OnlyFans has built up a reputation and a business out of more than $2bn in sales from seven million users willing to pay for sexual content. It’s become shorthand for the burgeoning economy of online sex work – where people post videos and photos of sex acts in exchange for money – and has helped 16,000 people worldwide earn at least $50,000 annually from selling subscriptions to their content, with over 300 earning $1m or more.
But not for much longer. From October, OnlyFans will bar sexually explicit videos from its service – a shock for all but the minority of users who pay to watch clothed, non-sexual fitness videos and cooking tutorials that the controversial London start-up has tried, increasingly desperately, to say illustrates its rounded user base.
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