OnlyFans creators earned $3.86 billion in 2021, over double the amount of the previous year
The company estimates that in 2021, content producers that sold their wares on the subscription platform OnlyFans made nearly $4 billion (£3.47 billion). The website, which is well-known for offering sexual content, brought in pre-tax revenue of $433 million in 2018, which is an increase from the site’s earnings of $61 million in 2020. During the course of the outbreak, there was a rise in the number of users on OnlyFans. On the other hand, it has been criticized for not doing more to stop minors from selling sexual content on its platform. According to the corporation, its strategy for ensuring users’ safety and moderating their content is continuously being improved. OnlyFans is a global community that started in 2016 and now has over 2 million producers and 220 million members.
When compared to the previous year, the year 2021 saw a 128% increase in the number of fans using the site, while the number of creators saw a 34% increase over the same time period. Earnings for content creators were significantly higher than what they had been the year before. As their cut, OnlyFans keeps 20% of the total amount paid to its content authors.
“We are empowering creators to monetize their material and have true control over it,” stated Amrapali Gan, CEO. “We will continue to invest in the creative economy by improving safety, expanding original OFTV [the company’s free streaming platform], and growing our community of creators and fans,” she added.
The website gives musicians, people who specialize in health, and celebrities the ability to charge their fans for exclusive advice and visual content. However, it is most well-known for the fact that it enables content producers like porn stars and sex workers to receive payment for the sale of sexually graphic photographs and videos. Last year, the company made the announcement—in response to demand from its banking partners—that all content deemed to be sexually explicit would be deleted from the platform. However, a week later, OnlyFans reversed the policy update after getting a negative reaction from its users.
An investigation conducted by BBC News in 2021 found that young people had created profiles on the website by using fake identification documents. Following the publication of the study, England’s children’s commissioner remarked that more has to be done by OnlyFans to prevent individuals under the age of 18 from selling pornographic photographs on the platform. OnlyFans responded to the investigation by stating that the accounts had been terminated and that all active memberships had been flagged and refunded. Additionally, OnlyFans confirmed that all refunds had been processed.