Loneliness is lucrative. Leonid Radvinsky, the secretive owner of OnlyFans, received a $700 million (£523m) windfall last year, while the platform’s top tier of content creators — mostly women — earn millions annually. With $7.2 billion in annual gross revenue and just 46 employees, OnlyFans may be one of the most profitable companies on the planet. The site is viewed as a porn-centric hub where men pay women for sexual content, whereas the company claims it’s giving creators and their 378 million fans (greater than the population of the US) something more: an opportunity to forge “authentic connections”.
It’s an entire economy built on loneliness. It’s digital feudalism with OnlyFans as the landlord collecting rent on human connection.
