OnlyFans has defined a certain type of creator economy.

By Founder Park

OnlyFans has once again made headlines in the tech sector.

This adult content platform has an annual revenue of $6.6 billion, which, according to some estimates, surpasses the combined revenue of all the cutting-edge AI companies in Silicon Valley. It is the most successful company in the UK since DeepMind and the most influential content platform since TikTok.

OnlyFans has defined a certain type of creator economy.

What's even more astonishing is that in 2023, they distributed $5.3 billion of their revenue to creators, and even then, they still had a business profit of $649 million.

CEO Keily Blair stated in an interview that OnlyFans does not use recommendation algorithms, will not introduce virtual AI characters, and even has no plans to launch AI-related features in the near future.

All of these considerations are aimed at protecting the rights of creators and providing users and creators with more choices.

The article is compiled from Matthew Ball's article and an interview with WSJ, with some deletions made by Founder Park.

Founder Park

From Geek Park, focusing on discussing the "real issues" with tech entrepreneurs.

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01 After TikTok, the Most Influential Content Platform

Although a private company, as a UK-based company, OnlyFans still needs to disclose some of its business and operational data. Despite the limited information, it is enough to give us a glimpse of its revenue, profit, scale, and market position.

From a certain perspective, it is one of the most successful companies in the UK since DeepMind was established in 2010, and also one of the most influential content platforms since TikTok rose to fame through Musical.ly in 2014, especially in the field of creator economy.

In 2023, OnlyFans' annual revenue reached an astonishing $6.6 billion, which is five times the revenue from five years ago, which was $300 million. Although the explosive growth during the pandemic is unlikely to be replicated, the revenue in 2023 still increased by 19% compared to the previous year, which is $1.1 billion, faster than the 3% growth in 2022. Despite the platform being subscription-based, now over 60% of transactions are completed through one-time purchases, and these transaction amounts are not small, often reaching tens of dollars.

In fact, since 2021, subscription revenue has only increased by 9%, while transaction revenue has soared by 70%, accounting for 88% of the total revenue growth. Currently, OnlyFans' revenue is twice that of the adult industry giant Aylo, which includes multiple brands such as PornHub, Brazzers, RedTube, YouPorn, and XTube. The platform has over 300 million registered users, although not all users are active or paying, and the platform has not disclosed specific details. In terms of geographical distribution, two-thirds of the revenue comes from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe, accounting for 16%, and the remaining 17% comes from "other parts of the world".

02 Reasons for Growth: Market Void Period, High Revenue Share

The growth in revenue is first and foremost due to the increase in brand awareness (the term "OnlyFans" has become synonymous with creator monetization in private domains), with many well-known creators joining (some of whom do not provide adult content).

In addition, regulations have forced many adult content platforms to remove a large amount of content (much of which was uploaded without any compliance process) and have implemented cumbersome identity verification processes for new content uploads.

At the same time, social media platforms such as Reddit and Tumblr have decided to ban adult content, creating not only a market void but also forcing creators with a large number of fans to redirect them to other platforms. Many OnlyFans creators now view sites like Reddit, Imgur, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter as a means to attract OnlyFans customers. In most similar cases, platforms would oppose creators redirecting audiences or consumption to competitors' services—or at least attempt to launch an integrated feature/product that could replace an alternative.

However, these sites do not directly compete with OnlyFans (more importantly, they usually ban adult content), so they often allow this behavior as long as it complies with their terms of service and is not too public. In addition, these platforms often benefit from the promotion of OnlyFans creators, as it can easily lead to viral content and does not require these platforms to pay fees.

Another reason for OnlyFans' success is its up to 80% revenue share, a percentage that creators receive compared to the revenue share when actors work for production companies or other agencies.

In 2023, OnlyFans creators received an astonishing $5.3 billion in payments. For comparison, the total salary for the 2023-2024 NBA season was $4.9 billion, and the NFL's cap was $7.2 billion. Over the past five years, OnlyFans creators have collectively received over $15 billion. Of course, each of these leagues has 500-1,700 players, while OnlyFans has approximately 4.1 million creators.

Overall, OnlyFans is slowly devouring the entire adult industry. Creators and adult stars can earn more money in a safer way, while having greater autonomy, and provide audiences with a more authentic, differentiated, and valuable experience.

