 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | |
| Genre | Video on demand |
| Founded | 2016 (9 years ago) (2016) inLondon, England |
| Founder | Tim Stokely |
| Headquarters | London ,England |
Area served | Global |
Key people | Keily Blair (CEO) |
| Services | OFTV |
| Revenue | US$1.30 billion (2023[1]) |
Number of employees | ~1,000[2] (2022) |
| Parent | Fenix International Limited |
| Website | onlyfans.com/about |
OnlyFans is an internet contentsubscription service based inLondon, England.[3] The service is popular withsex workers who producepornography,[3][4] but it also hosts the work of other content creators, such asphysical fitness experts andmusicians.[5]
Content on the platform is user-generated and monetized via monthly subscriptions, tips, andpay-per-view. Creators are paid 80% of these fees and earn a yearly average of $1,300. The company launched a freesafe-for-work streaming platform, OFTV, in 2021. The website grew in popularity during theCOVID-19 pandemic; as of May 2023, OnlyFans had more than three million registered creators and 220 million registered users.
The company has been criticised for insufficiently preventing child sexual abuse material from circulating on the platform. In August 2021, a campaign to investigate OnlyFans began in theUnited States Congress, and it was reported that from October 2021 onward OnlyFans would no longer allow sexually explicit material,[4] due to pressure from banks that OnlyFans used for user payments. However, this decision was reversed six days later due to backlash from users and creators alike.[6][7][8]
OnlyFans is a Britishsubscription-basedvideo on demand service and social media network.[3] It acts as avideo hosting service, allowingcontent creators to upload videos and garner subscribers to their content.[9] As such, it is part of thecreator economy.[10] Subscribers pay creators in monthly instalments, in one-time tips, or viapay-per-view. The company takes 20% of these fees.[9][11]
OnlyFans is mainly used by pornographic creators,[3][4][12] bothamateur and professional, but it also has a market with other content creators—including chefs, fitness trainers, and musicians.[5]
As of May 2023, OnlyFans had 3 million registered creators and 220 million registered consumers.[13][14] In 2023, creators earned a mean average of nearly $1,300 per year.[15] A study published in theArchives of Sexual Behavior found that "OnlyFans users were predominantly white, married, males who identified as heterosexual, bisexual, or pansexual."[16] The study found that the sexual attitudes of OnlyFans users were not significantly different from the general population.[17]
The company employs approximately 1,000 people, 80% of whom focus on content moderation and support.[18][2] It had 2021 revenues ofUS$932 million.[19] It is led bychief executive officer (CEO)Keily Blair and owned by Fenix International Limited.[20][21]
In April 2021,Time named OnlyFans in itsTime 100 Most Influential Companies list.[22] Additionally,Fast Company named OnlyFans as one of the 10 most innovative social media companies in 2021.[23] TheFinancial Times named OnlyFans one of the fastest-growing companies in Europe in 2022 and 2023.[24]
In November 2016, Tim Stokely founded OnlyFans as a platform for performers to "directly monetize their content and interactions."[11] Stokely'sstart up capital was a £10,000 loan from his father, Guy Stokely. He had previously founded the websites GlamGirls andCustoms4U.[25][26] Tim's brother Thomas Stokely became the company'sCOO and the father, Guy Stokely, assumed the position offinance head.[25][26]
Initially, OnlyFans banned explicit content on its platform[27] and sought to attract musicians andinfluencers.[27] However, by 2017, OnlyFans lifted its ban on porn.[27]
Two years later, businessmanLeonid Radvinsky, owner ofMyFreeCams,[28] acquired 75% ownership of Fenix International Limited and became one of its directors.[29][11]The Independent claimed that after this, OnlyFans "gained a pop culture reputation for being a hive ofpornography".[30]
In December 2021, Tim Stokely announced that he would be stepping down andAmrapali Gan would be taking over from him.[31] In July 2023,lawyer Keily Blair was appointed the CEO.[21]
Amateur and professionalsex workers drove OnlyFans' early growth, a process further accelerated by theCOVID-19 pandemic and therecession it caused.[32] Between March and April in 2020, the user and creator base grew by 75%.[33]
The site grew rapidly after it was mentioned byBeyoncé inthe remix of theMegan Thee Stallion song, "Savage", released in April 2020.[34] Traffic increased by 15% and CEO Tim Stokely claimed OnlyFans was seeing approximately 200,000 new users and 6,000–8,000 new creators register daily.[20][33] 2020 also saw numerous celebrities, includingCardi B,Rebecca Minkoff, andTyler Posey, as well as media companies likeMunchies andBarstool Sports join the platform, which further boosted interest in the site.[33][35] By December 2020, OnlyFans had 85 million users and more than 1 million creators, generating more thanUS$2 billion in sales that year.[36]
Sky News reported that OnlyFans had not paidvalue-added tax for three years and could face heavy penalties from tax authorities; it began charging value-added tax in July 2020 after "discussions" withHM Revenue and Customs.[37]
By March 2021, OnlyFans' user base topped 120 million and creators collectively earned $3 billion in revenue.[33] OnlyFans stated that it pays out more than $200 million a month to creators.[36][38]
