For 15,000 naira a week, subscribers get to see nudity, sex toys and lesbian intercourse.
The first time most of us heard about someone "setting up a premium account", it was Bobrisky’s failed attempt at climbing into exclusivity. The man was eccentric as always and funny, mostly when indeliberately making a fool of himself, but one thing he could not offer was sex, unlike the Instagram queens who have taken that bold step.
Two of Nigeria’s most followed Instagram models have told their followers that they will be launching a premium service.
Subscribers will have to pay 15000 naira weekly to gain access to the service; in return, they will be able to view “nudity, sex toys and of course, le…..n sex” (which we will assume is a shabby attempt at finding a discreet way to write “lesbian sex).
According to the advertorial posted via their Instagram stories, the models will host the live sessions on their Instagram profiles.
In the last few years, perhaps as a result of a general drop in the cost of data, use of the social media platform, Instagram, has risen exponentially.
Instagram edge over most popular social platforms is that it is visual-based, meaning that even though you may need to read captions, the main attraction is the photo or video.
This singular characteristic has made it almost perfect for models who have used its many opportunities to promote their wares.
While us commoners may be satisfied to just share photos of that time when your savings were enough to take you to you to Intercontinental hotels, Instagram models (for lack of a better term) are amassing followers, selling sex (or the idea of it) and reaping thousands of dollars by posting angles and features squeezed into jeans and spandex.
10 dollars for live cam
Outside Nigeria, models have, for a while, begun to sell premium services to their followers for sizeable subscription fees.
Depending on who you’re sending 15 dollars to via Paypal, the models can have live cam shows where they fiddle with their bodies, play with sex toys, or if they are considerate, have actual intercourse.
Models have used this… model, very successfully. And this is possible because prior to Instagram, there was a culture of paying money for live cam sex.
In the years when Yahoo was the final frontier, sex workers, sorry, models, would post adverts inviting interested persons to join their live cam sessions via Messenger or other chat platforms, or in some cases, via a link.
ALSO READ: From Allen Avenue to Snapchat: the Evolution of the Nigerian Sex Worker
Many porn stars started their careers this way, by amassing large followings via live cam, and then making the transition to web and in few cases, stardom.
That culture does not exist here, so at first glance, it may appear that the chances of our Nigerian models finding success are as slim as the iPhones they will be streaming these videos from.
But it’s not that simple.
It's sex we're talking about
If Bobrisky’s foray into premium content showed anything, it is that there are Nigerians who will pay for what they want, regardless of how overpriced it is.
More so for sex than anything else.
ALSO READ: The economy of sex in Lagos City
Sure, we have a strong culture of bootlegging and if there’s a cable we can connect to the back of the phone that’ll us see it without paying, we’ll find it.
But it’s sex we’re talking about.
These models have sizeable followings too, one with over 68,000 followers.
Instead of trying to convince an entirely new selection of people, they have a pool of familiar people to choose from.
Some of these will convert into paying followers by default.
All of this is conjecture, of course.
Either way, sex now sells on Instagram for 15k naira a week.
Interesting.