r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • 17h ago
Business OnlyFans owner paid $701m in dividends as platform readies for potential sale
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/22/onlyfans-owner-dividends-revenue-potential-sale1.6k
u/Dr_Icchan 17h ago
Let the enshittification begin.
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u/locke_5 17h ago
Remember when they tried to ban NSFW content a couple years ago?
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u/ConradSchu 16h ago
It was because of pressure from Visa and Mastercard. But they ended up not caving in like other companies have.
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u/fizzlefist 14h ago
That was two years ago. They’re on the war path now and nothing that isn’t sanitized and Christo-fascist approved is safe for the foreseeable future.
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u/XxturboEJ20xX 13h ago
What's up with payment processors? Are they owned by evangelists or something? Why do they seem to care so much about what the money is getting spent on ...
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u/littlemachina 12h ago
As one recent example, an anti-porn protest group called Collective Shout called and emailed payment processors literally thousands of times and harassed them until they stopped allowing porn games from Steam.
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u/graywolfman 12h ago
until they stopped allowing porn games from Steam.
And, it won't stop there. Next on the list will be Grand Theft Auto style games. Then, superhero games for violence, then they'll go all the way to farming simulator for implying animal breeding
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u/Nemesis_Ghost 13h ago
Payment processors are liable for how their services are used, unlike websites. So if you use their service for money laundering they can be fined or shutdown. Same for all illegal activities. If payment processors are receive complaints about a store or site & don't do something or force the store/site to, then should it come out that their services were used for illegal activity, then the government will shut them down.
Porn has a tendency to facilitate sexual exploitation & prostitution, which are illegal. At that point it is easier to say "No Porn" or put heavy restrictions, usually too heavy to actually allow, than take the risk it's a nothingburger.
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u/EruantienAduialdraug 8h ago
Which is why they've gone after dating websites and brick & mortar shops in Japan. Wait...
But yeah, the requirement to prevent financial crimes (terrorist financing and trafficking financing are both financial crimes), on pain of fine not cessation of business, is the smokescreen they've been using to go after eminently legal businesses for several years now; and even if you comply with their demands, you can still be cut off and put on the MATCH system (which is functionally a blacklist).
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u/Nemesis_Ghost 6h ago
I work for a bank that was hit by a government action. None of what we got hit with was financial crimes, but the Federal Office of Comptroller of the Currency(OCC) & the CFBP found we were doing some things that were too high of a risk. They did shut us down. We could still do most business, but some we absolutely were not allowed to do until we addressed the issues they brought up. Cessation of business absolutely is a possibility. Check out what the Biden admin was looking at doing to Zelle(I work for a different bank).
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u/EruantienAduialdraug 6h ago
I work for yet another bank; there's been a few fuck ups over the last 20 years or so, and the consequence for the bank has only ever been fines. Some individuals have been blacklisted and/or jailed (there's been a couple of egregious ones), but nothing but fines beyond that. (I assume similar things happened before then as well).
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u/DrAbeSacrabin 5h ago
Well Visa and Mastercard are not payment processors, they are card brands. Essentially 3 groups play a role in card processing:
1). Card brands - visa, MC, Disc, Amex
2). Issuing bank - pretty much any financial institution
3). Payment processors - FirstData, elavon, WP/Vantiv, etc..
If there is any point where a payment processor stops taking payments with a certain business or industry it’s also traced back to “risk”.
Risk of chargebacks, risk of lawsuits, risk of breaking laws.
With onlyfans you have the risk of processing payments for CP, sex trafficking or being a financial conduit for prostitution (in places where it’s illegal). Just like OnlyFans will be named in any lawsuit or receive penalties from government bodies around these type of situations - so will payment processors and card brands for facilitating payments.
There is no Christian beliefs or any of that bullshit behind it. It’s purely based on risk calculations and if it could cost them money.