In 2021, their revenue was around $900 million, a rise from $350 million in the previous year, with the company reaching a market valuation of $1 billion.[39] Owner Leonid Radvinsky received $500 million individends in the roughly two-year period from 2021 to 2022.[19][40]
In 2024, OnlyFans posted revenues of $1.3bn in the year upto 30 November 2023, an increase of 20% over the previous year. OnlyFans also paid $150m in UK corporation tax in 2023.[41]
Shortly following increased campaigning against OnlyFans due to concerns about child sexual abuse material, on 19 August 2021, the company announced that from 1 October 2021 onwards it would not be allowing sexually explicit content.[42] The company pushed the update through a newTerms of Service Policy.[8] The company would still have allowed nudity on some grounds.[43]
The reason for this shift was initially reported as pressure fromcredit card companies includingMastercard, but CEO Tim Stokely later toldFinancial Times that it was due to withdrawn support from banks such asBNY Mellon andJPMorgan Chase, and that Mastercard had "no bearing on the decision".[8][44][45] Stokely said that BNY Mellon had "flagged and rejected" each transaction from the company, and thatMetro Bank had withdrawn support abruptly in 2019.[45]
The decision was met with widespread backlash by creators and consumers of OnlyFans. Six days after the initial announcement, OnlyFans said that it would be reversing the decision and that adult content would be allowed on the site indefinitely, citing that they had "secured assurances necessary" to do so.[6][7][46][47][48][49]
The website Fansly surged in popularity as an alternative to OnlyFans for sex workers after the retracted ban announcement. Originally beginning operations in November 2020, Fansly's website design and functionality has been regarded byMEL Magazine as "nearly identical" to OnlyFans.[50]
In August 2022, a series of lawsuits were filed in the US, which alleged that OnlyFans had bribed employees ofMeta to addInstagram accounts of OnlyFans creators who also sold content on OnlyFans' competitor websites to a terrorist blacklist. According to the lawsuits, adult performers includingAlana Evans had traffic driven away from their Instagram accounts after being falsely tagged as terror-related, effectivelyshadow banning them and diminishing their ability to promote their content on rival websites. OnlyFans denied awareness of such activity.[51][52] The plaintiffs withdrew the bribery claim in July 2023 and the case was dismissed in August 2023, with the court noting that it did not havejurisdiction over OnlyFans, which is based in the UK.[53]
Content creators fromRussia andBelarus reported that they were not able to withdraw their funds or were excluded from the platform as part of the economic sanctions following the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. OnlyFans said that this was because "worldwide financial restrictions" led them to have "very limited methods to pay Creator accounts linked to Russia and Belarus". OnlyFans later said that they had restored full functionality to these accounts.[54][55] On 21 April 2022, OnlyFans "temporarily paused" Russian creators' accounts.[56]
In 2024, multipleinvestigative articles independently revealed that many creators relied on other people, called chatters, to impersonate the creator in messages with their subscribers despite promising direct connections on their OnlyFans profiles.[57][58][59] Furthermore, one of these articles, fromReuters, reported that many creators also usechatbots for the same purpose.[57] OnlyFans’ terms of service explicitly prohibited the use of chatbots and state that creators are legally responsible for any transaction with a subscriber.[60] Two U.S. federalclass-action lawsuits have been filed against the company, as well as against agencies employing the chatters, alleging that these practicesdefraud consumers.[57][58]
Since 2019, OnlyFans's account verification process has involved aselfie headshot including an ID photo.[61] However,BBC News reported in 2021 that it was able to circumvent the system. OnlyFans was criticised by UK police for not doing enough to protect children;[62] however, the country's government regulator,Ofcom, praised the site in 2022 for its use of third-party verification tools.[63]
ABBC Three documentary alleged in 2020 that a third ofTwitter profiles globally advertising 'nudes4sale' (or similar) belong tounderage individuals, many of whom used OnlyFans to share their content.[64][61] In May 2021, the BBC reported that OnlyFans was "failing to prevent underage users from selling and appearing in explicit videos" after an investigation. This included reports from UK Police, schools and Childline.[62] However, theNational Center for Missing & Exploited Children reported under 100 instances of child sexual abuse material on OnlyFans per year, whileMindGeek-owned companies accounted for around 13,000 cases, Twitter accounted for 65,000 andFacebook accounted for 20 million instances.[65][42]
On 10 August 2021, US RepresentativeAnn Wagner announced a bipartisan coalition pressuring theDepartment of Justice to investigate OnlyFans forchild exploitation, citing increasing reports by law enforcement and child safety organizations that minors were being sold on OnlyFans, as well as instances ofsex trafficking and image-based abuse.[65][66] Over 100 members of Congress signed the petition.[65] The Christian pressure groupExodus Cry and theNational Center on Sexual Exploitation, founded as a Catholic organization, were cited as influencers in the campaign against the website.[42][67][68]
