Sex Sells: Stripping Down The Economics Of OnlyFans

Throughout history, innovation has walked hand-in-hand with pornography.

Almost immediately after the advent of the printing press, mass-produced smut began circulating like wildfire; and less than two years after the first public screening of a motion picture circa 1895, the first adult film was released.

The world of X-rated entertainment invariably shaped the 20th century’s format wars.

When, for example, Betamax shied away from being associated with porn VHS tapes replaced them as the mainstream video recording; and it’s widely believed the adult entertainment industry’s preference for DVDs over Laserdisc led to a similar fate, despite the latter being considered superior technology.

Then there’s the lifechanging matter of the internet.

Everything from banner ads, affiliate marketing, and search engine optimisation (SEO); to online credit card transactions, data compression, and video streaming has been “pioneered” by the adult entertainment industry (or at the very least, owes something to porn).

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So it’s rather unsurprising to learn about the staggering monetary figures attached to something as revolutionary as OnlyFans.

Buoyed by the same pandemic-era boom that sent the now-floundering Cameo skyward, Fenix International’s content platform has become a modern behemoth that’s overshadowed established titans like Aylo (formerly MindGeek) — owner of PornHub, RedTube, Brazzers, and more — with twice the reported earnings.

Boasting over 300 million registered users, accrued in the span of five years, OnlyFans has increased gross annual revenue from US$300 million to US$6.3 billion. 60% of the platform’s consumer spending is now accounted for by request purchases.

This has been the key source of its growth, and the numbers paint a pretty clear picture: transactional spending has climbed by 70% (or US$1.6 billion) since 2021 versus the additional 9% (or US$227 million) enjoyed by base subscriptions within the same timeframe. Bespoke, as they say, is always better.

A generous revenue split agreement is yet another factor in OnlyFans’ monstrous growth. Creators are entitled to an 80% cut: far superior to the industry benchmark enforced by production companies, agencies, and so forth.

Since 2019, OnlyFans creators have pocketed US$15 billion with US$5.3 billion paid out in 2023 alone (+19% year-over-year). For context, what creators collected last year exceeded both the NBA’s and English Premier League’s total player payrolls, respectively.

Couple this with the benefit of unprecedented autonomy; a safe haven from those predatory types who are an endemic part of the traditional porn industry; as well as a direct pipeline to consumers, and it isn’t hard to see where everything went right.

There is, however, a crucial caveat to all this wealth generation.

While the headlines routinely report on the eye-watering paycheques of high-profile names such as Bella Thorne, Bhad Bhabie, Cardi B, and former David Dobrik sidekick Corinna Kopf — alongside the jaw-dropping US$1 billion in dividends paid to 75% majority owner Leonid Radvinsky — this isn’t a uniform reality for its two million strong creator base.

On both a surveyed and mathematical average, your run-of-a-mill OnlyFans creator grosses less than US$2,000 annually (and closer to US$1,500 after the platform takes its clip) from a rather standard tally of approximately 21 fans.

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According to data previously displayed on the internal creator dashboard, the Top 0.1% rakes in 15 times what the average creator from the Top 1% receives; and roughly one hundred times more than those in the Top 10%.

Expressed more tangibly, only 300-something creators earn over US$1 million per year and just 16,000-odd accounts have the privilege of annual income above US$50,000 per year; while everyone else within this ongoing distribution is simply forced to make do.

In other words, consider sticking it out in your day job. That ring-lit career change might not be as lucrative as you imagined.

But that being said, there’s no denying the entire operation’s wild profitability.

In terms of net revenue per employee, OnlyFans recorded US$30.95 million per head (42), outperforming the following household names by staying lean and relying on the labour of independent contractors:

• Craigslist
  US$13.88 million per employee (50)
• Netflix
  US$2.59 million per employee (13,000)
• Apple
  US$2.38 million per employee (161,000)
• Meta
  US$1.99 million per employee (67,300)
• Google
  US$1.67 million per employee (182,500)
• Microsoft
  US$1.1 million per employee (221,000)

That’s considerable bang for your buck — so to speak.