaction to our customers, has helped us to nav- igate, handle and adapt to the challenges presented by the global pandemic seamlessly, with zero effect on the function- ality of our worldwide payment services.45 www.bcams.ro What would you like to be changed in the relationship between you and your cam sites? For many years Paxum has been working with the majority of reputable cam sites in the industry. Cam platforms, cam studios, and cam performers have always been welcomed to our service. In the past year, as a result of the global pan- demic, we have reached out to our customers more fre- quently and they continue to be confident in the knowl- edge that their funds are safe and available 24/7 through our system. Our friendly, professional, and well-trained customer sup- port team has been working around the clock to provide clients with assistance so they can use the Paxum payment platform to its full potential. With more than ten years of industry service in our history; Paxum’s relationships with Cam platforms, studios, and performers have been built and reinforced through consistency, security, and trust. We’re very happy to be considered the #1 trusted payment service for the adult industry! Do you have plans to invest on long term or short term in the future? As a safe and secure payment platform, it is crucial that we continue to invest in systems that keep our customers’ money and information secure. We understand how im- portant it is to protect our clients against cybercrime. In the previous decade of our business, we have invested a lot of time and money into advanced security measures and sys- tems that are meant to block fraud attempts. We are hap- py to report that these implementations and procedures are working very well. In terms of our future, we will con- tinue to invest in systems that keep our customers’ funds and private information secure, protected, and confidential. In how many countries is your business expanded? Paxums customer base has always been fully global as we provide service to practically every single country in the world, with only some exceptions such as countries like Iran, Iraq, Libya etc that have active Global Sanctions against them. Our customer base has grown substantially since our 2007 launch and we now serve over half a million customers; fa- cilitating cross-border payments and local bank transfers in more than 20 different currencies. We’re proud and happy to be considered the #1 trusted pay- ment service for the adult industry! Are there any particularities between your Romanian and other worldwide users? One notable change that we’ve observed in the last year, in our platform statistics, is that Romanian users are now choosing to use their credit cards more often to pay for goods and services directly through POS purchases, rather than withdraw cash from the ATM. We believe this shift in preference is most likely a direct result of Covid restrictions imposed by the Romanian Government, however we be- lieve that cash will become King again after we’ve collec- tively made it through the pandemic. In terms of behavior and customer service needs, Romanian users of our platform are very similar to users located in any other country of the world. Romanian clients use our plat- form to receive payments; send transfers to others; and to withdraw funds through the various available options. Since Romanian is also the native language of many of our cus- tomer support representatives, our Romanian users benefit from being able to access support in their own language if preferred. FINANCE & BUSINESS46 @BCAMS 2021 BCAMS MAGAZINE Which is the country with the most Paxum users? We have seen significant steady growth of customers reg- istering from many countries over the last few years, with Colombia currently leading the way followed very closely by Romania. The global pandemic has also had an impact on the number of people working from home, working for themselves, and working in the adult industry. As a result of that growth, we see more and more people choosing Paxum because we offer a secure, trusted and easy way to get paid internationally, particularly for those with multiple streams of revenue. From a financial point of view, how do you see the live cam industry in Romania? The live cam industry in Romania has exploded in growth over the last five years. Every year, the number of Romanian live cam performers and studios registering for Paxum ser- vices grows; and the average amount received per payment has also increased! This continued growth month after month, in both number of performers getting paid and the amount they’re getting paid, is a strong indicator that the live cam industry in Ro- mania is soaring and so are the profits! If you were to make a forecast, will there be more Pax- um users from the live cam segment in 2021 than in the previous years? In our platform’s statistics, we have already seen an increase in users coming from the live cam industry sector, especial- ly since the beginning of the pandemic. We expect those numbers to keep growing throughout the year as the adult industry is also welcoming new performers, studios and even more live cam platforms. Over the last few years people working in the adult enter- tainment industry have witnessed a rapidly decreasing number of payment companies that respect them and are willing to help them get paid for their honest work. Unlike those companies Paxum has always been happy to wel- come adult performers in our community. Our stance has never changed and we will continue to offer our full support to the adult industry. How was the 1st half of 2021? The beginning of 2021 was actually great for Paxum. We’ve been steadily increasing our local bank transfer offerings; we added multiple language support and live chat to our web- site; and to top that off we won several prestigious awards like the Alternative Payment Services Company of the Year trophy at XBIZ Awards 2021, the Best Payout Service trophy at GFY Awards 2021 and the Best Payment Processor trophy at Live Cam Awards 2021! We are very honored and grateful for all the recognition we receive within the industry. Unfortunately, while we see the adult industry sector expo- nentially growing year over year, we also see fewer than ever companies that fully support it! Paxum is wholly committed to this industry and we are doing our best to support it, even when one of our partners decides to opt out. For example, we recently made an announcement that the issuing bank of the Paxum SEPA Mastercard decided that it no longer wanted to be associated with the adult industry! This unpleasant decision was completely unexpected but thankfully we have been able to quickly minimize the incon- venience this situation created for our customers. At the time of the announcement all Paxum SEPA Mas- tercard funds had been immediately frozen by the issuing bank meaning that neither card-holders nor Paxum could access previously loaded funds. That situation was com- pletely unacceptable to us, and so to minimize disruption to our clients the Paxum team decided to take the burden upon itself and we immediately reimbursed every single af- fected user with the amount remaining on their cards. In addition to the instant refunds Paxum also made the de- cision