When was the first cam site founded?

[Guy]

When was the first cam site founded? I already tried Google.

 

[JickyJuly]

Maybe JenniCam?

 

[Guy]

Maybe JenniCam?

I mean one with multiple models. There was only one model on that site.

 

[Puffin]

The earlist I remember was on yahoo, but it wasnt a site, just part of a messenger addon and they might of been recordings.
In 1999 peekshows.com started. http://web.archive.org/web/19991004165900/http://www.peekshows.com/

 

[zippypinhead]

LiveJasmin has been around for almost 15 years. That's the first one I ever became aware of, beyond the link lists that indexed the individual cam sites that came first.

 

[LaceyRoyce]

I heard about a lady who ran something called the naked office which was like.... a spy cam thing.

 

[gothicfeline]

I was on peekshows. :d . I miss some of my peekshows friends.

 

[JuliAnneO]

Finally! A topic I know something about! The first I became aware of camming was around 1994/1995 when I was a member of a site that was owned by WebPower - it was called "Amateur Hardcore" (which they later developed other adult sites, one known as Hard Channels or something along those lines). This was a site, not unlike others that had photo galleries, AVI's (remember those? we had dial up back then, and downloading a 2 min clip was torturous) and other goodies - but, also had a section for members where if they had a cam (the round ball cams back in the day!) and knew how to work CUSeeMe (a videoconferencing software), they could "point" their browser (this was the exact words they used - "if you are feeling adventurous and can figure out how to do this...") to a numerical web address, to different themed rooms, where there would be others showing their cam as well. You didn't have to show your cam, you could be a voyeur, but, this was my earliest experience with what then was "new" technology. As many here may know, WebPower is the parent company of iFriends which was launched on Valentine's Day in 1998. One day when I went to Amateur Hardcore, there was a banner asking if you wanted to join their new site or be a model! I clicked the link and, lo and behold, they had a section for what I do - which is give readings (they had a G section back then, not anymore), so, I signed up and was one of the initial people on cam on their site. At that time, there was only maybe 10 models - and it was so small, that when you went to iFriends, you were met with a screen that would rotate each models pic. They also would "announce" whenever someone signed in to host a chatroom in every chat room! They had a free room as well (I think to lure the guys in and let them see what a videochat looked like) and this rooms name was "Babes". It was hosted by a variety of different girls who rotated daily. I don't remember them ever doing an actual "show" , they were more the concierge of the site. When guys found iFriends, they were elated - reason being, is that before this time, most of the cam shows were in studios overseas - you had a guy at the keyboard taking requests and telling the girl/guy/couple what to do, because they did not speak English - heck, the models didn't even SPEAK - back in "the day", we did NOT have audio - and the majority of us were broadcasting from a dial up connection. I can remember the girls on iFriends (maybe 1 or 2) who would brag that they had a T1 line (fancy stuff back then) or had phone available (how many people had 2 phone lines in their homes? LOL). There were no "free shows" or "free video" back then - it was a black screen - you had to PAY to see anything! I remember the uproar when iFriends decided to put rotating archive pics that we had posted in the black screen void. So many were up in arms thinking, "Well, there goes my ability to make ANY money - these guys will just sit in free chat and play with themselves to my chat and pics!" Seems quite silly with what goes on nowadays online, right? As people found out about the site, both viewers and those who wanted to be a star or strike it rich quick (yes, money was flowing like lava back then!) chat host numbers swelled. Some survived, others wondered what all the hoopla was about. Many whined that they needed to stop accepting new hosts, that they were never going to make any money with the sea of competition. The problem at that time and perhaps even now for some, is that iFriends back then encouraged us to run multiple rooms - so, you had some girls who were running half a dozen to 20 or so rooms (different names) at the same time. I guess their thought was they wanted to be like McDonald's or Starbuck's by putting their face on every corner. Most guys hated this, and when iFriends introduced their member levels (basic, preferred or elite) the elite members could filter out multiple rooms. The highest room count I saw there was about 3k in rooms open in just the "Girls Home Alone" (they subsequently changed this name to Women..). The thing was - when there was a gazillion on that site, is when I was making the most money. I remember when I first signed up, they were so eager for hosts that they didn't even ask for ID or anything! I just filled out my profile and within minutes had my cam on. Obviously, they changed that pretty quickly! For whatever reasons, this site has fallen out of favor with viewers who have migrated over to sites that have free video chat (which iFriends has too, but, you are no forced to use it) and, for some guys, an interface that is easier to navigate. I miss the old days of iFriends - it was such a fun site and a lot of really great guys that to this day, almost 18 years later, I still communicate with. For a long time, iFriends was the only game in town - and when they first started, the guys were thrilled to be able to see and talk to someone who may actually be "next door" (as was the lure iFriends put out there). Back then, as said before, most of the cam sites were run by studios overseas by the Eastern Europeans. It wasn't a one on one experience where you could talk and get to know the person or direct the action really - it was you and a huge group of guys all barking orders (kind of like a Gold show on SM now LOL) and you couldn't even hear anything! I remember we all had ICQ back then and were allowed to put it in our show description since chat crashed so much - we would just do the video on iFriends, and the chat part on ICQ.

Juli

 

[Minnie]

JenniCam is one of the first cam girls, then Ducky Doolittle had her cam and AnnaVoog a documentary I've uploaded on youtube years ago that is now moved to my facebook (personal account) I might re-edit and put it up some where else.


Legendary Lars is one of the first cam model sites - He made the broadcast software now they are popularly known as cams.com or streamray inc. merged with adult friend finder.

Then there is imlive and ifriends popped up around the same time.

