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OnlyFans

Example user-interface of website OnlyFans Type Web Application Launch Date 2016 Status Active Product Line Content Sharing Service Platform Website Website Official Site

OnlyFans is an online content-sharing social platform established in 2016. According to its founder, British entrepreneur Tim Stokely, the site was developed to monetize social media content free of advertisers. Creators are given the ability to paywall content by setting monthly subscription rates for premium followers, and in return, OnlyFans receives 20% of their total revenue. Although creators can upload any kind of content such as music and comedy, it is widely considered to be a platform for sex workers.

Background

Company Info & User Data Projections

OnlyFans is currently a privately-traded company owned by CEO and founder Tim Stokely. It boasts more than 100 million registered users and pays more than $3 billion annually to its creators. Tim Stokely estimates that the site gains 200 thousand new users and 7 to 8 thousand new creators every day. According to online databases of OnlyFans statistics, approximately 1.54% of users are content creators while 98.46% are fans.. The most liked account globally is @omgcosplay with about 3.21 million likes, the most subscribed account with 236.6 thousand fans is @HAMMY_TV and the top earning profile of about $20 million is @blacchyna. XSRUS, a strategic business consultant and analyst, reports that the average monthly earning from OnlyFans is $180. They observe that the top 1% of accounts share 33% of all monthly revenue while the top 10% of accounts make up 73%.

Functionality

Users of OnlyFans can interact with the application similarly to other social media platforms. The website offers standard content filtering, sharing, moderating, and reporting functionality. New content can be posted as text, images, videos, and/or audio and can be liked, commented on, or the creator can be given monetary tips by their fans. Posts are modeled after the “carousel format”, popularized most notably by Instagram, but focus on highlighting creators instead. Additionally, seasoned creators can customize their business model and the level of fan interaction they have. Monetization opportunities include additional paywalls on content, freemium models, and discounts on bundles. Creators can also message fans individually or collectively without revealing which. This feature in particular can help form stronger connections between subscribers and creators, which in turn helps creators earn more money. OnlyFans encourages its creators to prioritize fostering relationships with fans as “tipping is a key way free OnlyFans accounts earn”.

Alternative Uses

Besides pornography, a common form of content on OnlyFans, many users utilize the platform for other ventures such as teaching dance moves, gambling, and cooking. As a result of the site's recent increase in users during the pandemic, OnlyFans advertisers to newcomers as predominantly sex work. Creators utilize the app for many reasons and a growing percentage of them use the app for financial support. Many people, including OnlyFans creators, were financially and psychologically impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, forcing some creators to use OnlyFans as a primary source of income. Marcela Alonso is a public figure who gained notoriety for using her OnlyFans earnings to pay bills and care for her children. She, like many others, saw an economic opportunity to capitalize on high demand by raising prices, which ultimately raises her income.

Dr. Alex George is another unconventional, popular user on OnlyFans. He's using OnlyFans to start an initiative for mental health support. Dr. George’s OnlyFans account is saturated with advice and engaging content targeted towards followers who are over 18 years old. His approach to paywalls is removing them from his profile completely to make his content accessible for all. Dr. George also opened himself to be a resource to others through the instant messaging feature on the app.

Similar Platforms

While OnlyFans gained massive popularity recently, there are other platforms that sex workers and models use to sell their premium content. Since platforms like Instagram and Facebook closely monitor nudity, some people are turning to private Snapchat stories, Google Drive folder access, and direct messages on Twitter to share their content with paying subscribers. Other platforms that allow users to post adult content, more similar to OnlyFans, are Patreon and Fancentro. Both of these alternative platforms allow subscribers to pay for a user's premium content. Some models also accept payments over Venmo for access to their content through private Snapchat stories or other methods

Cultural Effects

Mainstream Appeal

Though the company was created in 2016, OnlyFans experienced exponential growth in 2020. It rose from paying $64 million to creators and having 7.5 million subscribers in 2019, to paying over $300 million and having 85 million subscribers in 2020. Many have speculated that the COVID-19 pandemic unwittingly spurred the mobile-app gig-economy due to rising levels of unemployment. Loneliness from social distancing and isolation is another commonly cited reason for OnlyFans’ recent success. The social media platform has also grown in popularity thanks to attention from mainstream media and celebrities. A growing list of famous users who have already flocked to the platform includes Tyga, Cardi B., Bella Thorne, and Jordyn Woods. Megan Thee Stallion’s Savage remix featuring Beyonce also lyrically references the social media platform: “Hips TikTok when I dance/On that Demon Time, she might start an OnlyFans (OnlyFans)”.

