OhnlyFans has banned pornographic content starting in October. The company said that due to the prohibition of “pornographic” recordings, the British platform hopes to “satisfy the needs of bank partners and payment service providers.” However, creators can still “publish content that contains nudity,” provided they abide by the platform’s rules. So far, how these seem to be open.
On OnlyFans, social media creators—including many sex workers, musicians, and other influential people—publish content online, and users can subscribe for a fee. Although some popular musicians and actors such as Bella Thorne and Cardi B only have fan accounts, and Vice is even a news site on the platform, it is best known for its pornographic content. According to its own information, it has 130 million users and viewed the content of 2 million creators.
Sales should increase sixfold
According to a report from the news site Axios, OnlyFans is looking for investors with a goal of over $1 billion in valuation. Due to pornographic content, investors have so far shown little interest, and the terms often prohibit them from doing business in certain industries.
According to the internal demonstration at the end of March cited by Axios, the company performed very well. During the pandemic, the number of users increased dramatically. The total sales of the platform are expected to increase from US$2.2 billion last year (slightly less than 1.9 billion euros) to US$5.9 billion this year and US$12.5 billion next year. The platform retains one-fifth of its sales, and the company’s net sales are expected to increase from USD 375 million in 2020 to USD 2.5 billion in 2022, an increase of more than six times.
OnlyFans released an app last week that allows creators to upload content that does not involve nudity. In the future, the platform may pay more attention to music, fitness or cooking content.
Many OnlyFans millionaires
For many creators, the platform is very profitable. According to a report by Axios, as of the end of March, there were more than 300 creators with an annual income of more than 1 million U.S. dollars, and 16,000 creators with an annual income of more than 50,000 U.S. dollars on OnlyFans. However, these figures are now likely to rise rapidly: by the end of March this year, $3.2 billion should have been paid. According to the latest Axios announcement, this value has now far exceeded US$5 billion.
As with content disputes with investors, the platform has so far been an important source of income for sex workers and porn actors, who can independently market content on it. Various American media quoted disappointed OnlyFans pornographic actors. They now want to know how they should make money in the future and believe that there is now room for new suppliers. In the past, banks often blocked or avoided pornographic websites. On the contrary, a lot of pornographic content is sold in cryptocurrency. OnlyFans’ actions are reminiscent of Tumblr: The image platform banned pornography in 2018, and then lost a lot of popularity.
OnlyFans was founded in 2016 by British entrepreneur Tim Stokely, who still runs the platform to this day. However, since October 2018, the main owner has been American entrepreneur Leonid Radvinsky (Leonid Radvinsky), who became a billionaire through investment.
