How OnlyFans Changed the Internet’s Oldest Industry

Absolutely. First of all, I want to say thank you for having us here. It's great to be able to speak with you and the audience and really talk about the business. And before I get to your question, I really, I saw everyone's hands go up where yes, you've heard of OnlyFans, you probably have an idea of who we are, what the business is, but I kind of want to go into what our company is and our business model before jumping into everything. Where I saw a lot of hands go up, thank you for those who already are on the platform as fans or creators. So OnlyFans was started in 2016 and we really were meant to be a platform for all content creators to be able to monetize content that you're normally sharing for free on the other platforms that are out there. Due to our liberal content policies, we kind of went off in one direction, meaning very popular among our adult creator community. And that's amazing and I'm very proud to represent our adult creators as well as our home to chefs, comedians, race car drivers, we'll get more into those later on. But with that, you know, we've continued on this exponential growth period, especially during 2020. And we're so proud to be this inclusive platform. And for every dollar that we earn, creators earn. For, you know, referencing the stats that you rattled off, they're all very exciting and impressive, but what matters is that creators are able to have a safe place to share their content, monetize it in a way they just can't elsewhere. And that's where we really have been a disruptor in the creator economy and something that I'm extremely proud to represent. And looking at, you know, where we were when that proposed AUP change happened, it's something that I took that as a major, major learning experience. It was a proposed change, yes. We did end up rolling it back about a week later. At that point I was a CMO of the business, so I was very much there on the front lines. And most importantly, I was connecting with our creators. I heard from them, I heard every single thing that came in, and it was extremely powerful to, you know, hear their feedback. And that uproar is what, you know, allowed us to be able to be the safest and most inclusive platform. Our creator community was heard, and that's, you know, why to this day I make it a very strong point to be, you know, proud to represent adult content creators, but both all the other creators who have been able to make OnlyFans their home and have a safe place to express themselves. That's something that's just not happening elsewhere on the internet, and that's again why we are a disruptor of the creator economy and why we're here today.

Exactly. The biggest feedback we get from our creator community is that they're like, 'Oh, everyone's so nice and so welcoming and supportive.' It's like, well yeah, why wouldn't they be? These are your biggest fans who've taken that extra effort to subscribe to you. Someone's not going to do that and then send you a mean message. They're there because they want to connect with you and they want to have access to your content and that real emotional connection you get with a creator that you just can't get elsewhere. Think of all the times, you know, someone gets a DM on any other platform, it's probably lost in spam and bots and things like that. Whereas on OnlyFans, it's only real people who are interacting as long as they are over 18.

It's actually more than that now.

We've pretty much already made that a number of times. Yeah, that's where we've been very vocal, and I'm personally friends with many of our creators and connect with them, adult creators, other creators as well. And you know, again, that experience was such a learning experience. And looking at our community, we have over 2 million creators, that's over 2 million small businesses on the platform, and that weighs on me. And that's something that I keep in my heart every single day when it comes to doing this job.

Yeah, awesome. I think as well the other thing is like actually when you talk about the creative community as a whole, we look at the way that content is consumed on the internet and the growth of the creator economy. Creators deserve to get paid for what they do, right? Creators who put content out there, whether it's adult content, whether it's writing content, whether it's music, whether it's comedy, they deserve to get paid for the work that they're doing. OnlyFans is a platform that's what we exist for, that's what we're there for, and that's why we're able to be creator-first. So you're absolutely right that financial inclusion piece is incredibly important for adult content creators, but it should be important for every creator on the internet. And that's when we talk about being an inclusive platform, it's like we want other creators to wake up to the opportunity that the adult content creators went, 'Aha, this is a great business model, I like this platform.' Yeah, and we would love to see everybody else in the creative community who's over 18 and wants to abide by our terms of service, that they would come and join OnlyFans and monetize their content in that way. That's why we're here and that's why we love talking to the creative community. And it's also, we're a platform where we don't categorize creators. There's so many platforms you have to check this, you have to fill this out, and you decide, you know, I'm this type of creator. On OnlyFans, everyone's over 18, they're empowered to share content that they feel comfortable sharing. So on one day you could share cooking content, the next day you can share fitness content, maybe you're sharing spicy content, whether it's cooking or make-up, it could be either. But it's up to, you know, people are multi-hyphenates, you know, why are we putting creators in whatever category they are typically put in? And it's the same with adult content creators, they have many other interests, many other things that they share on their platform, and that's what OnlyFans allows them to do as well as with all content creators. So really it's up to every creator, and what's important is that creators are getting paid for their content. And OnlyFans was truly before its time, it was founded in 2016 when creators are doing brand deals and sponsored posts. Now creators are able to really take back that control, and that's what's important and that's what's really meaningful about the platform, is it's giving creators a way to monetize their content, connect with their community.