Controversy & Criticism

In spite of its commercial successes, OnlyFans has encountered controversies and criticisms as well. In August of 2020, Bella Thorne joined OnlyFans and broke the site's records by receiving more than $1 million in one day. She also broke her alleged promise for nude photos, resulting in OnlyFans capping tips for private messages and pay-per-view content at $100 and $50 respectively, rather than the $200 previously. Like many other celebrities, Bella has faced backlash for gentrifying the platform, diverting much-needed attention and resources from sex workers to her. OnlyFans has received praise for overturning power imbalances in the sex worker industry, giving creators newfound agency in their careers. However, as noted by XSRUS, OnlyFans favors those who already have established social capital, creating a false illusion of achievable success. This income and class divide between organic top creators and celebrities is another widespread criticism of OnlyFans.

The long-term, ethical implications of normalizing pornographic content creation has unwittingly sparked new life into cultural debates regarding promiscuity. Supporters of OnlyFans argue that it could sexually liberate and empower women in a society that oppresses and victimizes their sexuality. On the other hand, critics of OnlyFans argue that it could lower moral standards and spread content permanently throughout the Internet. The consequences of increased porn use replacing human connection is a widespread debate typically associated with OnlyFans as well.

Ethics

Data Collection

OnlyFans collects a substantial amount of data about account holders, including names, social security numbers, drivers license numbers, information about personal property and purchases, biometric information obtained through a third-party authentication services, internet browsing and search history, professional work information, and "audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information," which refers to any of the content created and shared on the site. Creators have expressed concerns regarding their sensitive information and premium content being leaked on other platforms by subscribers, meaning their content was shared without providing adequate payment to the creator and was freely accessible on the internet. OnlyFans has not had their servers hacked, but rather, subscribers compile content from their personal subscriptions on the site and share it through other platforms, exposing a serious breach in OnlyFans' privacy measures.

Data Scraping

OnlyFans' user agreement states that users cannot repost content viewed or purchased on the platform, however, this has not prevented data scrapers from illegally acquiring data. Data scraping is the process of extracting data from one computer program to another. This technique is not unique to OnlyFans, and while this tool can be useful, it is a major threat to content creators. After acquiring data without the consent of the creator, hackers can repost the content to free websites, resell it, and/or use it to exploit users. Since OnlyFans is primarily used by sex workers, creator content is valuable, not only fiscally but also extremely personal, which is attracting more and more hackers. When content is leaked, there is no incentive to purchase the same content, which can ultimately have serious financial ramifications for creators who use OnlyFans as their primary source of income.

Stolen content has been seen on free porn websites such as Pornhub, YouPorn, XVideos, and xHamster, where it was found as easily as searching the keyword "OnlyFans". Pornhub has removed certain keywords, but said they cannot remove OnlyFans as a keyword since OnlyFans creators can upload subscription content to expand their audience. Additionally, Reddit threads and Discord servers have been found with folders of stolen content and the sale of scraping softwares. Both companies claim to have removed these accounts.

While applications such as Facebook and Linkedin have strong technical and legal actions in place to make it more difficult to scrape, OnlyFans does not have any specific measures similar to these. Fortunately, they have an anti-piracy team that issues DMCA takedowns for its creators, with a 75% success rate this year. While this is beneficial to users, this requires knowledge of the leaked content, which can be difficult to find given the scope of the internet.

Age Verification

A documentary called #Nudes4Sale reported that a third of Twitter profiles that advertised their nudes, typically sold through OnlyFans, were minors. Minors can join OnlyFans using a fake ID. In response to this potential breach of OnlyFans policy, which prohibits minors from creating accounts, OnlyFans added a verification process which requires new account holders to verify a picture of themselves with the ID they used to join the site. Aside from this safeguard, OnlyFans relies on user reports to identify and disable the creator accounts of minors.