We all know that the cost of living in Asia is way lower than western countries.

Not everywhere in Asia it is true, nobody says Tokyo is cheap.

Being an Asian Cam Girl means working an hour for the price of a burger.

I might be Asian myself, but I don’t live in a cheap Asian country. Where I live is cheaper than somewhere like Switzerland, or NYC, but I’m not in the really cheap part of the continent.

But there are places in some of the countries in Asia, particularly in the South and Eastern parts of Asia, where things can get very cheap indeed. Everything from the rent to food cost a lot less than in the first world.

Lower Prices for Cheaper Manpower

Lower prices in the shops also mean that those shops and businesses pay lower salaries as well.

Lower salaries is another way of saying that manpower, and woman-power, are cheaper there as well.

That is why you can go to a holiday resort in Thailand and everything is wonderful but still cheap.

You can go to luxury holiday resorts in Thailand and they will have massive gardens, which means gardeners.

Cheap Bell Boys

When you check in the staff will all be super friendly and attentive, you won’t lack for bell boys to carry your luggage or get you things.

When you get to your room it will be immaculately spotless and cleaned like it was new.

You get all that in Thailand, or Bali or Vietnam for the same sort of price that a basic motel might cost you in the States, England, or France.

And in those places, you have to carry your own luggage.

All of that costs the hotel a lot to maintain in terms of more staff. But each of the cleaners, bellboys, receptionists, and gardeners are being paid a salary at just a fraction of what they would be paid in any American or European city.

Even when traveling on the cheap in Asia, backpacking, or staying in little private hotels, everything from beer to food to taxis are all so cheap you can live a month in comfort on the price of a few meals at a city restaurant in NYC.

Luxury Resort Hotels in Asia

Every time I visit one of those cheaper Asian countries, whether it is to be traveling cheaply with backpacks or splashing out on a luxury resort hotel, I can’t help wondering why I don’t just live there full time.

The reason is that if I had to earn a living there it would be much more difficult to get a salary that would match the first world costs. I like my civilized first-world luxuries, and that means I have to pay for them.

The solution that has appeared for many Asian girls is to earn on a Western-world scale, but live and spend in the cheap Asian world.

That is exactly what happens for Asian cam girls who, get paid by people in the rest of the world, but they live and pay their expenses in their own country.

Cam Girls from the Philippines

Most of the “Asian cam girls” you see are from the Philippines, a country with a very low cost of living, particularly in rural areas. For someone living in the countryside or a small city, the tips and private cam session fees are a good income, much better than they could get from working a 9-to-5 job in a local store or office.

If this sounds like a perfect solution where everybody gets what they want, then there is an unfortunate flaw in this plan.

Competition being what it is, there will always be those who want to undercut other people, and that causes the pricing to slide down, at least until the point that people are willing to go no lower.

That lower threshold can be very low in somewhere like the Philippines, where a girl from a small town doesn’t have many prospects, but can get a PC and an ok internet connection to provide her services to the world.

This means that sites that are dedicated to the models from that part of the world inevitably end up with low prices, but at a level that still makes it worthwhile for the model. Worthwhile, but only just.

Cheapest Asian Cams

I decided to take a look at the cheapest Asian cam model site I know, with all Filipina cam girls, and look to see how much typical models are charging per minute for a private show.

At this site, most of the income is on private shows. Although it does allow tipping there doesn’t really seem to be the scene of free-shows paid by tipping as you see on Amateur.tv, CB or MFC.

Taking the advertised price for privates on 20 of the rooms on the first page of AsianCamModels.com gave me a list to analyze.

Each model has chosen her own pricing, but the race-to-the-bottom means that the majority of them are charging the minimum amount or close to it.

Price per minutePercentage of models
$1 to $1.1045%
$1.10 to $1.2030%
$1.20 up to $1.9915%
HigherNone!
This is based on the 20 rooms from the first page, so not the “bottom of the pile”, at AsianCamModels.com.

The most common pricing is less than $1.20 a minute. And before you think that 1.2-a-minute times 60-minutes-an-hour is 72, and that $72 an hour is pretty good, you have to remember that the model is getting nowhere near that amount.

First of all, a cam girl doesn’t spend that much time in private, most of the time is spent in free chat waiting for a customer to come along. It can be very boring when there is nobody to talk to and these days it is all too easy to drift off into staring at your phone. You will find plenty of bored cam girls staring at their phones, which is a pity as nobody looks nice when they have a bored look on their faces.

That is why some of the more traditional sites such as Camcontacts don’t require their models to turn on their cameras and transmit video until an actual customer comes along.

Most camgirls are lucky to get a few minutes of privates per hour. Even if they manage to average 6 minutes an hour, which would be a good result, then that divides the income by 10 in one step.

Now it doesn’t look that attractive at only $7.20 an hour.

Secondly, most cam girls are not using their own equipment but are renting the PC and webcam, and maybe the room they are working in, from a studio. The studio manager provides all the equipment and the furnished room, as well as some training and support.

In exchange, the studio takes a large cut of the income, typically around 50%. The details vary enormously and some studios are better than others in terms of helping the models and not just taking their cut without really contributing, but even the best are still taking a big chunk of the money.

Take away half and that means only $3.60 an hour. That converts to ₱174.26 (measured in Philippine pesos). How much is 174 pesos worth in real terms?

If you wanted to buy a burger with it you could go to JollyBees, the main burger chain, and get a Bacon Deluxe Cheese Yumburger. That’s just the burger, no fries or drink.

Not a lot for an hours work is it?

If you are one of the cheapest Asian cam models then you are just earning enough for a burger per hour.

Would you sit for an hour in your underwear letting the world watch to have a chance, just a chance remember, not a guarantee, of earning enough for a Bacon Cheese Burger? A Deluxe burger admittedly, but still.

Next time you think about how cheap asian cam girls are, remember:

Being an asian cam girl means working an hour for the price of a burger.

As a comparison, in the States the minimum hourly wage of $7.25 can get you two Quarter Pounders with Cheese. Not to say it would be a great idea to spend your hourly wages on quarter pounders, but you get the idea.