When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, Rick Morales, the Business Development Manager for Stripchat, said one of the big adjustments being made by a lot of other people was not one he faced himself. “I am more of a business development guy, you know, so I was already used to working remotely,” Morales told YNOT. “So, for me the main problem was when I realized that I was stuck in Budapest.”

“And you know what? I am still here,” Morales added with a laugh.

Joking aside, Morales says of Budapest, “I love everything here” – but that doesn’t mean the pandemic hasn’t disrupted his life, both personal and professional, just as it has everyone else.

“When the pandemic started I had around seven trips planned, and all were canceled,” Morales said. “While I enjoyed catching up on my emails and old tasks, I’m not always totally aware of how it works for those in the office.”

Despite the challenges presented by the pandemic and the public health/public policy response to it, Stripchat “adapted to the new circumstances immediately,” Morales said.

“It took us only a couple of days to switch our company to work from home after the virus was confirmed as a pandemic,” Morales explained. “With the help of management and an excellent technical team, I’d estimate that over 70% of our employees were working from homes within two days.”

It was a quick adjustment that Morales credits, in part, to the day to day working environment presented by being in the fast-moving adult webcams sector.

“Thankfully, our industry has taught us to react immediately to new circumstances,” Morales said. “And we didn’t have any negative feedback from either our users or performers, which is a good indicator of how smoothly things went.”

Now, like so many businesses and people around the world, Stripchat is in the process of slowly and cautiously returning to something approaching ‘normalcy’.

“Currently, our offices are already fully operational, and our employees are starting to return to their regular offices,” Morales said. “We’ve employed required safety measures like frequent sanitizing of common areas, social distancing, and other advice from the World Health Organization. It was a new experience for a lot of the staff — many of our workers had not tried to work remotely before. But everyone was game, and we adjusted well.”

Morales added that the company “even had a successful online team building exercise.”

“Our HR team got over a hundred of us to spend time together playing an online game,” Morales explained. “It was hilarious and showed better potential for improving communication between the departments.”

Morales accepting an award

Interestingly, Morales said that he believes the process of adjusting to the realities imposed by the pandemic “helped Stripchat give the site’s users a more personal touch during the isolation (because) we were experiencing it ourselves.”

“It was tough at first, but soon we really got the hang of it,” Morales said of the new working conditions under which the company operated. “Due to the isolation, more and more users went to Stripchat searching for ways to communicate and interact with others.”

Despite the distractions, concerns and stresses piling up around them, the productivity of the Stripchat team has been “possibly higher during the pandemic, since our platform saw massive growth in consumer traffic, as well as increased signups from models.”

“We actually used the pandemic to release multiple new features, including chatbots for models and various index page improvements for users,” Morales added. “We also onboarded thousands of new users and performers. Our productivity was probably somewhat higher than normal, because the challenge made us strive for the best.”

As the company staff adjusted on the fly, so too did the platform’s models, forging ahead with their work and doing their best to stay focused despite the chaos of the pandemic.

“Of course, it was as difficult for models as the rest of us,” Morales said. “From a professional perspective, it was quite challenging to remain positive and interact with users when all the world seems to be collapsing. Performers had to change their schedules and adapt to users’ new online activity patterns.”

Morales added that knowing what the models were going through made him even more appreciative of their continuing hard word and the amazing professionalism they displayed.

“It’s hard to stay in a pleasant mood and spread good vibes while everybody on social media is obsessing over COVID-19,” Morales said. “I’d like to use this opportunity and thank them for doing their best!”

In another positive development, Stripchat has, like many other adult sites and platforms, seen an increase in traffic over the course of the pandemic, along with an influx of new model signups.

“We’ve seen considerable growth in traffic during the pandemic, with the US leading the list of countries by traffic growth,” Morales said. “We’ve also seen the increase in models’ daily signups, which had tripled in Italy when pandemic began.”

That said, the increase in traffic and signups unfortunately has not been matched by an equivalent rise in sales – but Morales offered a simple and sensible explanation for the discrepancy.

“As far as sales go, it was less of a dramatic jump,” Morales confirmed. “People were desperate for an emotional, personal connection, but at the same time were concerned about paying bills.”

Still, any added user engagement presents an opportunity to be mined – and Stripchat didn’t squander the increased activity it observed.

“We saw this as an opportunity, and created a ‘Free Date with a Model of Your Choice’ campaign, giving every new user enough free tokens for a 10 minute private session,” Morales explained. “It was great for both users and models, since the latter got bigger tips. We also saw considerable growth in crypto payments. Our users are slowly getting used to this method of payment.”

Morales also said that while sales may seem like the ultimate bottom line, for Stripchat “increased traffic and interest in our platform is the most important metric right now.”

“We do not use any external ads on our site,” Morales explained, “it’s part of creating a better user experience. We love having users think of Stripchat first when they want to connect, blow off some steam or have some fun. We’re growing rapidly by focusing on building an open-minded community, not just driving sales. We believe that the latter comes naturally from the former.”

“We know that, as a free site, we’ll always have some users who pay and who don’t,” Morales added. “But the key to success is helping every user get the most out of their experience, rather than focusing a more short-sighted effort to only attract and satisfy those with cash.”

To build on their successful adjustments to life during a pandemic, Stripchat is looking ahead and developing new features and campaigns, while remaining cognizant of the limitations imposed by the ongoing public health and safety challenges.

“Some of the biggest industry events have been postponed until 2021, so it’s been hard to plan for the future,” Morales acknowledged. “Recently, we’ve taken part in multiple online conferences. I realize that many hope these new online conferences will be game-changers. However, I miss our regular offline conferences with their exceptional spirit, awesome parties, and enormous opportunities to do business.”

Like many other adult industry companies, Stripchat is also finding ways to help others deal with the pandemic, including an effort to help business owners increase the visibility of their brands, without emptying their pocketbook.

“We have one excellent campaign running right now helping small business owners struggling from the financial crisis to get promoted on our platform for free.”

On the Stripchat platform itself, “we are planning new campaigns to support both our users and performers,” Morales said, closing his remarks with a note of encouraging optimism – and an invitation.

“We’re working on new pornstar shows, as well as a special Independence Day 2020 extravaganza,” Morales added. I encourage you to stop by on July 4th and 5th!”