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Tim Stokely, founder and CEO of OnlyFans, had his sights set on his career as a property surveyor before launching what has possibly become the world’s hottest social media platform.
“I think it was the growing popularity of TV channels,” the 37-year-old said of his decision to go back a decade to break away from the glamor model world.
Stokely’s first three Essex-born businesses: the adult performance sites GlamGirls and Customs4U, as well as a platform that connects people with merchants, didn’t get as big as OnlyFans, the five-year-old startup that during the pandemic withdrew world subscriptions from 20 to 120 m.
The platform where sex workers, celebrities and influencers charge fans for images, videos and personalized content increased transactions by 615% to £ 1.7 billion, making it one of the fastest growing technology companies in the world. United Kingdom.
OnlyFans is fast becoming the music industry and influencers, with rappers Cardi B and Bhad Bhabie uploading content and Madonna last month told Instagram fans she was thinking about streaming a concert to the platform. But critics say the site forces more people to consider sex work.
Katrin Tiidenberg, a sociologist at Tallinn University who studies online sexual culture, said the idea of sexy expression on the net has always provoked “this prolonged thinking” of children’s concern. ”She argued that people posted and sent naked long before OnlyFans, which he said facilitated content monetization.
“All we’re talking about is labor market change, the future of work, and creative work,” Tiidenberg said. “Why isn’t this part of the conversation, when it’s obvious he’s there?”
Rapper Cardi B is one of the musicians who uploads content to OnlyFans © Daniel DeSlover / ZUMA Wire / Shutterstock
Stokely downplayed the view that the family-owned company OnlyFans is first and foremost a platform for adult content, arguing that from the outset it had included influencers from all industries to join.
“We are very proud of how OnlyFans welcomes all content creators from day one,” he said, adding that it was the 18-year age limit that had made it a natural place for meet adult artists.
The first creator of the Stokely platform was Dannii Harwood, a glamor model who now manages the OnlyFans careers of nearly 270 clients, including adult performers, chefs, fitness bloggers and a clairvoyant. It is among the 300 creators who according to OnlyFans have earned more than a million dollars through the platform.
Harwood considers herself an old friend of Stokely, whom she describes as “tenacious,” after first meeting him in 2010 when the entrepreneurial entrepreneur saw her on baby channels and suggested she join GlamGirls. .
“He appeared in a Savile Row business suit, with shaved hair, a briefcase and a copy of the Financial Times,” he said of his first meeting. “He wasn’t the kind of regular person he would meet in that kind of industry.”
£ 300 million
OnlyFans pre-tax profit expectations this year, starting at £ 53 million by 2020
He added that the Stokelys were not “the kind of family you could associate with such a big billion-dollar business: they are very humble and very close.”
Stokely employs his father Guy, 77, a former Barclays investment banker who retired in 1998, as chief financial officer of OnlyFans and his older brother Thomas as chief operating officer. In any case, the business fosters “interesting conversations in the family.”
As with his previous ventures, he had approached his father with the idea of OnlyFans, asking him for a £ 10,000 loan.
“After lending him money to start other initiatives, I said, ‘Tim, this will be the last one,'” Guy Stokely said, adding that he got his money back at the end of the year. OnlyFans, which has a reduction in subscriptions, expects pre-tax profits of more than £ 300 million this year, up from £ 53 million last year.
The business prides itself on not raising any additional capital, but would not disclose how much Leonid Radvinsky, entrepreneur of porn site MyFreeCams, paid in 2018 for a majority stake in OnlyFans parent company, Fenix International Ltd.
“So Leo sent an email in 2018 and we were really impressed with his thoughts and we soon realized that we shared a similar vision for the platform,” the CEO said about the partnership.
As he was the younger brother of the Stokely family, Tim said the company did not have “your conventional reports on the CEO relationship.” He recalled being reprimanded by his chief financial officer when in 2016 he predicted that the following year the transactions would reach a record £ 400,000.
“My dad absolutely scolded me and said,‘ Tim, you always make unrealistic forecasts for me and that’s another one. ’OnlyFans’ transactions reached £ 2.4 million in 2017, Stokely added.
Stokely is used to working from his home in Hertfordshire, from where he ran the business until 2018, but is looking forward to meeting some of the celebrities who signed up for the site during the pandemic.
“I’m not a friend of Beyoncé,” she said of the singer who helped OnlyFans gain worldwide traction overnight when she mentioned the platform in a song. “I’d love to be if I could, but unfortunately not right now.”
OnlyFans is growing particularly fast in Latin America and continental Europe, and the question is how big it can get. “Whether it’s fitness, sports, fashion or gaming, we’re starting to see more and more different creative genres joining the platform,” Stokely said.
But he didn’t want to speculate on whether OnlyFans could become the next Instagram. “My forecasting skills are usually not very accurate,” he offered.
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