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OnlyFans: When sex doesn’t sell

OnlyFans is turning off sex. On Thursday, the London-based subscription-content site confirmed a Bloomberg report that it will no longer allow sexually explicit material. Beginning Oct. 1, users will only be allowed to post nude content consistent with the website’s acceptable-use policy. The changes are necessary “to comply with the requests of our banking partners and payout providers,” the company said. Though OnlyFans boasts over 120 million users across the globe, investors have been reluctant to jump in due to much of the content on the site. Here are the key takeaways:

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OnlyFans: When sex doesn’t sell

By Martin Patriquin
The OnlyFans logo on a smartphone arranged in New York in June 2021. Photo: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Aug 20, 2021
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OnlyFans is turning off sex. On Thursday, the London-based subscription-content site confirmed a Bloomberg report that it will no longer allow sexually explicit material. Beginning Oct. 1, users will only be allowed to post nude content consistent with the website’s acceptable-use policy. The changes are necessary “to comply with the requests of our banking partners and payout providers,” the company said. Though OnlyFans boasts over 120 million users across the globe, investors have been reluctant to jump in due to much of the content on the site. Here are the key takeaways:

US$1B: The valuation at which OnlyFans had hoped to raise capital. In the spring, the company enlisted the New York-based Raine Group to help bend investor ears. 

US$1.2B: The net revenue OnlyFans believed it would take in this year, and it expected to more than double that in 2022, according to a March pitch deck. Its model is relatively simple: the site hosts content producers, allowing them to paywall their output in exchange for a 20 per cent cut of their income from the site. Though it hosts yoga teachers and opera singers—along with the likes of Cardi B, DJ Khaled and Fat Joe—sex workers and adult-film actors flocked to the site, if only because it allowed them to monetize their oft-pirated content. The porn ban has infuriated them. “Sex workers made OnlyFans what it is today,” creator Zia told The Daily Beast.

75%: The estimated portion of OnlyFans owned by Leonid Radvinsky as of 2018. While Radvinsky’s wealth, estimated at US$1.8 billion, helped bankroll the company, the Florida-based pornographer has a checkered past, including businesses peddling “illegal” and “hacked” passwords to porn sites, some of which featured underage performers. The company hoped new investment would help it buy Radvinsky out, according to documents viewed by Axios.

April 14, 2021: The date on which Mastercard announced changes to its Specialty Merchant Registration requirements, meaning merchants using Mastercard services would “need to certify that [a] seller of adult content has effective controls in place to monitor, block and, where necessary, take down all illegal content.” The announcement came after Montreal-founded MindGeek faced a spate of accusations its sites were hosting illegal material, the fallout from which also affected sex workers. It’s no easy thing for a company like OnlyFans to build a payments system that doesn’t depend on major financial institutions, so Mastercard’s policies, which come into effect on Oct. 15, appear to be the impetus for OnlyFans’ sudden prudishness. As one tweeter pointed out, “The new records-keeping, review processes, verification and other requirements are going to be expensive and time-consuming. OnlyFans seems to have decided it’s not worth it.”

#OnlyFans

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