Somewhere across the United States, Mike, a lonely and divorced middle aged man, comes home from a tiring day at work.
He turns on the television and starts to surf the adult cable channels. In-between soft porn movies, advertisements ranging from sex toys to dating services flash on the screen. His eyes fill with excitement as the dating ads tempt him to dial numbers for a hook-up with a “hot date.” Yet, he knows that his daily wages are not enough to get some intimate company, so he restrains himself from calling the numbers.
However, before the channel resumes its regular programming, one last advertisement catches his attention. It’s about some girls looking for ‘textmates.’ They are near his location. Getting his newly bought mobile phone, he enters the SMS keyword that he saw in the advertisement.
“Finally, some local hot girls looking for fun,” he thinks. With one press of the button, he sends the keyword to the chat service provider. After a minute of waiting, a reply arrives on his phone.
“Hi my name is melissa care 4 some fun w/ me sweetie,” the message says, written in the way an ordinary text message is made.
A steamy conversation eventually ensues between Mike and Melissa. So far, so good for the lonely couple, right?
Wrong. Things aren’t what they seem to be, but Mike doesn’t have a clue that Melissa is not a sexy blonde at all.
“Melissa” is actually John, a guy in his mid-twenties busy tapping on a computer keyboard in an office in the third-world city of Manila.
When John received the keyword MELISSA on his computer screen, he immediately became, for all intents and purposes, the dream girl of Mike.
John is a Professional Chat Operator. His job is to reply to SMS sent by lonely foreigners, shifting into various roles with ease, depending on the preferences of Users of the chat-date service, such as Mike.
John is so adept in his work that he can reply to more than a hundred different Users by turns, and adjust his texting style and character to the personalities required by the Users. If the User wants a gay lover, John turns gay, never mind if, in real life, he is fully heterosexual. If he had a female User, John turns on the sexiest male heat he can muster.
I met John several weeks ago on a job hunting expedition in Ortigas. He was looking for a second job then, and while we waited for our turn to get interviewed, he told me about his first job at Chatzone, a local company that handles foreign clients engaged in the “textmate search” business in the United States. He was very friendly and we established a bond immediately.
At 25, he is one of the most seasoned employees of Chatzone, being one of its pioneers. He handles the premium adult account - an account that demands creativity and professionalism from its operators.
Having chatted non-professionally since high school, John clearly had the competitive edge at work. As a frequent user of MIRc and Yahoo Messanger, adjusting to the personalities of different texters had never been that difficult for him. However, one thing that he never expected when he joined the company a year ago, was the necessity to act as different persons to each and every user. “It’s just like having a massive Multiple-Personality Disorder for eight hours, five days a week,” he told me, laughing softly.
Curious about his work, I asked to accompany him back to his office after our interviews. He agreed and soon, I was closely observing how he handled his job.
“A chat operator must always think out of the box,” John said casually, while typing a reply on his computer. “A chatter must always bear in mind that he is texting a lonely and horny guy using the client’s premium service.” Everything is done through texting.
Users think that their textmates are also using mobile phones. In reality, it is a Mobile Phone to PC to Mobile Phone process. Operators such as John use computer software that allows them to receive messages from the User’s cellphone and send replies to the same.
According to John, Chatzone started as a small enterprise that shared a unit with another company providing free e-mail service. The other company folded up, but Chatzone grew tremendously.
“We used to have fifteen chat operators spread across three shifts. The account we handled before came from the United Kingdom, which required us to do hardcore sex chat with their Users.” The account was stolen a year later by some of John’s colleagues who decided to independently run the service themselves.
John further informed me that the outsourcing phenomenon started by the call centers in the country attracted a large chat service provider from the United States. This chat provider sought the service of Chatzone to take over some of their labor-intensive accounts. Since Chatzone had the expertise to provide for the foreign client at a reasonably lower overhead cost, they entered into a partnership with John’s company. Additional manpower hiring came soon after.
A chat operator like John can send as much as 400 text message replies in one shift. “You will be surprised at the volume of text message we receive from the Users,” John explains while highlighting a specific user begging for his girl textmate to call him. “Many Americans live lonely lives, which I find very strange, considering that their economy is more stable and in general, they have access to almost everything.”
Hooking-up is the stated goal in the ads, but of course, this never gets to happen. “They are very insistent in meeting their textmate,” John says. “It can be a real pain sometimes,” he chuckles.
I asked him how he managed to maintain a friendly conversation while dodging a User’s invitation for a sex-eyeball. “We just say that we’re already home and resting,” John answered. “But we never forget to add that we’re in bed and looking forward for some hot chat with someone.”