By the way, the reason why the high revenue share of OnlyFans is feasible is because it does not give a cut to Apple (which would take away 15-30% of all revenue). In fact, the iOS App Store and Google's Play Store do not allow adult apps. Typically, such a ban would be a death knell for a potential business model, but a browser-based experience is sufficient for image and video viewing and chatting (just not very friendly for games), and most potential OnlyFans customers are not hindered by the "inferior" web-based experience and the slower, more annoying payment process (which is not suitable for casual gaming or e-commerce).

03 Top Creators Take Most of the Revenue

Similar to other UGC platforms, revenue on OnlyFans is highly concentrated in the hands of top creators, who receive the vast majority of the revenue, while most creators earn very little.

There are over 4.1 million creator accounts on OnlyFans (the company does not disclose the number of unique creators; some operate multiple accounts) and over 305 million fans. Some creators are estimated to generate millions of dollars per month, but the income seems to follow a traditional normal distribution.

On average, the average creator has 74 fans, pays $24 per year (or $2 per month), totaling $1,800 per year (of which $1,450 goes to the creator). However, the median creator's income is likely much lower. According to previous internal data from OnlyFans, the top 0.1% of creators (some of whom earn millions per month) earn 15 times the income of the top 15% of creators.

However, there are very few other platforms in the world that have over 100 million daily active users, who spend over $20 annually on the platform.

One common technique among top creators is a series of pricing tiers, including a free version, for example: Basic: Free, Standard: $5 per month, Premium: $10 per month, VIP: $100 per month… with additional transactions possible (such as pay-per-message or image).

To reduce churn, many benefits are only available to long-term subscribers. Top subscribers can also communicate directly with creators (allowing these users to make requests that may lead to further additional charges). In many cases, the replies are actually written by members of the creator's team—remember, many of these creators are now business owners worth millions of dollars—although this so-called deception has led to some legal action.

In this sense, we should recognize that many fans are paying for hyper-social relationships and connection fantasies, not just photos and videos. Many top accounts are not explicit, some are entirely focused on content similar to Patreon or Substack, rather than OnlyFans, or in other ways only offer paid access to private (but PG-13) Instagram photos.

Although 80% of the total revenue goes to creators, OnlyFans has generated a significant profit. In 2023, the platform's net income was $1.3 billion, with a gross profit of $819 million (at least half of the $488 million in sales costs will be used for credit card fees, with the rest mostly related to bandwidth, servers, etc.). After all expenses, the operating profit was $649 million (50% of net income and 10% of total revenue), totaling $1.74 billion over the past five years.

In 2023, the company had an average of only 42 employees, down from 61 two years ago. In that year, each employee generated $31 million in net income and $15.5 million in operating profit.

Since 2019, OnlyFans has paid $1.1 billion in dividends to its two owners, with $472 million paid out in 2023 alone. It is worth noting that Leonid Radvinsky founded a live adult content company in 2018, when he acquired 75% of OnlyFans, at a time when the profit (possibly) had not yet accumulated to over $1 million.

04 New Threats: Open Adult Content from X, and AI

In recent years, some competitors to OnlyFans have emerged, some of which even offer higher revenue shares for creators. However, the scale of OnlyFans' two-sided market (users and creators) has proven to be enduring, not just profitable.

However, besides "How big can OnlyFans become?" there are two other interesting questions.

First, whether X can successfully enter this field, and how it will impact OnlyFans? In June 2024, Elon Musk ended the platform's ban on adult content, shortly after it launched paid subscriptions and closed messages.

Second, not just images and videos, how will generative AI impact this category?

As more alternatives emerge, the demand for "authenticity" decreases, while the premium for hyper-social authenticity increases. This trend is foreseeable. And generative AI creators can truly do anything you want, and only for you. Unlike real creators, these AIs can speak multiple languages, be available anytime, anywhere, and could potentially integrate into immersive 3D environments in the future.

05 No Recommendation Algorithms, No Introduction of AI

In a media interview in May of this year, OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair outlined their thoughts on content recommendations and their views on AI. Founder Park has compiled a simple translation.

No Algorithmic Recommendations, No AI

Jeff: How do you attract fans through a recommendation system?

Keily Blair: We don't have any personalized recommendation system for fans.

Jeff: Okay, do you plan to incorporate AI into the product?

Keily Blair: So we don't allow AI-generated content. Real creators can use AI to enhance their content, but completely AI-generated virtual accounts are prohibited.

Jeff: Daily usage time is important for social media companies, how do you improve this metric?

