OnlyFans, the paid content subscription service, reported bringing in over £1.7 Billion in transactions.

As reported by The Financial Times, OnlyFans’ transactions increased over 700% by November 2020. In addition, revenue increased to £281 Million. Pre-tax profits rose from £6 Million to £53 Million in a pre-file statement released by the OnlyFans executive teams.

Founded in 2016 by British tech-preneur Tim Stokely, OnlyFans entered the mainstream after singer Beyoncé referenced the platform in a hit song. Since its inception, actors and social personalities like Bella Thorne and Bhad Bhabie have raked in profits from OnlyFans grossing to over $1 Million in a matter of hours.

The highly popular service allows indie creators to earn money from paying subscribers, or ‘fans’, through subscription fees or monetising exclusive content. Technically open to anyone, creators can upload ‘pay-per-view’ posts and generate substantial income from live streams and fan tips.

Brilliance in the OnlyFans Business Model

According to OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely, the secret to the platform’s success is in its ability to bridge ‘interaction and intimacy’ between fans and creators.

‘What OnlyFans customers crave is a level of interaction and intimacy with the creator they don’t typically get on Instagram or Twitter, where celebrities tend to share the most manicured versions of themselves’

Innovating a way to commercialise this ‘level of interaction’ has garnered Stokely and OnlyFans visible success. As of 2021, it is estimated OnlyFans hosts over 1 million creators and 85 Million registered users online. Among this community, fitness instructors, celebrities, actors, and musicians interact directly with viewers through short video clips, messages and written content. The benefits for creators is large, especially if they have an existing fanbase. Stokely adds:

‘One of our selling pitches is: “look, you’ve got a million followers on Instagram, if just 1% of them pay for OnlyFans…”. The average creator chargers $12 per subscriber, allowing for creators to potentially make millions a month’

The Pandemic: An Unexpected Business Boost?

The pandemic inspired further mass subscriber and content creator growth across the OnlyFans ecosystem. In lockdown periods, droves of new viewers flocked to the site, many of whom were bored or newly unemployed. For professional entertainers, many hailed the site as a ‘pill for modern financial woes’. The increasing rates of unemployment caused many individuals to turn to platforms like OnlyFans in an attempt to provide for themselves and their families.

To subsidise lost income, new creators capitalised on innovative marketing avenues like live streams, messaging features and polls to engage with a captive, online audience. These tools allowed budding creators and out-of-work entertainers to commercialise their brand at a time of economic downturn. Those hoping for a windfall, particularly in a lockdown context, banked on OnlyFans’ built-in audience, marketing features and virality to build brand affinity and overall engagement.

For women, who felt the pandemic’s effects at a greater scale, OnlyFans replaced income from work in retail, hospitality and healthcare. Advocates have hailed the platform as a way to ‘empower’ women, particularly at a time when many have been disenfranchised by the global pandemic. In providing a new capacity for women to earn money, many argue that OnlyFans ultimately gives women a vehicle to exercise and flex their own financial autonomy. For some female creators, they have enjoyed the freedom of controlling their working hours and revenue streams with little external input.

The X-Factor:

Others warn against OnlyFans’ ‘exploitative’ nature, especially for sex workers in general.

Controversially, the platform has recently gained traction with the adult entertainment industry due to its lack of content restrictions. Although OnlyFans was not designed to be an X-rated content host, adult performers have benefitted from using the site to stream ‘vanilla’ and mainstream content. As such, OnlyFans soon became a ‘safe space’ for adult performers to post and independently monetise NSFW content.

Although fans have ‘heralded’ the platform for de-stigmatising digital sex work, the oversaturation of X-rated creators on the site has been challenging for long-standing entertainers. The closure of strip clubs during the pandemic forced new and established entertainers to flood the platform. Although some individuals have made substantial earnings on OnlyFans through X-rated content, this is not the case for all adult performers on the platforms. Many have struggled to compete with independent creators with a wide fanbase, and have consequently received little payment for their efforts.

Looking Forward

Given the diversity of the creator community on the OnlyFans platform, it is clear that its appeal will not dissipate any time.

Based in London, OnlyFans will soon expand into other geographies across Latin America and Asia. Stokely has also since revealed that OnlyFans will bolster a new streaming service called OFTV, which will feature exclusive and creator-driven serial content.