to temporarily reduce the fee for EFT withdrawal (local bank transfer) from $5 USD to $2.50 USD per transaction for affected clients. This 50% discount will remain applicable for the entire period while the Paxum SEPA Mastercard is not ac- tive. Customers who previously used this card can still with- draw their funds via EFT/Wire, to an external credit card or to the UnionPay card, depending on their country of residence. We already have a backup card in the works with a new issu- er, and we anticipate a roll-out of new cards within the next few months. We are constantly looking for ways to show our support to this industry and it is important for models and performers to know that their work is valued as well. On a positive note, we believe the second half of 2021 shows great promise as more countries begin to open up and the world dares to imagine a post-pandemic future. Paxum will continue to do what we do best by serving our clients global payment needs through our secure, trusted, user-friendly payment platform. PHOTO Paxum48 @BCAMS 2021 Pandemic impact The pandemic situation has gotten all the world by surprise, and of course the romanian live cam industry wasn’t an exception. From losing jobs to re- shaping businesses, all to keep up with the problems it brought, which we are still dealing with even now. This article is about the new challeng- es the romanian live cam industry had to deal with, the changes that had to be made and how some businesses grew over this period and why in some cases they weren’t that successful. We spoke with over 130 studios and here’s what we found: Nothing was easy at all! Because of the new changes in local romanian tax pol- icies, a part of the studios moved their headquarters to foreign countries for better tax fees. Even though the cam sites weren’t that supportive, the romanian stu- dios still did not lose profit during the challenging 2020. And this was thanks to their entire time dedication for the good functioning of their business and their devotion to their studio, but most important to their team. They invested more in advertising, they hired more models and tried to improve their busi- ness tactics. More than 50% of them claimed that their earnings grew at least 50% from the beginning of the pandemia and until now. How did they do it? What was the key of their success? Or, which do you think it was the cause of their failure? 30% of them said that they had to re- adapt their entire concept to a brand new one. For example, from the image The pandemic hasn’t brought too many good things at all. In- deed, the request for work was bigger, which was like a dream, but still the targeted market of models wasn’t there anymore, and we are talking about the students here, as the universi- ties closed49 www.bcams.ro FINANCE & BUSINESS where the model was in her room, with her glamorous look, to the idea of the model being at her office. Others had to divide a huge studio location into a few small ones, or they even had to make their studio a virtual one. And some of them even changed from sin- gle models to couples. But all of these seemed to work, and you would be amazed how good it did. All of these measures seemed to work amazingly well, and you would be sur- prised how fast the results came in. The other part of the studio owners said that they had to invest more of their savings in their studio so the busi- ness could keep up with the lack of earnings. They had to find new ideas, new strategies so the business could go on, they couldn’t even hope for in- creasing their profits, they just hoped that their studio would be able to stay on the market. As for the rest of the studios, the pan- demia hasn’t brought too many good things at all. Indeed, the request for work was bigger, which was like a dream, but still the targeted market of models wasn’t there anymore, and we are talking about the students here, as the universities closed. So, was the beginning of 2021 more challenging than the beginning of 2020? The answer is YES! But even though things happen as they did through- out the world, the romanian live cam industry grew more and more month by month. If the romanian live cam industry was considered to be one of the top in the market world- wide, now it got even more pros- perous as new studios came along in this field. There where few ques- tions we’ve asked the studio owners: What was the most challenging thing for you this year? What would you like to be changed in the relationship between you and your cam sites? Do you have plans in the future to invest in the long term or short term? When we asked what was the most challenging for them as studios this year, the answers varied. 30% of the studios we talked to, said that the most challenging for them was to motivate the models to go on- line when the things didn’t really go as they planned, with the change of rules that came from the cam sites. The models struggled to keep their vibe up when it came about the hours spent in front of the camera, and the lower earnings they had. Then some of the models feared the restrictions that the pandemic brought, but then ev- erything was solved with the traveling declarations. 50% of the studios said that the most challenging for them was to find a way they could readapt their business, to find a new concept and make it work. And they did make it work, just for this beginning of the year their profits grew higher with 50-60%. 10% of them said that the most chal- lenging for them was to keep the same standards even if their earnings weren’t really as they would have liked them to be, the rate of their profits go- ing down with almost 30%, everything was so unstable for them. and the last 10% of them said that the most chal- lenging for them was to find models. To our second question (what would they like to be changed in the rela- tionship between them and their cam sites), 30% of the studios said that they would like everything to be equal even if some studios are smaller or some are bigger. 40% said that they would like the com- munication between the cam sites and them to be improved, it seems that they can reach really hard to them when they have a query. 15% said they would like the cam sites to be more understanding of their needs, plus they would love lower stan- dards from the cam sites. The last 15% said they would love to have a better collaboration with the cam sites. About their future plans, even if it’s short term or long term, 70% of the studios would invest more on adver- tising or on training their coaches and their models. 10% would like to try something new as porn vr, plus they would like to increase the awareness of their studios. 20% would invest in the environment where they work, they would like to change the age limit for the models and would like to give the same quality in the future as they gave until now. These being said, the pandemia was and still is unmerciful, and even if they had to bring money from home or they had good profits, the romanian live cam studios had to work harder and harder during this last challeng- ing year. On a more optimistic note, now that the world seems to get back to normal slowly we can’t wait for all of us to get back together and attend the events we all really love. AUTHOR BCAMS PHOTO BCAMSNext >