Keily Blair: Unlike many other social media companies, this is not actually an important growth metric for us.

Jeff: What is the biggest source of traffic to your website?

Keily Blair: I don't know. I don't track that metric.

Jeff: …So how did you get this job? (laughs) But you're good at user growth, you must have a background in that, right?

Keily Blair: Actually, unlike many tech company CEOs, I studied law, specializing in cybersecurity and privacy issues, which probably explains a lot.

Jeff: But overall, you're now able to easily generate revenue, right?

Keily Blair: I think what's really interesting about OnlyFans is that we're a space for adults to truly own an adult content experience. Sometimes that includes "adult content," but it can also include sports, comedy, mixed martial arts… basically anywhere a creator wants to profit from a fan base, as long as they adhere to our terms of service.

No Ads, Strict Verification of Author Identities

Jeff: Why doesn't OnlyFans use platform recommendations to help users discover popular accounts? After all, an ad-driven model is almost the core of every social media platform.

Keily Blair: This is because an ad-driven model is key to social media growth, and social media platforms are usually built in this way. But OnlyFans is different from many other platforms, we are aligned with the interests of the creator community. Only if creators succeed can we succeed. Since our inception, we have paid creators $15 billion. Our business model means that for every dollar we earn, creators earn $4, and I'm very proud of that.

Jeff: So, OnlyFans does not seek to emulate the ad-driven model of mainstream social media platforms, which seems to be a counter-current choice in recent years. We have seen TikTok, YouTube shorts, Instagram, and Facebook all heavily promoting subscription and direct payment features to creators. Interestingly, this trend coincides with them reducing income for creators.

I'm curious, what are your thoughts on this competitive landscape, and what aspects need to be considered for a platform that wants to adopt the OnlyFans model in terms of trust and security issues?

Keily Blair: Indeed, other platforms are starting to emulate the OnlyFans model, especially in terms of creator monetization and subscription mechanisms, although they may not be as generous in revenue distribution.

I believe that creators and the younger generation both crave more interaction and fair compensation. The relatively young adults of Generation Z want to connect with creators and believe that creators should receive fair compensation.

One key difference with OnlyFans is that creators always own the copyright to their content. They can remove content from the platform at any time, as it does not belong to us, but to the creators themselves. For other platforms, if they rely on advertising revenue, I understand this as an additional monetization method. But OnlyFans has always adhered to this subscription profit model, and both our users and creators are accustomed to these rules. I think the challenge for other platforms transitioning to a subscription model is that users are already accustomed to accessing content for free, they need to feel that it is exclusive content, they need to feel that they are getting more value.

In terms of creator economics and business trends, we have noticed that subscription revenue now accounts for a smaller proportion of our total revenue than "microtransactions" (one-time transactions). "Microtransactions" include paid unlockable content, private messages, customized content, and behind-the-scenes extras. Sometimes, as a user, I may not want to subscribe to all content, I just want to see something specific. Therefore, it is very important to allow users and creators to freely choose different monetization models, whether it is through subscriptions or microtransactions.

As for trust and security, this is crucial to our operations. At OnlyFans, we place great importance on this. We focus first on the creator registration process, as this is the most important step. Creators must undergo a very strict verification process, and they must provide us with nine different pieces of personal information, including in some jurisdictions, such as the United States, a social security number is required. We require government-issued identification, full name, bank account details, and other social media accounts, so we can ensure that you are the same person across all platforms. We will not use this data for other purposes, we use this data only to protect the safety of the community and establish accountability.

Jeff: But in some countries, you cannot obtain valid identity information from these creators, how do you handle that?

Keily Blair: This is indeed tricky. In those countries where we cannot actually verify identity, we choose not to operate in those areas. We must verify the age and identity of our creators before they join the platform, especially if they choose to share adult content.

Jeff: Clearly, you do not allow minors to appear on the platform as creators or viewers. So, if I have a photo of my child and as a creator, I want to share it with my fans, what would happen?

Keily Blair: Definitely not allowed.

Jeff: Okay. What if, just if, I want to role-play as a schoolgirl on my OnlyFans account, how would that be?

Keily Blair: That's not allowed either. So we do not allow any role-playing that implies age, Jeff. This is a matter of principle for me. I have two children, one is 9 years old and the other is 11 years old. I want them to have a healthy environment online.

