OnlyFans

In November 2016, Tim Stokely launched OnlyFans from London with a £10,000 loan from his father. The platform let performers charge subscribers for direct access to their content, a simple idea that reshaped the creator economy. By 2018, Leonid Radvinsky, who had previously run a pornographic livestream company, bought 75% of the business for a sum that reflected cumulative profits of less than $1 million.

The COVID-19 pandemic turned OnlyFans into a juggernaut. Millions of people, locked down and looking for income or connection, flocked to the site. By 2023, the company reported $1.30 billion in revenue, with 67% coming from one-off purchases rather than subscriptions, a sign that fans increasingly bought content piece by piece. Creators kept 80% of earnings, and the platform processed roughly $7 billion in annual payment volume, according to CEO Keily Blair.

Blair, a lawyer who took over from Stokely in 2022, runs a remarkably lean operation. As of 2023, OnlyFans counted just 42 full-time employees, supplemented by hundreds of contractors. The company's per-employee revenue hit $31 million in 2023, 13 to 28 times the rates at Amazon, Apple, Google, or Microsoft. Operating profit per employee reached $15.5 million. Since 2019, the two owners have collected $1.1 billion in dividends, including $472 million in 2023 alone.

OnlyFans has also pushed beyond adult content. OFTV, launched as a separate platform for non-explicit material, now features original series like the volleyball competition Perfect Set. High-profile creators from Cardi B to Denise Richards to Tyga maintain accounts that offer no pornography, broadening the brand's reach. Yet the platform's identity remains tightly tied to adult work, a fact that sparked a near-crisis in 2021 when the company briefly announced a ban on sexually explicit material under pressure from financial partners. The decision was reversed within days after an intense backlash from creators who depended on the site for their livelihoods. [edit]