What is OnlyFans?
Launched in 2016, OnlyFans is a subscription-based social media platform where users can sell and/or buy original content. When used as an adult site, users will post NSFW videos and photos to their accounts, which are protected by a paywall. To access the content, an individual must pay a monthly subscription of between $4.99 and $49.99.

At the height of the pandemic, the platform saw a surge in users as clubs and venues closed and its employees needed a new source of income.

“I realized that I needed to diversify my income by creating my own content,” Scarlet Bloom, an adult entertainer, told the LA Times. For her, she saw OnlyFans as a reliable new business model to exploit. “That’s when I got into OnlyFans most seriously.”

Who uses OnlyFans?
Some creators are professional prostitutes who started out in the industry long before the platform existed. Pornstars, escorts and webcam models are among those who have expanded their services and supplemented their income through OnlyFans, while other creators had little or no experience in sex work before the lockdown .

“I was worried about the money, to pay the mortgage, the bills and things like that. Before confinement, I took care of animals, mainly companion dogs. But because it’s an independent business, my boss can’t pay me until he gets his grant from the government,“ a woman named Miss June told Vice. I’m currently living on my savings. The easiest option.

Veteran sex workers have had mixed reactions to the influx of newbies, with many amateurs warning to consider all the consequences of their trade, while urging them to shed their preconceptions about it.

"Sure, do it, start an OnlyFans, start filming, but that means you have to support prostitutes year-round,” the Portland Valentine sex worker told The New York Times. “You can’t just dive in and walk out because you think it’s easy and then just throw it away… The idea that all sex workers make a lot of money isn’t true, or that we just do showing our body and we have no integrity and we have no brain behind us. It really is so much more. We are all people.

Which celebrities use OnlyFans?
While sex workers make up a large part of OnlyFans’ creator base, many celebrities and influencers use the platform to promote content. Cardi B opened her OnlyFans account to promote her song "WAP”, featuring Megan Thee Stallion. Although not that active, Cardi uses the page to interact with fans and tease new music. DJ Khaled and Fat Joe also launched a joint account in early 2021, in which the two delivered empowering speeches to their audience.

The-Dream launched an account to promote their “Baby Album of the Year”, SXTP4. But don’t expect to see any explicit videos or photos of the rapper. Instead, she created the free page as a way to better connect with her fanbase, while encouraging them to post “her own sultry choreography to her latest tracks.”

Reality TV stars like Blac Chyna and The Bachelor’s Chad Johnson have also joined the platform, along with Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood couple Safaree Samuels and Erica Mena.

Tyga joined OnlyFans in 2020 and told his followers that he would use the space to share exclusive content such as music, photos and videos.