In the past 10 years, OnlyFans has paid out $30 billion to its creators. And while most people still associate it with the sort of giggle-inducing adult content that put the platform on the map, you might be surprised by who is cashing in now.
Take OnlyMarms, for instance. After federal funding grants dried up, a group of researchers who study yellow-bellied marmots started an account to share decidedly G-rated content—and have raised more than $150,000 since July. As the pool of creators continues to grow and diversify—the London-based company now attracts the likes of comedians, athletes, celebrities, chefs, and business experts—it’s becoming a sort of “Shopify for content,” according to CEO Kelly Blair.
Just as it did with the adult film industry, OnlyFans plans to bring that same disruptive spirit to other areas of its business, looking for more opportunities to provide tools that both well-established and unknown creators can use to build a business around their content.
“OnlyFans has always been about challenging perceptions,” Blair said on Thursday while speaking at the Fast Company Innovation Festival in New York. “It’s by necessity that we innovate because we don’t always have access to the straight route to something.”
Those innovations have seen the company branch out into OFTV, an on-demand streaming service featuring content that’s safe for work and allows fans to see a different side of creators. More recently, OnlyFans has outlined plans to expand into the financial services space to help its creator community, Blair added.
NEEDED: A CERTAIN BOLDNESS
Even as OnlyFans continues to grow—with a creator community that’s now 5 million strong and more than 430 million fan accounts on the platform—Blair acknowledges that it won’t be for everyone, and that’s okay. The platform is a particularly good fit for people who think about their content as a business and want to grow their personal brand, she said.
“You do have to have, I would say, a certain boldness to be able to be on OnlyFans, whether it’s in a business context or whether it’s in a creator context or in a media context, because you have to be able to step into that and own why you’re on the platform,” Blair said. “If you want to be disruptive, you want to be a bit provocative, it’s a good place to go.”