Sex markets on digital platforms: the Brazilian case

Abstract

This paper addresses the strengthening of digital platforms in the Brazilian sex trade, analysing the configuration of the business model implemented and its impact on sex work. The study focuses on the erotic webcam industry, the first sex service managed by platforms in Brazil. The analysis results from a digital ethnography conducted between 2016 and 2020 on the two Brazilian webcamming platforms – Camera Hot and Camera Prive – and 15 in-depth interviews with sex workers. The results show that platforms decentralise the management, elaboration and sale of sexual and erotic services and content, as workers individually coordinate these processes and are responsible for their labour dynamics. Conversely, platforms centralise the technical and financial infrastructure, making workers more dependent on them. However, in order to promote centralisation and succeed, platforms must guarantee personal and financial safety to workers. Hence, pressure vectors in sex work go hand in hand with autonomy and safety vectors. This paper offers a contribution by looking into a precarious activity that is narrowly discussed in the current approaches to the platform economy. Further, it contributes to inquiries about the dominance of labour instability, highlighting the ambivalence of platforms to historically informal labour.