OnlyFans’ CEO wants you to know the platform hosts plenty of creators on the platform who keep their pants on.
“We are a platform for all kinds of content creators,” Amrapali Gan said at Fortune’s 2023 Most Powerful Women Next Gen summit Wednesday. Gan was the company’s chief marketing and communications officer until she got the CEO job in December of 2021—at the ripe of 36.
Since then, she's tried to broaden the public perception of OnlyFans with a consistent not-so-racy narrative—she spoke with Fortune back in January about her goals to rebrand the subscription social media platform that has become known for its adult content. It's a balance of maintaining it as a space that empowers adult content creators but also has room for everyone from chefs to race car drivers.
The platform is for "anyone who has a community and wants to create a community and also to be able to engage with them without the distractions that you will find elsewhere," she said at the summit, explaining that OnlyFans has no ads or algorithms. "It's truly about the creator and fan connection."
The cultural zeitgeist that stemmed from the company’s mention in Megan Thee Stallion and Beyonce’s “Savage Remix” (It goes: "On that demon time, she might start a OnlyFans”) verse helped the platform garner mainstream attention for its "spicy" content, Gan said, but there are other non-spicy offerings like comedian Whitney Cummings’ OnlyFans TV show.
Of course, these talking points are likely a factor of knowing her audience. When moderator and Fortune's Polina Pompliano asked the 200-person audience who had an OnlyFans, not one person raised their hand.
The OnlyFans team has remained relatively close-lipped about their finances, porn/non-porn content breakdown, and leadership dynamics.
What the company did share for Fortune's profile seems to show that the platform is more than a flash in the pan. It earned $932 million in revenue in 2021, up 160% from 2020. Of that revenue, $324.7 million was after-tax profit, a 575% leap.
The revenue model works by taking a 20% cut from creator subscriptions. In 2021, two million-plus creators took in nearly $4 billion in earnings from 188 million users. The company has paid out $10 billion to its creators over its six-year lifetime.
While Gan underscores the simplicity and success of this revenue split with creators, she is open to new opportunities. “I've always wanted to be looking at what else is out there to connect with our community,” said Gan at the Summit.
