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Stage, screen, and CD-ROM starlet
Mimi Miyagi is CEO of the aptly named Mimi Miyagi Inc. (www.miminet.com). Her Las Vegas-based firm
was incorporated in December 1993; Miyagi's studios went
online in January 2000, and her e-business is still
growing.
"I spent the first year and a half
putting in 16 to 22 hours a day, programming, doing graphics,
video and audio compression, getting it to the point where I
could write a full document on the way our architecture of
the Website behaves," Miyagi recalls. "Originally, I started
with a single studio, and it grew into a second cyber-studio,
as more girls told other friends, and word of mouth spread.
We reached three studios, with girls chatting for $4.99 a
minute, and have grown to six cyber-studios, consisting of
three rooms with two computers each. One of the computers
includes streaming audio with the video - that's the
multi-user chat room, which does not offer private
one-on-one. Right now we're in the process of building two
warehouses.
"We have two corporate and
production headquarters for our Website, the miminetwork in
the free area, and in the members' area, the miminetclub. It
includes a work station with techs and Webmasters working on
the site," says the Webmistress.
Starting in the early 1990s, the
Asian beauty carved a niche market out for herself in porn as
an archetypal "exotic Oriental." When Miyagi first went
online, she performed live nude chat daily and had scheduled
events. But thanks to the adult Internet, the Philippines
Islands-born entrepreneur now has a cyber-stable of 12
multi-ethnic women performing chat in rotating shifts -
enough so that Miyagi no longer has to fill in a shift
herself.
Mimisgirls.com is currently live
noon to midnight, although Miyagi hopes to expand to 24
chatters and go 24/7, adding that her company has the
capacity to allow women to chat from home.
If Miyagi may seem to be a sort of
virtual mamasan, she laughs and eschews this title, insisting
she's no high-tech madam. "I don't consider myself really to
be like that, because I try to keep my hands away from the
actual cyber-studio - sometimes it can get highly emotional
in there," she demurs. Be that as it may, Mimi Miyagi Inc.
offers its workers counseling, and strives to build their
self-esteem. "We have a `Wall of Hope' with phone numbers
they can call for help with problems. I built my site out of
love, for reaching out to people, because of my passion for
people. We try to be compassionate to each other at work, as
well," stresses Miyagi. She speaks with the experience of one
who's been in the trenches, and Miyagi's insight extends to
her customers, whom she refers to as "lonely."
Miminet.com features photos and
videos of models and porn stars, live video/photo shoots and
interviews, original Web movies for downloading, and hardcore
material such as "The Best of Mimi Miyagi." Membership is
$14.95 per month, and the CEO claims her site has thousands
of visitors, and each of her cyber-rooms averages 70
members.
"The chat begins with the girls
online with a numerous clients, wearing bikinis to entice and
tease the customers," Miyagi explains. "They can chat for
free; there's no membership fee at mimisgirls.com - the big
site we're heavily promoting this year. Signup is free. It's
just a way for us to do age verification and preauthorize a
credit card. It goes into a one-on-one when the customer
clicks on the icon to purchase the time, and the girl accepts
his call, and it starts counting down the minutes.
"During the one-on-one, consumers in
the free area can only see a small picture on their computer
screen. We do have phones in every room, so customers can
speak live to the girls. It's not a 900 number - just their
usual long distance call, as we offer free phone with live
one-on-one chats, or they can just use their keyboards,"
states the CEO.
The in-demand auteur is also
writing, directing, and producing Metro's FantAsiany
series of adult videos, which features amateur couples in
settings professionally designed by Miyagi. Miminet.com plays
FantAsiany clips compressed for the Net. Viewers can
order the full VHS videos at toxxxic.com, which are then
shipped to consumers.
Miyagi migrated from the Philippines
to California when she was six, and also lived at Guam, a
Western Pacific U.S. territory. A scholarship to the American
College for Fashion Merchandising took her to Westwood in Los
Angeles, but college was cut short in 1992, when Miyagi
pursued an adult career, starting with Ed Powers.
"I can actually say I grew up in
this industry," Miyagi professes. "After three years of
acting, I had enough movies lined up to become a featured
entertainer. I traveled the country for years, especially to
strip clubs, cabarets, and theatres in cities like San
Francisco and New York, where there's larger Asian
populations. Lots of our clientele is Asian, and in urban
areas with a big Asian populace, Caucasians are exposed to
more Asians and get `yellow fever,'" says the
Japanese/Chinese/Filipina woman.
"The appeal of Asians as a niche
market is it's always considered a mystique," reveals Miyagi.
"The stereotype of Asian women is they're mysterious to
Caucasian men. They try to psychoanalyze us, and figure out
what it is in our lives that brings us so much peace and
harmony, balance. That's the boundary they want to cross and
see. Asian women are considered more submissive, faithful and
loyal, because this is traditionally instilled in us since
childhood - especially if we're born in Asia."
Ironically, the World Wide Web has
liberated Miyagi to pursue a low-tech endeavor, which remains
near and close to her heart: touring and live performances.
"I'm touching more into my creative side, and expressing it
further into my shows," she reveals. "After creating features
and Websites, I have now finally found the emotion to express
on stage what I've always held back, as a featured
entertainer. After about 10 years I can let myself go further
on stage with creativity, in terms of costuming, props, and
crowd interaction, which makes for a highly paid feature
entertainer, earning around $12,000 weekly," says Miyagi.
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