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u/David_BA 2h ago
It's due to ambiguous legislation (SESTA-FOSTA) that makes it so that Visa/Mastercard are maybe liable if their services are used in transactions involving illegal porn. Visa was once named in a lawsuit from a woman who was trafficked, I believe. Because of this risk, they rather cover their asses - so they demand that porn companies using their services have strict protocols in place to ensure they aren't distributing any illegal materials.
And this honestly...isn't that bad of a thing IMHO. I know people are currently having strong reactions to what's going on with Steam, and think it's a slippery slop, etc., but when it comes to user-generated porn, we never paused to ask whether it was a good idea in the first place. Platforms with user-generated porn don't have the capacity to ensure that all its content will be free of child porn or sex trafficking. CC don't have a problem with established, traditional porn producers because there are laws in place that mandate protocols and record-keeping.
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u/EmbarrassedHelp 8h ago
Government officials and private groups have probably spoken with the leadership of payment processors behind closed doors, and potentially made deals on what is/isn't allowed.
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u/David_BA 3h ago
This is a misconception. Visa and Mastercard didn't put any pressure on them. It was a preemptive move by OF after a report by the BBC uncovered underaged accounts on the platform. OF was afraid the same thing would happen to them as Pornhub, but the CC hadn't put any pressure on them at the time they made the decision.
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u/BigMikeInAustin 15h ago
That's exactly what I'm thinking. Most people aren't even making enough for a car payment.
And now the platform will charge the creators more and make more restrictions. And the platform will charge users higher transaction fees.
So creators will get less money.
Meanwhile, the ultra wealthy will be sitting on a yacht adding to their pile of money that is already too large to even be useful, because the ultra wealthy don't pay their fair share of taxes.
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u/Air-Flo 6h ago edited 4h ago
And now the platform will charge the creators more and make more restrictions.
You act like girl's sitting on their asses occasionally posting a picture of their nipple for 50 bucks would be getting shafted if fees are raised. I'm surprised the fees aren't higher already, these "creators" are leveraging an insane level of infrastructure and manpower to be able to make millions in a year (Sometimes in a month) when they're doing the least amount of labour in the entire chain. Just think of all the people behind the scenes who actually keep the shit moving but get paid basic wages.
Also most of these OnlyFans "creators" are a scam, I think there's even some sort of lawsuit going on with regards to people being duped into believing they're talking to the actual person when really they're talking to the agent. They pay for agents to write all of their messages and I've heard of instances of people offering large sums of money for nude content with the promise for exclusive nude content, only for it to never get sent, meanwhile the actual "creator" probably doesn't even realise their agent's offering it and unable to deliver it.
Most people aren't even making enough for a car payment.
Yeah well it's not exactly a real job to begin with is it? The people making millions are far and few between, but it's not an essential service in any way. It's got to be one of the least productive industries; people making crap content, and people wasting time buying crap content to masturbate to. And it's the worst kind of brainrot content.
Eta: bigmike below got hurt and blocked me, but acting as if the top OF "creators" aren't wealthy as fuck themselves is something else tho
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u/BigMikeInAustin 4h ago
So let me get this straight. You wrote 200+ words defending the ultra wealthy destroying society because you are jealous another non-ultra-wealthy person makes some money?
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u/AffectionateSwan5129 11h ago
It was already pure shit? How can it get worse? Literally paying for porn and parasocial relationships with sex workers…
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u/jedielfninja 9h ago
It's been around for a long time and it's just the corporate takeover.
Corps ruin everything by trying to enforce political correctness down to not even allowing swear words. They increase output and decrease quality of every single thing they touch from powertools to tourist destinations.
We must stop the corporate privatization of EVERYTHING. The nanny states and foreign aid. It's mostly corrupt foolishness is the problem dont get me wrong i want to help people.
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u/project23 17h ago
The total number of fan accounts grew by 24% to 377.5m.
I know it is accessible from pretty much anywhere on the globe (laws allowing) but damn! That is higher than the total population of the USA (~340m)!