Like, and that's the thing, so how do you break it down? We'd have to look at every single transaction on the platform and assign it, categorizing creators. And also, we're not collecting data, we're not selling data, there's no ads on the platform. And the reason that other platforms do that is because that's, you know, part of their business model. Where our business model is simple and straightforward, where it's an 80/20 split, all in favor of the creator.

Yeah, it's about accountability as well, like fans and creators being accountable for their behavior online, which is important. And being in a position that we're in and taking the view that we take on content moderation, which is that we review every single thing that gets shared, we review all the direct messages. There's no end-to-end encryption on the platform in that sense, but it's not for the purposes of monetization, it's for the purposes of safety. And that's why our creators and our fans are willing to, they know that we're very transparent that this is the reason why we do this. And it means that we can keep people safe. It means that if people are abusive on the platform, they're off and they're not coming back on again. They're not able to just like set up a new account, set up a new email address and like change their identity overnight and suddenly come back and be horrible to people. Like that doesn't happen on our platform. And we think that that makes it a very, very unique place on the internet, particularly amongst other social media platforms.

Yeah, I mean, so one of the other things that we've done is we have instituted an independent voluntary monitorship around our safety compliance program. So that's like if I'm going to mark my homework, I'm going to give myself an A, right? I'm going to be like, I am awesome, I'm doing all the things that are great in terms of safety, we are smashed out of the ballpark. But actually getting somebody who is external to come in and review your controls, to review your program, to give you feedback about what they're seeing elsewhere in the market, and then for us to change, adapt, evolve, always get better, those are the things that really set us apart from other platforms in that way. We're not going to sit back and just say we're going to wait until we're made to do something. So in terms of legislation, it's not something that like we're up at night worrying about because we feel like we're always pushing the envelope in terms of what's possible and leading our peers. Frankly, we've led in terms of age verification. Like if you look at, you know, a lot of other platforms now and what they're trying to do around age verification, we've led the way in terms of that. We've been getting our creators to provide information to verify their date of birth for a very long time, and now we're just seeing other platforms starting to catch up on that because of the criticism that they faced. And we'll continue to be an industry leader in safety.

It's another way that we're a disruptor. I was doing a lot behind the scenes with our former CEO before taking on this role, so I had exposure to, you know, various different parts of the company. I was doing a lot, and I, you know, I really learned and was able to take a lot of that knowledge and a lot of those lessons and apply them every day into my role. And that's why I really make the effort to connect with our creator community and to talk to people like yourself and everyone here about the platform, because there's just so many misconceptions about OnlyFans. When, you know, people think, 'Oh, you can just sign up and suddenly see a bunch of spicy content,' where no, you cannot, because of all the safety controls we have. And you don't see content unless you subscribe to a creator that's putting out that type of content. So you might see again a chef, someone's doing spicy content, a boxer. It's truly become such an incredible hub for creators to have this safe space and home, and I'm very proud to be leading the organization as we're kind of going into this new chapter of the business. And with different investments that I've been making, OFTV for example, which I mentioned earlier, that's our free streaming platform and app which is available on Apple, Android, Smart TVs, and it's been another platform for creators to be able to have a voice, for fans to get to know, 'Oh, who is that? Let me learn a little bit about them before I then go and subscribe to their OnlyFans profile.' And it's also a place you get to see the range of content creators that are on OnlyFans. It's only available to OnlyFans creators to submit content to, which of course we moderate, because we love to moderate. And it's been a great outlet, and that's where we're doing different investments into original content. And on some of our original content series, you're going to see adult content creators, you're going to see music artists, you're going to see fitness professionals, and they could all be in the same show. For example, we have a cooking show called 'This is Fire,' and Kazumi, who's a very well-known adult content creator, took part in the first season. She's going to be on season two, which we recently were filming, and that's, you know, that's really exciting to put people from so many different backgrounds together in the same place to be able to kind of have a unique experience.

Yeah, people are amazed that we use the platform, but we use it and we message creators through it and they message us, of course.

I don't, OnlyFans has really become part of the cultural zeitgeist, and that's something that's really exciting and cool. And a lot of times the media takes OnlyFans and spins its own narrative with it, and that's something that's not in our control. But what is in our control is how we connect with our creator community, how we provide a safe place for them, and how we provide opportunities for them. And OnlyFans TV is another way that we're able to do that, where creators have a place to share additional content, express who they are. And again, it's just only available for OnlyFans creators, so that's again something special that we're able to offer our community. And we are investing into content there. A lot of our original content features OnlyFans creators, all of our content features OnlyFans creators, because it's important that we reflect the community that's been able to, you know, really take off on the platform with over 2 million creators, 220 million users. I feel like we're at just the beginning of what OnlyFans is, and that's really exciting.