OnlyFans has paid out $20 billion to creators since its inception eight years ago, according to CEO Keily Blair — much of which stems from porn, but she said the platform also offers a great place to monetize material of all stripes.
OnlyFans gives “artists freedom to say what they want and to be controversial, and to have a point of view,” said Blair, speaking Thursday at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in L.A. “Everyone assumes it’s sexy content. Some of it is sexy content — and we’re very happy with that, we’re an inclusive platform, and we’re that way for a reason… We believe it’s very important for adult content creators to have a safe space, to be able to monetize and also to be able to do that alongside other content creators.”
OnlyFans does not sell any advertising, doesn’t track user behavior and is entirely opt-in, Blair pointed out. “Other social media platforms have struggled to introduce that subscription model,” she said.
Appearing with Blair at the conference was comedian, actor, podcaster and Whitney Cummings. Last year, Cummings released her most recent special, “Mouthy,” via OnlyFans after joining the platform a year earlier to share “dirty jokes” (but not nude pics) with subscribers. “Mouthy” is available on OnlyFans’ free promotional video streaming service OFTV.
Cummings quipped that when she got a call from OnlyFans about doing a streaming comedy special on the platform, she wondered, “Is this because my last name is Cummings? It seems a little only on the nose.”
On OnlyFans, “it’s not just sex, of course,” Cummings said, noting there are creators who host content about cooking, workouts and other non-adult topics. For comics, OnlyFans offers far more freedom than TV networks or other online platforms including YouTube, she said: “I like the idea of, ‘Let me go to this place that’s a little taboo’… where’s there’s not as much censorship, where I can recreate the environment of an actual comedy-club vibe.”
Cummings added: “And, money. I love money.”
Despite a plethora of porn freely available on the internet, Blair said, “The reason why people pay for OnlyFans is because they want to engage with those creators” and “ask for specific content.” For some fans, she said, “it’s an ethical decision actually about how they choose to consume, particularly, adult content.” In other cases, it’s about exclusive content, Blair said, citing interviews conducted by tennis pro Nick Kyrgios on his OnlyFans account.
According to a regulatory filing last month, OnlyFans’ gross revenue increased by 19% for the year ended Nov. 30, 2023, to $6.63 billion last year. That means OnlyFans creators earned total payouts of $5.32 billion for the most recent fiscal year. Net revenue increased 20%, to $1.31 billion (with two-thirds of that from the U.S.), while the company’s pre-tax profit jumped 25% to $658 million.
“Yeah, it was a good year,” Blair commented at the Bloomberg conference, adding that OnlyFans does not have any plans to launch an initial public offering. “We definitely don’t need to raise capital,” she said. Moreover, being a publicly held company would “sully” its business model by having to cater to shareholders instead of being entirely focused on creators and their success, she said.
Blair, previously OnlyFan’s chief strategy and operations officer, took over as CEO in July 2023. Prior to joining the company in January 2022, she served as partner – head of cyber, privacy and data innovation at London-based law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.
OnlyFans argues that it’s one of the safest adult-oriented sites on the internet because it requires an extensive ID verification process before anyone can create an account. In addition, the content isn’t freely accessible — users must pay a subscription fee or otherwise opt in to view any OnlyFans accounts. Creators earn 80% of all payments made on the platform, according to OnlyFans.
OnlyFans is owned by Leonid Radvinsky, who also is the founder of cam site MyFreeCams, who received $472 million in dividends for the 2023 fiscal year, up 40% from $338 million the year prior, per the filing.
From Variety US