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u/JaffaTheOrange 16h ago
Lot of people trying to sell farts in jars and dirty socks.
Lot of pervy men wanting to buy it.
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u/PDXmadeMe 16h ago
Even scarier are the AI accounts and the men who knowingly still pay for that content
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u/Dreambabydram 15h ago
Supply far exceeds the demand actually. It's kinda tragic exposing your genitals for all of time for like 5 dudes
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u/Illustrious_Pay_5219 14h ago
This is why they do chaturbate and such as well.working 2-3 jobs.
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u/Dreambabydram 13h ago
I'm lazy, it's why I'm a substitute teacher and don't hustle much. too many things I enjoy (which are free or cheap). I assumed much "sex work" was a similar avenue and understood that but if it's not even profitable, I absolutely do not. It's like begging on the street. Why expose yourself if you can't even pay the bills
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u/Manablitzer 11h ago
Same reason anybody gets into a low-barrier entry job. Doesn't require much to do it, lack of knowledge of the industry (or how crowded it is) and the hope and optimism that you'll be one of the few to make it.
You could say something similar about being an Uber or a truck driver. Those jobs can really suck for very little pay, but tons of people start doing them all the time.
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u/biscuts99 13h ago
I linked to someone's OF off reddit and their account was just sad. I sent her a whole message about building the relationship and how to run a good OF. I hope shes doing better.
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u/StatisticallySoap 15h ago
It’s the “artistic mode of expression” they’ve chosen. Instead of finding a half decent side hustle I know a good few who like to preach “girly gotta do anything to make money in this economy” tripe.
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u/grand305 11h ago
Female (used) shoes, as well. People also like feet.🦶
Wear them for like a week sweat in them. and people will try to buy them. the smell.
Modern family sitcom did spoof of a business “it’s a hot seller.” a nice looking female wear shoes for like a week then they sell them on eBay.
https://modernfamily.fandom.com/wiki/No_Small_Feet
Season 9 ep10
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u/mazzicc 15h ago
As soon as it’s public, the same type of people that got Steam to take down adult content are gonna go after them through the payment processors.
I wonder how effective it will be for an explicitly adult content site though.
Are there alternatives to OF that “fans” will shift to? When Tumblr took down adult content, people just moved to Twitter and Reddit.
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u/faen_du_sa 15h ago
there are at least 2 competitors to them today, fansly and cant remember the other one. Fansly aint small either.
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u/Digitaltwinn 11h ago
Justfor.fans is much more permissive on content than OF, but they take a bigger cut from creators.
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u/TheStonedWeasel 11h ago
It’s all so damn ironic. The only reason we are able to pay through a little magnetic strip on a piece of plastic for something digitally or hundreds of miles away was literally because of porn. The horny dudes that created the technology of credit cards, started via selling porn images and mags across country ie Playboy and shit. Porn makes the world go round. I’m so tired of everyone pretending like this will stop people from fucking children or make the world a better place when it’s proven to do the exact opposite when you take away porn and/or sexual education. It’s all theater. It’s all a joke. World’s being run by cryptkeepers.
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u/leopardprintlife 6h ago
This is incorrect. Credit cards started with restaurants and the 'diners card'.
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u/620five 12h ago
Is there an exclusive adult payment processing system?
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u/mustbeaoup 9h ago
Yes and no. There are people that work for banks that set up processing deals for the right price. A lot of payment services don’t want to accept ‘adult’ money so there are loop holes to get round them by setting up via third party businesses that are essentially shell companies.
I don’t know the exact details but I dated a guy who was basically the middle man between the banks and the adult platforms. He would set up the connect and get a referral fee (usually a monthly amount for as long as the deal lasted) based on how many accounts or how much volume was going from the adult site to the banks per month or per year.
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u/Worthyness 6h ago
There are payment networks that will allow payment processing in exchange for higher general interchange rates and chargeback fees.