He turns on the television and starts to surf the adult cable channels. In-between soft porn movies, advertisements ranging from sex toys to dating services flash on the screen. His eyes fill with excitement as the dating ads tempt him to dial numbers for a hook-up with a “hot date.” Yet, he knows that his daily wages are not enough to get some intimate company, so he restrains himself from calling the numbers.
However, before the channel resumes its regular programming, one last advertisement catches his attention. It’s about some girls looking for ‘textmates.’ They are near his location. Getting his newly bought mobile phone, he enters the SMS keyword that he saw in the advertisement.
“Finally, some local hot girls looking for fun,” he thinks. With one press of the button, he sends the keyword to the chat service provider. After a minute of waiting, a reply arrives on his phone.
“Hi my name is melissa care 4 some fun w/ me sweetie,” the message says, written in the way an ordinary text message is made.
A steamy conversation eventually ensues between Mike and Melissa. So far, so good for the lonely couple, right?
Wrong. Things aren’t what they seem to be, but Mike doesn’t have a clue that Melissa is not a sexy blonde at all.
“Melissa” is actually John, a guy in his mid-twenties busy tapping on a computer keyboard in an office in the third-world city of Manila.
When John received the keyword MELISSA on his computer screen, he immediately became, for all intents and purposes, the dream girl of Mike.
John is a Professional Chat Operator. His job is to reply to SMS sent by lonely foreigners, shifting into various roles with ease, depending on the preferences of Users of the chat-date service, such as Mike.
John is so adept in his work that he can reply to more than a hundred different Users by turns, and adjust his texting style and character to the personalities required by the Users. If the User wants a gay lover, John turns gay, never mind if, in real life, he is fully heterosexual. If he had a female User, John turns on the sexiest male heat he can muster.
I met John several weeks ago on a job hunting expedition in Ortigas. He was looking for a second job then, and while we waited for our turn to get interviewed, he told me about his first job at Chatzone, a local company that handles foreign clients engaged in the “textmate search” business in the United States. He was very friendly and we established a bond immediately.
At 25, he is one of the most seasoned employees of Chatzone, being one of its pioneers. He handles the premium adult account - an account that demands creativity and professionalism from its operators.
Having chatted non-professionally since high school, John clearly had the competitive edge at work. As a frequent user of MIRc and Yahoo Messanger, adjusting to the personalities of different texters had never been that difficult for him. However, one thing that he never expected when he joined the company a year ago, was the necessity to act as different persons to each and every user. “It’s just like having a massive Multiple-Personality Disorder for eight hours, five days a week,” he told me, laughing softly.
Curious about his work, I asked to accompany him back to his office after our interviews. He agreed and soon, I was closely observing how he handled his job.
“A chat operator must always think out of the box,” John said casually, while typing a reply on his computer. “A chatter must always bear in mind that he is texting a lonely and horny guy using the client’s premium service.” Everything is done through texting.
Users think that their textmates are also using mobile phones. In reality, it is a Mobile Phone to PC to Mobile Phone process. Operators such as John use computer software that allows them to receive messages from the User’s cellphone and send replies to the same.
According to John, Chatzone started as a small enterprise that shared a unit with another company providing free e-mail service. The other company folded up, but Chatzone grew tremendously.
“We used to have fifteen chat operators spread across three shifts. The account we handled before came from the United Kingdom, which required us to do hardcore sex chat with their Users.” The account was stolen a year later by some of John’s colleagues who decided to independently run the service themselves.
John further informed me that the outsourcing phenomenon started by the call centers in the country attracted a large chat service provider from the United States. This chat provider sought the service of Chatzone to take over some of their labor-intensive accounts. Since Chatzone had the expertise to provide for the foreign client at a reasonably lower overhead cost, they entered into a partnership with John’s company. Additional manpower hiring came soon after.
A chat operator like John can send as much as 400 text message replies in one shift. “You will be surprised at the volume of text message we receive from the Users,” John explains while highlighting a specific user begging for his girl textmate to call him. “Many Americans live lonely lives, which I find very strange, considering that their economy is more stable and in general, they have access to almost everything.”
Hooking-up is the stated goal in the ads, but of course, this never gets to happen. “They are very insistent in meeting their textmate,” John says. “It can be a real pain sometimes,” he chuckles.
I asked him how he managed to maintain a friendly conversation while dodging a User’s invitation for a sex-eyeball. “We just say that we’re already home and resting,” John answered. “But we never forget to add that we’re in bed and looking forward for some hot chat with someone.”
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