I used to think of OnlyFans as a digital red-light district, a platform synonymous with adult content and little else. But as I dug into its mechanics for this piece—spurred by whispers of an $8 billion potential sale—I realized it’s not just a hub for X-rated material. It’s a business juggernaut, a lean operation that’s outpacing tech giants like Alphabet and Meta in profitability.
With over 4 million creators and 300 million users, OnlyFans has cracked a code that’s eluded the online adult industry for decades: how to make porn pay. And in doing so, it’s quietly teaching mainstream social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok a thing or two about the future of monetization, safety, and user trust.
This isn’t just about smut. It’s about a platform that’s reshaping how we think about content, community, and cash flow in the digital age. OnlyFans is a mirror held up to the likes of Meta and ByteDance, reflecting what they could become—and what they’re failing to do. Let’s unpack the data, the trends, and the lessons, with a few charts to make sense of it all.
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