If historians look back on the Coronapandemie in about twenty years, it will certainly be about the freedom -restricting measures, the vaccinations, the conspiracy thinking that took a flight and the polarization that causes uncertain times.
But anyone who views the figures of online platform Only fans in that period can also speak of a pornandemia. Sex workers crawled behind the webcam en masse, because physical contact was not allowed by a risk of infection. And not only they – suddenly this world of online adult entertainment was entered by students, mothers, couples and celebrities From all kinds of allooi. Customers paid en masse for the often explicit content of the creators On the website; Photos, videos and live streams. Fans with makers were also able to chat and, for example, erotic requests.
Before the Pandemie 348,000 creators were active on the platform, in 2020 it quadrupled to over 1.6 million. And also the number of customers – people who were bored through the pandemia at home – rose enormously: from more than 13 million in 2019 to more than 82 million in the first pandemic year. In 2020, the Thuiszitters spent more than 326 million euros.
Earnings model
The revenue model of Onlyfans is very simple: the company collects 20 percent of what fans pay to those creators. The profit from the platform exploded through the pandemic: from more than 5 million euros in 2019 to nearly 50 million the following year. This is according to annual reports from Fenix International, the parent company of Onlyfans, based in Great Britain.
A good online infrastructure is required for processing of the millions of euros that flow through only fans day in day out. Financial service providers ensure that the money from the bank account of the fans ends up on that of the makers.
Gambling companies and porn producers had to look for a new payment processor
But not all companies love customers such as Only fans. Because ties with the porn industry provide risks such as reputation damage and possible involvement in illegal activities. Some banks and financial service providers do extensive things in this Adult Businessbut give it as little publicity as possible.
The financial service provider Wirecard was not difficult about it. This company, which, among other things, arranged online payment transactions, had many customers from the High Risk Business: online gambling, porn and games. For example, Onlyfans was also a customer at Wirecard, until this German company collapsed by fraud in 2020. Gambling companies and porn producers had to look for a new payment processor.
Untenant
Only fans came to, among others, payment company Worldline, which with great pleasure as a new customer received the online platform. Because this French company was also not picky as far as customers are concerned. This was recently showed from the research Dirty Paymentsby NRC and international media, coordinated by the European Investigative Collaborations network. For example, Worldline was not too strict with the control of customers from gambling, gaming and porn industry and it was consciously chosen for fraudulent customers, with rogue web shops, for example because they yielded a lot of turnover.
Read also
Read also: frequently used paying service worldline did artificial handles to disguise fraud
Worldline was very lucky with this new customer. The Corona Pandemie had just started and only fans turned into a money machine. For example, the Ukrainian-American owner Leonid Radvinksy gave himself a profit benefit of 20 million pounds (23.1 million euros) for 2019. For the following year, the dividend amounted to 244 million euros. And in 2022 the company, where the money was now struggling against the skirting boards, to determine a monthly dividend, on average around 24 million euros – almost a million a day.
The new customer led to discussion at Worldline. In an internal presentation of February 2021, the Adult Portfolio Review the risks were discussed with subjects on Only fans: minors, violence, sex with animals, alcohol and drugs, and abuse of other people’s photos, such as those of celebrities.
Such risks exist in many adult companies. Sometimes they lead to the fact that Worldonline shows a customer the door, as Mindgeek happened at the end of 2020. This company, including the owner of Pornhub, was discredited because sex videos of minors were placed on that porn site, as well as videos of women who had never given permission for that. But, Worldline concluded satisfied after Mindgeek was pointed out: “Worldline was not mentioned in press items.”
Saying goodbye to Mindgeek was not a big sacrifice for Worldline. It was only a small customer, according to the presentation – the risks did not outweigh that.
Only fans as a customer was very important in the first year: two thirds of Worldlines Turnover in the Adult portfolio came from it. Where, according to the presentation, adult customers show ‘stable growth’, only fans have an ‘exponential growth’ in the second half of 2020.
The newcomer is growing so fast that Worldline is worried that it becomes too dependent on one customer, who also entails a great risk of reputation. Worldline decides to run part of the payments of ONLYFANS through a branch in Switzerland. The advantage of that route is that payment processors are not dealing with supervisory rules of the European Union. Switzerland is not a member.
In addition to substantial sales, ONLYFANS WorldLine regularly delivers extra work
But Bank UBS is difficult. One of her bankers writes in December 2021 that in principle the Swiss bank wants nothing to do with only fans. He gives four reasons: the platform is associated with child pornography, more than one hundred members of the US Congress have called on Justice in the US to act against Onlyfans, major shareholder Radvinsky was already discredited in 2004 due to suspicions of fraud and the American magazine Forbes reported that he was involved in illegal porn sites in the past. “We are somewhat surprised that Worldline opposite UBS in persevering to accept this customer,” the banker writes.
In addition to substantial sales, the Worldline Platform regularly provides extra work. In October 2022, credit card company Visa Visa Investigation to Worldline and Only fans in connection with illegal material that would be shown on the platform shows, according to internal pieces from Worldline. Especially the actions of the American National Center on Sexual Exploitation (Ncose) are frightening credit card companies. This Antiporno-NGO calls on Visa to stop payments for only fans to combat sexual abuse. She threatens with a lawsuit, which by the way does not come.
The Ncose has put both Visa and Only fans on his Dirty box list. According to the influential action group, there are the twelve most important companies that make sexual abuse possible.
Only fans continue to be discredited regularly. For example, Reuters did research last year into complaints about only fans; The news agency found 128 cases between 2019 and 2023 in which people complained that sex images would have appeared on the platform without their permission. And last March Only fans received a fine of 1 million pounds (1.15 million euros) from the British regulator because it had provided incorrect information about measures that it would have taken to check the age of users.
It will have hurt Fenix International, the Holding of Onlyfans. The company has continued to grow since the Coronapandemie. The youngest published annual accounts, over 2023, shows a profit of 414 million euros. That year the company attracted more than 305 million paying customers – and their number continues to rise.
Last May, owner Leonid Radvinsky was looking for buyers for only fans, wrote Bloomberg news agency. The question is what the company is worth. For example, analysts look at the stock prices of other service platforms, such as Uber and Airbnb. These companies also deliver a digital infrastructure and collect a fixed percentage as an intermediary. Investors are willing to pay the profit for Uber and Airbnb more than twenty times. On that basis you will soon reach around 20 billion euros for only fans.
The seller must then take into account the reputation risk that new owners are also running. Investors of the name do not dare the porn industry. Radvinsky will have to give a significant discount when selling, analysts write. This is also apparent from the amount for which only fans would be on display, according to Bloomberg: around 7 billion euros.