OnlyFans CEO Kelly Blair tried to clear the air about what’s offered on the favored subscription-based platform — insisting that it’s not a “porn” website.
Blair, the UK-based site’s former chief strategy and operations officer who took the reins in January 2022, dismissed the notion that the platform is exclusively for sexual content in an interview with the Financial Times this week.
“No: we’re a site that hosts adult content, but we also host quite a lot of other content. And lots of the individuals who create adult content also decide to create other content, so perhaps yoga and naked yoga,” she told the outlet.
She said that adult-content sites like OnlyFans should cater to other adult interests — not only sex — including “comedy and sports and music.”
“We don’t wish to categorize people, so we don’t. That’s why we don’t categorize our content either. Creators are capable of create whatever content they decide to, so long as it’s inside our terms of service,” Blair added.
Blair pushed back when asked if the platform is a porn site. OnlyFans
OnlyFans launched in 2016 as a subscription-based social media platform that allowed sex employees and other creators to post content behind a paywall. Since its founding, OnlyFans has dished out greater than $8 billion to its creators.
After exploding in popularity throughout the COVID pandemic, OnlyFans has sought to maneuver away from explicit content to expand its appeal to more conservative audiences and avoid crackdowns from social media giants like Facebook and Instagram.
Blair told the Financial Times that she takes issue with the location being labeled as “porn,” which she believes is “quite a pejorative term.”
“There’s lots of individuals who would hear that and think one thing or one other thing . . . Also, lots of the content on our site is messaging or chats or talking about breakfast or talking about quite a lot of various things,” she said. “Once we discuss this subject, it’s really necessary to be as unemotive as possible.
OnlyFans has paid greater than $8 billion to its creators. Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/Shutt
“The word ‘porn’ has been wrapped up in among the negative things that were the case for the adult-content industry, and we’ve done an awful lot to try to help adult-content creators to have a secure space on the web and be treated with respect. That’s the explanation why I don’t are inclined to use the P word,” Blair added.
The CEO said that the corporate is prospering financially, having grown 17% last yr with revenue topping $1 billion because it expands into other global markets.
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OnlyFans has registered greater than 3.1 million creators and 238.8 million fans, the Financial Times reported.
The web site takes 20% of the proceeds from its creators, in response to the web site.
Blair has defended Onlyfans previously, telling Bloomberg in 2022 that “Our content creators provide content on anything from gardening to lady gardens, and for some reason, OnlyFans is ‘an adult-content site’.”
The positioning faced immense backlash from creators in 2021 after it announced it could ban sexually explicit content. OnlyFans walked back on the plans after creators claimed it could threaten their income.
In early 2022, mainstream lenders resembling Wells Fargo terminated the bank accounts of several high-profile individuals within the sex industry without a lot as offering a proof.
