These days, even escort services need a good social media presence.
"I zone out when I'm home. I just don't think about it."
Dave* has just begun telling me about a typical day at the office. Dave doesn't usually tell people right away what he does for a living. That's because he works as the director of online marketing for, as he first described it to me, "a pimp."
Dave's employer is not, strictly speaking, a pimp. Instead of dealing directly with the trade, the company runs what is, on the surface, an online social network for gay men, shielding itself behind a legal loophole that allows it to profit from the sex trade while maintaining plausible deniability.
His parents don't know the exact details of his work, either. When people ask, "I'm a consultant for some companies in New York" is his standard cover. He and his coworkers use fake names at work, and he treads lightly when discussing the details of his job. "I try to have a first conversation to see what kind of people I'm dealing with so I can tell them what I do."
Most people "don't believe that it exists," Dave said. Some immediately assume that he works as an escort himself; others find it fascinating, and pepper him with questions. No one seems to know the first thing about how these online escort services operate within the law.
Welcome to the world of rent boys.
Because online escort listing services are not technically escort agencies, they have no responsibility for the escorts. Clients communicate the exact details of their transactions via phone numbers or email addresses included with each listing. Dave told me that his employer has never experienced any friction with the law.
It is, in essence, a dating site. Imagine OkCupid, but with pictures of scantily clad men everywhere (ok, that's not much different), and explicit descriptions of likes/dislikes, fetishes, preferred position, and condom policy. Working hours are clearly laid out, and rates are provided for weekend stays, overnights, dates, and home visits. Body descriptions include additional attributes of interest, such as body hair, build, foreskin ("cut" or "uncut"), and "cock size."
The market is crowded with competing sites: A Google search for "gay escort" turns up results for RentMen.com, HourBoy.com, Rentboy.com, Men4RentNow.com, and dozens of similar networks.
Dave's company has less than 30 employees. Escort listings form the core of the business model. Users can purchase advertising space with a credit card, but also with other forms of payment, like money orders, which don't require a real name. Escorts can place the ads themselves, or through an agency.
Dave characterizes his work as "mostly social media and search marketing." He looks for "stuff that [clients] are going to either talk about, or relate to in a way. Because that's one of the elements of the web site — some people go there just for the pictures."
The first thing Dave does upon arriving at work is open Tumblr, and to search for "straight up, hard-core gay porn," as he put it. Dave spends up to 10 hours a day doing this, reposting the most click-worthy material to the company's small but loyal following on various social media sites. (He declined to specify exactly which ones.)
Dave's job is complicated by the fact that he's straight. He told me he's tried to expand the company's horizons beyond its current social presence, but that his boss feels because Dave is not gay, he doesn't have the perspective to know the best ways to reach the site's audience.
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