Sex Toy Sense: Q&A with Lovense Co-founder Eddy Olivares

The growing field of teledildonics has revolutionized camming — and sex in general. Connecting with a partner no longer requires two people be in the same room. Instead, they can be miles apart, interacting remotely through wireless, synced sex toys, whereby one partner controls the other’s pleasure. Phone sex certainly has come a long way.

Lovense entered the teledildonics market in 2010. Since then, the company has grown in leaps and bounds — becoming a leader not only in remote technology, but also in partnering with cam sites and models. Lovense works closely with models in order to improve products, create new designs and facilitate setups and even offers an affiliate program through which models can earn commissions.

If you haven’t explored teledildonics as part of your camming routine, you are missing out on a unique way of communicating with your customers, as well as a potentially lucrative revenue stream. But don’t take our word for it.

Eddy Olivares, co-founder of Lovense, recently took some time out to chat about the present — and future — of teledildonics. He discussed the many ways in which cam models can utilize and monetize the company’s innovative product lines and gave us a look into what’s on the horizon.

YNOT Cam: Pretend we know nothing. What do Lovense products do and what are some of their advantages?

Eddy Olivares: Lovense software uses unique technology which allows models to determine what their sex toy will do based on specific tip amounts. This feature rakes in millions of tokens each week for the cam sites and models we work with.

When we launched a couple of years ago, the feature was revolutionary compared to what was on the market, sound-based vibrations. Sound-based vibrations used tip sounds, but also went off from any [other] sound: dog barking, door closing, model moaning, etc. Customers caught on and knew they couldn’t trust those “interactive” shows. The toy just didn’t do what the users thought it was doing.

With our products, tippers can trust that the toy is doing what they think it is. We actually just got a patent approved for this technology in the U.S. We are licensing out the technology for free to large cam sites. We will not be licensing out the technology to other sex toy manufacturers, so it’s a clear advantage to use Lovense products compared to others.

Why is the use of teledildonics products important for cam models in terms of performance, customer base and revenue? What are they missing if they still haven’t added this technology to their work?

There are many cam models that rely on our products for consistent revenue. It’s a huge moneymaker to give someone control of your toy via tips. While we don’t recommend relying solely on doing interactive shows, adding them to your camming schedule will make you more money. There’s really no reason not to use them. You make more money and your client base is happier. It’s really fun for tippers to be in control of a model’s pleasure.

To a person or model new to teledildonics, use and integration may seem challenging or intimidating. What kind of support and customer service do you offer to help models get going?

We provide timely customer support, and some fantastic models have created setup guides in addition to the ones we provide. The main thing we focus on is making the process easier. This requires work on the underlying tech as well as getting the right partnerships.

If a cam site is willing to work directly with us, it’s easy to make setup easy for the model. The challenge for easy setup lies when the cam site is not working with us directly. There’s only so much we can do. Luckily, models are quite understanding and also tend to help each other out.

Regarding the underlying tech, we are one of the few sex toy companies with a full-time software team. I am sure we dedicate more time than any other company to ensure the user experience and setup is as easy as possible. We will continue to optimize our technology to make sure that no users feel the setup is challenging or intimidating.

Another roadblock for a model might be getting their clients to adapt to the products. What types of challenges exist in the model-to-client space, and how does Lovense support this stage of the process?

The easier to interact, the more people are interested, which is why tip-based vibrations are so popular. We’re not seeing that much demand for model-to-client interactions. Right now, it’s mainly in niches such as femdom or clients looking for a [girlfriend experience]. It’s just not common to have two-way interactions.

We make it easy to allow these types of interactions, though. It’s all done through a scan of a QR code (displayed on the website). If you both have your toy connected to our app, one person scans the code and it enables model-to-client interactions — no additional software needed on the client side.

Lovense also offers an affiliate program. Can any model sign up? What will they gain from doing so?

Any model can sign up. They get 15-percent commission for all sales they refer to us.

As technology continues to advance, where do you see the field going, and how will Lovense continue to be a leader and innovator for use in the cam space specifically?

Our patent allows us some to protect our unique technology and should make us the leader for sex tech in the camming space for many years. We have many features in our software, but the patented feature makes the most money. So, even if others come along and offer other interactive features — like live control — they can only get so much of the market.

Additionally, we are constantly listening to feedback from models. Nearly half of the features in our software are based on feedback. They know what is making them money, so we listen to them.

We believe tip-based vibrations and other features within our software are still in the beginning stages of being adopted/accepted. Tippers are now understanding how the tech works better and trust that when they tip, our toys are doing what the model says they will do. [That was] an issue when models were using sound-activated toys. Given this, we’ve poured resources into creating more great toys.

Two products we’re excited about are our super-powerful mini wand and an extremely unique G-spot toy; [we] just got a patent on the tech. These toys will allow models to have diverse shows using our same great technology. They can now have interactive torture shows using our wand and interactive squirting shows with our G-spot toy. [Those are] two very popular types of shows that were previously not interactive.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I mentioned a couple new products, but readers may be confused because they are not on our site. You can find more information on Indigogo here. They are only available there for now.

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Learn more about Lovense, their products, and their affiliate program at Lovense.com.

Jenna Andre is a total gearhead who also appreciates the simpler things in life. Email her at Jenna.Andre@ynotcam.com.