> subscribers buy attention rather than sex. That's how the Minitel[1] got popular in France. They had these chat services where one paid per minute to chat wi

> subscribers buy attention rather than sex. That's how the Minitel[1] got popular in France. They had these chat services where one paid per minute to chat with "women in your area" (It was mostly male operators handling multiple conversation simultaneously[2]) These services have always existed, and were always in demand, the only difference is technology and business models. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel (basically the french version of the internet, ahead of its time) [2] In French: https://www.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-rue69/20120629.RUE0957/je-m-appelle-jean-marc-et-j-ai-ete-animatrice-de-minitel-rose.html https://www.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-rue69/20120629.RUE0957... "My name is Jean-Marc and I was 'female moderator' of erotic Minitel"