OnlyFans is a popular website that provides internet content subscriptions and is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Along with content subscriptions, deserving creators get a decent earning pathway, turning their part-time hustle into a full-time profession. According to Reddit, content creators get direct funding from their fans with pay-per-view features.
Timothy Stokely (founder) started OnlyFans’ journey in November 2016. Initially, OnlyFans did not get much response. However, later, OnlyFans got an instant boost that made it global. Below, I share an article explaining the complete six years of OnlyFans.
How Successful Is OnlyFans – A Six-Year Complete Journey?
A British entrepreneur, Tim Stokely, founded OnlyFans in 2016. He took a £10,000 loan from his father for this venture. Although he had done previous projects, including Glam Worship (2011), Customs4U, and 121with, none of them gave him significant returns. For this reason, Tim took one last chance with OnlyFans.
He launched OnlyFans to give a platform to creators marginalized on other social media platforms. Tim did not know what output he would get from OnlyFans, but he focused on understanding the creator-fan relationship deeply. He developed a community of creators struggling to find their feet on existing social media platforms.
Unfortunately, after three years of launch, the company faced the threat of having all live entertainment shut down. Luckily, OnlyFans gained exposure and found a good chance to enter the market. This analysis proved worthwhile because, by the end of 2020, the company had grown its revenue by 540 percent and made $400 million.
Similarly, in 2021, OnlyFans increased its earnings, achieving around $1.2 billion in net revenue. However, after that, three-quarters of the company was owned by Leonid Radvinsky (a Chicago-based entrepreneur) and Guy Stokely (Tim’s father). Later, in December 2021, Stokely became CEO, and he plans to pave the way for his vision.
Stokely prepared a sticky referral program that incentivized content creators to invite others from their social and professional circles. The program offers a 5 percent cut up to $1 million from the referred creator’s earnings for anyone who refers others to the platform with no limitations. Following this, OnlyFans grew instantly.
After such success, OnlyFans has scheduled a new plan for more growth. They are aiming to reach a valuation of over $1 billion. They also want to enter stand-up comedy, tarot readings, DJing, gaming, and more. These are the most strategic incidents that happened with Stokely, and his last chance turned into a massive hit.