Later in August 2021, OnlyFans released its first transparency report regarding the company's safety compliance program. OnlyFans said that it uses machine learning classifiers to locate child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and hashes to keep track of CSAM content, passing such information on to theNational Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). However, in July 2021 it only passed one hash and details of 14 accounts, out of the 15 suspended for CSAM, onto the NCMEC.Gizmodo andThe Verge commented on the unclarity of the reports' figures, which are limited to July 2021 and combine requests for data from law enforcement and from charity helplines.[69][70]
The company gave $500,000 to the Child Rescue Coalition in 2022 for a project intended to investigate adult online behavior that is sexually threatening to children.[71] It partnered with StopNCII.org in 2023, an online tool that uses ahash function system to prevent the spread ofrevenge porn and other non-consensual image sharing.[72]
Reuters documented 30 complaints from court and police records between December 2019 and June 2024 involving more than 200 explicit videos and images of children, including some adults having oral sex with toddlers.[73] Multiple videos of minors had allegedly been on OnlyFans for more than a year.[73]
In February 2020,BuzzFeed News reported that up to four terabytes of hacked OnlyFans content went viral on social media. It was supposed to have come from hundreds of different accounts and was spread onMega cloud storage andGoogle Drive. OnlyFans denied that any breach had occurred. Daly Barnett, a technologist from theElectronic Frontier Foundation, toldBuzzFeed News that "These platforms routinely have terrible security posture and reprehensible incident response."[74][75]
In August 2020,Forensic News reported that some content creators' accounts had been deleted without warning, leaving them unable to withdraw their balances.[76] Radvinsky's previous business ventures were flagged by banks for indicators ofmoney laundering.[77][78]
In March 2021, the company launched its creative fund to provide £20,000 grants to four emerging musicians in theUnited Kingdom, as selected by Stokely andStefflon Don.[79] Later that year, OnlyFans soft launched OFTV, an app and streaming site with a collection of itssafe for work content.[33] Professional boxerFloyd Mayweather Jr.,DJ Khaled andFat Joe, andTerrell Owens were among the new content creators during the year.[39][80][81]
A second initiative, the following year, was the OFTV programCreative Fund: Fashion Edition, a reality fashion show featuring designerRebecca Minkoff. It was judged byLaw Roach,Sir John, and Maeve Reilly; the winner received $50,000, and $25,000 was awarded to second and third place.[82][2] A four-partComedy Edition of the program in the U.K. and Ireland is set to air in 2023, with a similar prize fund. It was judged byLondon Hughes,Jamali Maddix andMae Martin;Jack Guinness hosted andSofie Hagen appeared.[83]
In 2022, OFTV released Model Farmers, a reality television show hosted by Becky Houze. The show features celebrities working on a farm in the United Kingdom.[84] In 2022, OnlyFans signed deals with the Sims family, who starred in the English reality television showThe Only Way is Essex, andWhitney Cummings to star in shows for OFTV, set to release in 2023. Cummings also started an account on OnlyFans' main site.[85][86]
A trend on OnlyFans saw creators allowing free access to sexual content in exchange for proof of charity donations, beginning with Kaylen Ward raisingUS$1 million in contributions to charity during theAustralian wild bushfires in Australia in January 2020.[87][88]
Bella Thorne broke OnlyFans earnings records when she joined the platform in August 2020, generatingUS$2 million in a week, includingUS$1 million in a 24-hour period.[89] Thorne promised subscribers nude photos, but instead provided only photos inlingerie, leading to a large number ofchargebacks. Following the chargebacks, OnlyFans limited the amount creators could charge and how quickly creators could receive their payouts, though the company said it was unrelated to Thorne and part of "an evolving process".[90][91] Sex work advocates called Thorne a "tourist" in the sex work industry and blamed her for the policy change, saying it would cause them to lose a portion of their income.[92][93] Thorne's record was broken in April 2021 byBhad Bhabie, who garneredUS$1 million in six hours.[94] The broken record led to social media criticism of Bhabie's subscribers, as her OnlyFans account launched shortly after she turned 18.[95]
In May 2022,Carmen Electra joined the site, debuting her account with photos from her 50th birthday.[96] The same year, Pennsylvania congressional candidateAlexandra Hunt joined the platform and announced that her campaign had raised around $100,000 in one month.[97]
In September 2022, the Twitch streamerAmouranth toldInsider that she was earning $1.5 million every month on the site and had grossed more than $33 million in total since joining in early 2020.[98] On December 9, 2022, YouTuberMarkiplier launched an OnlyFans account page and the influx of traffic caused the site to crash.[99][100][101]
A first-generation immigrant fromUkraine, technology was imprinted on Leo at an early age
Amouranth had recently been making around $1.5 million a month in OnlyFans revenues, she told Insider
