 "OnlyFans paid $15 billion to its creators since launch in 2016: CEO Blair")
London-based content creation website OnlyFans, primarily known for producing pornography and related content, has paid nearly $15 billion to its creators since its launch in 2016, the company CEO Keily Blair revealed.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Blair said that OnlyFans paid $5.6 billion to the creators in 2022. The site boasts a figure of 3.1 million creators on its books and has about 239 million "fans."
"We've paid out over $15bn to creators since we started, and that's increasing year-on-year. We continue to grow," Blair, who took over the role of CEO at OnlyFans in July last year, said.
What is the business model of OnlyFans?
OnlyFans is a subscription-based platform and takes one-fifth of the payments generated on its website as part of its business model. Due to the nature of its content, the company has been increasing its safety measures to comply with the UK's Online Safety Act, the FT report noted. The act compels websites to verify the age of their users through the use of technology.
Notably, the site has been under fire from a section of the population, especially women rights groups, which have alleged that the platform is not safe for sex workers and it actually does more harm than good.
What is the criticism against OnlyFans?
Many contend that people, especially women, are driven towards the site in hopes of uplifting their poor financial conditions due to factors including low-paying jobs or poverty. One of the popular contentions also says that young girls, on seeing the glamorous life of handful of OnlyFans creators, believe that they could make a career out of it.
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The business model of OnlyFans is alleged to be concentrated at the moment, leading to creators' profits being eaten by middlemen, agents or producers. There has also been a demand to make the platform more democratised.
33 per cent money grabbed by 1 per cent creators
A report by the Washington Post, published in November last year, cited independent researcher Tom Hollands' 2020 report on OnlyFans payments data. The report claims that the top 1 per cent of the OnlyFans accounts make 33 per cent of the money. Meanwhile, the majority of the accounts make less than $145 a month.
"OnlyFans declined to provide its own analysis, and Hollands said the company has since made it harder to access this data or conduct new research," the Washington Post reported.