As a social media platform, we place great emphasis on the corresponding security controls. We understand that each different platform model has its risks. That's why we have confidence in all users over 18 on the platform, and we allow the existence of adult content. We must face different risks, so our investment in content review is very large. This is also why our platform does not have end-to-end encryption, even in private messages, which means we can focus on protecting the safety of the community and ensure that the community is only open to adults.

Prohibiting the Use of AI to Protect Creators

Jeff: Some of your decisions regarding AI really confuse me. For example, Chatbots, they may not be great at many things right now, but they are quite good at simple conversations. Besides subscriptions, creators also need to spend a lot of time and conversation. This is not a secret on social platforms, popular creators have dedicated customer service teams, they can train robots to mimic themselves, and then they can let go. This can save a lot of expenses. Why don't you allow this?

Keily Blair: You say it's "simple conversation," but there are really a lot of profound content in OnlyFans' private messages, which chatbots cannot handle. Not to mention, I think there are a lot of risks with generative AI right now, and this also involves legal issues. Everyone is discussing the future of AI: some say AI will bring about huge changes, some worry about the doomsday scenario of AI ruling over humans, how should we prevent it?…

But they haven't solved some of the problems AI is currently facing, such as copyright, ownership, etc. These are not problems that may occur in the future, they are real problems, they are problems that are currently infringing on the rights of creators. Allowing AI to run freely in the system is risky. So for us, we allow creators to use AI to enrich content, but it must clearly belong to the creator and they must be able to prove it to us.

Jeff: Meta uses robots, they occasionally pretend to be the parents of New York City public school children. Are you saying that you will never allow the use of generative AI to create content and social interaction?

Keily Blair: Currently, we believe that the benefits of introducing AI are not enough to outweigh the risks, but we continue to monitor developments in this area. I don't have a crystal ball to predict the future, technology changes too fast. So for us, we have a team of lawyers, privacy experts, technical experts, and developers who are researching existing technology and how it can help our creator community. If one day we are confident in the security measures, we may consider exploring this direction. But for now, based on the current situation, we are not ready to do so.

Giving Users and Creators More Choices

Jeff: I noticed that you have publicly expressed dissatisfaction with some recommendation algorithm platforms. But at the same time, you seem to be cooperating to some extent with this model, as successful creators on OnlyFans are almost all successful creators on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. I want to know how you view this symbiotic relationship, and to what extent your business also depends on the model that you seem to dislike.

Keily Blair: Every creator is running their own business. Essentially, we are a platform that helps creators and fans connect.

There is a very interesting report that points out that most creators operate on 7 or even more platforms, and provide different content for different audiences on these platforms. If other social media platforms completely change the way creators interact with fans, if other platforms have a negative impact on the interaction between creators and fans, we will benefit. They may eventually choose OnlyFans as their main platform, provided they are over 18 and have passed all verifications.

Indeed, I think there is a certain degree of symbiosis between us and other platforms, because it's all about the creators themselves and their fan base. But we still need to establish safeguards and control the content on our platform. For example, allowing users to have choices, allowing them to choose each subscription, and choose each creator they want to follow, is very important. Because as a fan, I am not interested in everything. I am only interested in certain things. I am a fan of certain people. I like certain musicians, I like certain journalists…

We don't want push notifications, we want choice, we want control. Our creators also want to control their fan base. Creators can block fans, they can decide not to let certain people follow them. So for me, maintaining consistency in incentives, focusing on providing an excellent user experience and creator experience, is very important to us.

Jeff: Is that so? You seem to be implying that this platform can be an alternative to the bad experience on other platforms. But what I mean is, should we consider how the internet itself can do better in these aspects? Or should we do this now? OnlyFans is based on the assumption that it will always be an alternative product on the internet, how do you view the development of the entire internet social product?

Keily Blair: I am an optimist. I really hope that we can build better social media platforms, and we can make changes. I think some of the structural issues we discussed earlier do make this difficult. What sets us apart is that we have been successful in security, while also considering and being aware of the risks that are prevalent on our social platform, and controlling them appropriately.

Because we have integrated security into the design from the beginning, rather than remedying it afterwards. This design-oriented approach to security allows us to better protect users and provide a safer, more controlled environment for our creators. This forward-thinking mindset allows us to stand out in the field of social media, creating real value for users and creators.

Of course, hindsight and effort are always valuable, better than no action. Therefore, I am hopeful that the internet can move in that direction, and I look forward to seeing more changes in other social media platforms now, and a more positive and optimistic future for social media.

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