Best site I know that knows more of the history of most cam sites would be adult-webcam-faq.com

 

[AmberCutie]

history of most cam sites would be adult-webcam-faq.com

I think their forum went bottoms up, didn't it? Sad, that's one of the first adult forums I ever became part of, and actually I think I met you there, Minnie!

 

[Minnie]

I think their forum went bottoms up, didn't it? Sad, that's one of the first adult forums I ever became part of, and actually I think I met you there, Minnie!

The website is still up so it still gets traffic and views just not sure how active she keeps it
http://www.adult-webcam-faq.com/

 

[Ambers Troll]

Camsathome...amsterdam house is the oldest I know at 16 years old, had a lot of fun there over the years, the others like livejasmin followed fast...Jennicam was the first (1996 I think).

Camsathome.com Information:

• Website Age: 16 years old
• Alexa Rank: 1,592,990
• Website IP: 217.69.158.70 – (Netherlands - AMSTERDAM)

I thought I was watching webcams with multiple models earlier than 1999, but I guess it was only porn.

 

[Ambers Troll]

Jennicam was the first cam stream showing a woman doing her thing. The first web sites thought it would be better naked, semi-naked, they were right. Spending on the first models was interesting too, some of the gifts were a lot of fun to purchase/ send to your model, they could have been any package early on. I sent books, flowers, personalized items and so on to favorites.

 

[Minnie]

Looks like Ana Voog site is still alive.

Met Ducky Doolittle when she was in town, she is really short even with heels.

 

[SomaMoon]

Camwhores.com was one of the first multiple girl camsites starting as early as 1999, originally as what was once called a cam portal known as "Portal 9".
Sunny Crittenden, who was from the first generation of girls to be on there, has a LOT of fond memories and facts to share, so much so that her blog has several mentions of it. I'll just leave that link there, as I could regurgitate more facts but no one tells it like Sunny.

 

[DaddyDominant]

What about peepingmoe.com? It had links to many, many camgirls.
Webcamnow.com was also an early site. I had been going there for a year or two as of 9/11, I remember a few of the international girls posting sympathy notes.

I also got to watch a girl fuck a pair of scissors a few times....

 

[Lintilla]

Camwhores.com was one of the first multiple girl camsites starting as early as 1999, originally as what was once called a cam portal known as "Portal 9".
Sunny Crittenden, who was from the first generation of girls to be on there, has a LOT of fond memories and facts to share, so much so that her blog has several mentions of it. I'll just leave that link there, as I could regurgitate more facts but no one tells it like Sunny.

RIP CW, gone as of this year. There's Portal 11, but heck, I think I'm the only cam I think I see still updating on there, and I've done a bad job of keeping in touch :/ I still keep in touch with some CW members, though, now and then. I always found CW a familiar and comforting place to hang out. I don't remember when I first joined, because my initial profile got deleted, but I was there intermittently for over a decade. My last profile was (I think?) from 2005. Their relationship with MFC is what initially got me into camming as a way to make money. There was a bonus to try it out, so I did. Prior to that it was just an exhibitionist outlet, with some wishlist gifts here and there for guys to show their appreciation (that's how I got my first PROPER webcam!)

A lot of people just used MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM and a website with an image and that wishlist link. Anything before 2001 and I didn't have good enough internet and/or wasn't yet 18, so I can't speak for the actual nudity/porn part of it before then. But I was on many still image cam portals, and I've had an occasionally regularly updating but always present still cam image available on one website of mine or another since probably 1996 or so. It's there right now, and I still update it by FTP, though I'm rarely on for spans of 30 seconds updates. I have many gigs of itsy bitsy webcam stills on my hard drives. Any case, before broadband was widespread, cam portals with images that would refresh every 30 seconds or so were the thing. And I miss those days. I didn't have the capability for video often until the mid 00's.

Anyway, Sunny is amazing, most of the girls on that site were amazing, and I wish I'd gotten to know them better, or known where some of those I used to talk to but that disappeared had ended up right now. I suck at friends.

Unrelated to all of that babbling, JenniCam and Ana Voog were also amazing, and yes Ana is still doing her thing. Idol, always.

 

[koolpaw]

Didnt know F4F absorbed peeks

Just noticed the company name and address on the mail was different,. It was
"VS Media Inc." not Broadcast concepts inc we knew as the company of peekshows.com...

And after i logged in to peeks with my old account, it was...
flirt4free.com

 

[koolpaw]

Camsathome.com Information:

• Website Age: 16 years old
• Alexa Rank: 1,592,990
• Website IP: 217.69.158.70 – (Netherlands - AMSTERDAM)

i remember i have visited the site named "amsterdamlivesex.com" in1997 or so, Not sure but this site could be the same site with altered name(domain). i also remember i have seen "ifriend" following the banner on altavista on that year. In fact that was the very first time i have seen a nude video chat site.

Late 1997-1998, i was trying to visit a lot of adult-oriented chat rooms for my reference as a user chat admin(called chat-master on the system) of an American video company FallenAngel. Most of Adult-check(!) sites had own chat rooms or gateways to video chat sites. Peekshows.com was the most popular for their bonus content.

As i have heard, Peeks has started b4 1999. The beginning was some kind of beta site with the name "Wetland PeekShows" or something like that as you can see on adult-webcam-faq, I do not remember when was the actual time i have visited peeks for the first time, but remember still "PCGirls" "AdultClub" and some others were there as their sister sites.

SexxxyChat was also a sister site but later... oh ziiiiip


Its a A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Anyways, Live/stream/nude chat sites were already there b4 1997 with that famous tribe "FEEEET guys".