Business boomed last year for OnlyFans, the social media site that has become an established home for creators selling sexually explicit content and engaging privately with followers.
The U.K.-based company on Thursday announced financial results for the year ended Nov. 30, 2021. OnlyFans’ net revenue grew 160%, to $932 million, and the company had pre-tax profits of $433 million (up from $61 million in 2020), its biggest yearly growth in profits.
onlyFans creators earned $3.86 billion in 2021, an increase of 115% from the year prior, bringing the company’s payments to creators to more than $8 billion since its 2016 founding. Gross revenue (i.e., fan payments net of taxes) also more than doubled, to $4.8 billion, for the year ended November 2021. onlyFans creators keep 80% of the revenue generated by their accounts, with the company taking a 20% cut.
The number of creators on the platform increased 34% last year, to 2.16 million, while the number of onlyFans users jumped 128% to 188 million.
“Our creator-first approach to building the world’s safest social-media platform propelled onlyFans to a record-breaking 2021,” onlyFans CEO Amrapali “Ami” Gan said in a statement. “We are empowering creators to monetize their content and have real control over it.”
Gan, who previously was OnlyFans’ chief marketing officer, took on the CEO role afterfounder Tim Stokely resigned in December 2021.
Looking forward, onlyFans said, one of its strategic priorities is maintaining and promoting its brand “outside of traditional verticals” — particularly in new markets and by promoting OFTV, its free streaming service that excludes pornography. While continuing to support adult performers, onlyFans also has made a concerted effort to recruit mainstream celebrities to its platform. It recently ordered a reality show fromBritish reality TV starsChloe, Demi and Frankie Sims after their exit from “The only Way Is Essex” for OFTV.
The company also said it would further develop its PR and government relations strategy “to address misconceptions” about OnlyFans.
In 2021, model and TV personality Blac Chyna was the top-earning creator on OnlyFans, pulling in an estimated $20 million per month, according to research service Statista. Actor-singer Bella Thorne took the No. 2 spot with an estimated $11 million per month, followed by rapper Cardi B with $9.34 million per month, according to Statista.
Last summer, the company prompted an outcry from adult performers afterannouncing plans to ban pornography, citing the need to comply with policies of its banking partners. A week later,the site reversed itself, dropping the plans to ban sexually explicit material after saying it “secured assurances necessary to support our diverse creator community.”
