Webcam sex platforms represent an important sector of the creator economy. Yet, there is a great scarcity of research on revenue flows and performer income. To address this, we collected and analyzed a dataset comprising 2 weeks of tips received by performers on Chaturbate, a prominent camming platform. Our findings reveal that income is highly unevenly distributed, with only a small group of mostly female performers collecting earnings resembling a living wage. Countering the commonly held notion that algorithmic front-page visibility is the main indicator of performer “success,” we demonstrate that “alternative visibility” modes are sustainable and performers find their niche audiences. However, they often precariously rely on a few generous tippers, that is, “whales.” We conclude that while various pathways to financial success exist, performers remain reliant on platform affordances and audiences they have little control over.

中文翻译：

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阴影中的可见性：Chaturbate 上主流流媒体与另类流媒体的提示

网络摄像头性爱平台代表了创作者经济的一个重要领域。然而，关于收入流和表演者收入的研究非常稀缺。为了解决这个问题，我们收集并分析了一个数据集，其中包含表演者在著名的摄像头平台 Chaturbate 上收到的 2 周提示。我们的研究结果表明，收入分配高度不均，只有一小部分主要是女性表演者获得类似于生活工资的收入。与算法首页可见性是表演者“成功”的主要指标的普遍观念相反，我们证明了“替代可见性”模式是可持续的，表演者找到了他们的小众受众。然而，他们经常不稳定地依赖一些慷慨的小费者，即“鲸鱼”。我们得出的结论是，虽然存在多种获得财务成功的途径，但表演者仍然依赖于平台的可供性和他们几乎无法控制的观众。