Whereas I understand that the world gained’t magically reset when the clock strikes midnight on New Yr’s Eve, I’m nonetheless counting down the times till this cursed 12 months is over. I imply, the universe has to be operating out of ammo to hit us with, proper? To date 2020’s seen an ongoing global pandemic, the spread of murder hornets, a fire tornado, widespread political and social unrest, and the president and his supporters calling to deliver again public executions.
However for no less than one firm, all these months of individuals caught quarantined of their houses has made 2020 one among its most profitable years on document. OnlyFans, a subscription-based social media platform the place creators cost followers to entry their content material, has gone viral over the 12 months largely to person testimonials on TikTok and shoutouts from high-profile celebrities like Beyoncé and Michael B. Jordan, amongst others. It payments itself as a method for creators, particularly those that have already constructed up a following on different social media platforms, to monetize their content material and cater on to fan requests with customized video and photographs.
The platform, which is open to all creators however most carefully related to grownup leisure, generated greater than $2 billion in gross sales this 12 months, the corporate’s founder and CEO Tim Stokely stated in a current Bloomberg interview. He claimed OnlyFans is “revolutionizing creator and fan relations.”
“I assumed, ‘What in the event you might construct a platform that works like these social platforms already on the market however with a key distinction being the cost button?’” he advised the outlet, including: “It really works as a terrific bolt-on to free social media. One in all our promoting pitches is, ‘Look, you’ve obtained one million followers on Instagram, if simply 1% of them pay for Solely Followers…’”
OnlyFans presently has greater than 1 million creators that collectively rake in roughly $200 million per 30 days, and its userbase of 85 million is rising by as a lot as 500,000 every single day, in line with Stokely. To place these figures into perspective, in 2019, one other main subscription-based content material platform, Patreon, had 100,000 creators and simply surpassed $1 billion in payouts after six years in enterprise, per Techcrunch.
OnlyFans takes a roughly 20% reduce from what its creators earn, so the corporate stands to make greater than $400 million in annual internet gross sales this 12 months, Bloomberg reported. Whereas it’s been round since 2016, its progress has ballooned since March because the pandemic’s unfold pushed extra folks to remain at dwelling. Per the New York Times, the corporate reported 3.7 million new sign-ups in only a month—a 75% improve— with 60,000 of them being new creators. OnlyFans noticed one other big visitors spike of around 15% in Could after Beyoncé name-dropped it in a remix of “Savage” by rapper Megan Thee Stallion, a music that mockingly additionally went viral on TikTok.
Stokely stated the concept to launch OnlyFans was the fruits of a number of of his lesser-known on-line enterprise ventures constructed round giving creators a spot to promote their content material, one among which was particularly geared towards fetishists, which ought to come as no shock given OnlyFans’ fame as a hub for NSFW content material.
In its growth this 12 months, OnlyFans has additionally began seeing a greater diversity of creators coming to its platform, from musicians like Cardi B and Swae Lee to TikTok stars and different celebrities. As talked about earlier than, the actor Michael B. Jordan of Creed and Black Panther fame has stated he plans to make an OnlyFans account and leverage his current win as Folks Journal’s Sexiest Man Alive this 12 months to boost cash for a brand new enterprise enterprise: a barber school.
What’s subsequent on the horizon? In his interview with Bloomberg, Stokely stated that OnlyFans plans to arrange places of work in Asia and Latin America and is engaged on a streaming service, OFTV, to host unique content material from its creators, which may very well be something from interviews to full-blown sequence. We’ve reached out to the corporate for additional particulars on the service’s format and potential launch date, and can replace with their response.
I’m not shocked to see that OnlyFans made beaucoup bucks this 12 months after seeing so many individuals discuss it on my timeline these previous few months, although $2 billion in gross sales is method increased than something I’d have guessed. I feel its success says one thing concerning the human situation: Regardless of how a lot the world burns round them, folks will at all times be thirsty.