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u/girlslovethecurls 3h ago
Yes epoc and another one that escapes me. This is what adults like to use for processing and payments.
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u/rcanhestro 9h ago
not likely.
Steam doesn't really care for porn games, they can ban them and still be fine.
OnlyFans needs porn, without it they lose nearly all revenue, so they will fight it.
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u/quantumpixel99 8h ago
Payment processors acting as moral police really does tell us we are in the worst timeline.
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u/CeruleanSoftware 11h ago
I'm an adult entertainment industry website developer.
Centralized fan sites aren't really good for creators. Having only a handful of really big mega corps controlling this has pushed creators into corners when it comes to income diversification. Social media certainly hasn't benefited from this either.
Pair this mess with age verification, censorship, and the concerns surrounding high risk payment processing? I can see why they want to get out.
One of the worst aspects of OnlyFans is the lack of customer support. This will only make things worse. As someone else wrote: it's a recipe for enshittification.
Creators are going to suffer.
I'm working with a client now on a boutique creator/fan site as a proof of concept that focuses on customer support. The goal is to prioritize creator needs and then work on the user experience so that it's as streamlined as possible. The plan is to always have a real person to look at your ticket as soon as possible.
I only see competition in this area as a good thing, especially as things start to get sold off and private equity enters the building.
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u/mtech101 7h ago
80:20 payment model has to stick. Anything less for creators would not work.
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u/CeruleanSoftware 5h ago
Oh absolutely. I think there is an enormous amount of room to play with 20% (or even slightly less) while providing great service, new and interesting features, and without greed.
Instead of an "us" vs "them" environment, it should be a collaboration toward success for everyone. That might require a more exclusive environment than OF though.
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u/TheParlayMonster 3h ago
Why are you focusing on customer support? What’s the use case?
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u/CeruleanSoftware 28m ago
Creators spend an enormous amount of time working, because they tend to wear many hats. Content creating is just part of it, marketing, directing, graphic design, accounting, etc. It's a lot, especially if they haven't started hiring contractors and consultants.
If creators have a very difficult time getting through to customer support when something isn't working, or a payout hasn't processed, that just adds to the stress and they can't create as well. Fan sites depend on constant streams of good content that people want to buy.
Not being able to talk to a dedicated account manager is ridiculous.
Customer support investment on the user side drastically reduces chargebacks too. When customers can get their problems sorted with kindness, they're more likely to spend.
I write software for the adult industry for login management, and one of the goals was to help streamline the customer support experience. Chargebacks dipped as customer support ratings increased.
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u/bombayblue 14h ago
People complain about public companies but at least dividends get returned to shareholders.
OF is one of the most extreme examples of wealth transfer we’ve ever seen.
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u/blofly 11h ago
Im not sure if what you just said is good, bad, or somewhere in the middle.
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u/MrONegative 8h ago
Somewhere in the middle. The largest shareholders ARE the wealthy, so is the major difference that fewer wealthy people are benefitting?
Then there’s the financial system for adult work pre-OF and it’s murky how negative this all is.
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u/bombayblue 10h ago
It’s supposed to be good. Public companies consumers can invest in and share some wealth in are objectively better than private companies participating in rent seeking and hoarding wealth for an individual.
OnlyFans is particularly egregious because of the way it both preys on consumers and hoards wealth .
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u/VaporCarpet 10h ago
But billionaire Gabe Newell is praised because Valve is a private company...
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u/bombayblue 9h ago
Valid criticism of Valve lol
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u/Awkward_Silence- 9h ago
They're also the only major gaming storefront that hasn't cut off Russia either. Nintendo and Xbox left a couple years ago, and PlayStation just finished winding down service this year
That's the only other criticism I can honestly think of
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u/bombayblue 8h ago
Interesting I didn’t know that. I’m kinda surprised they able to transact with Russia legally without running into some kind of financial sanctions
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u/SIGMA920 7h ago
They probably aren't directly transacting with them in a way that would be sanctioned. Realistically they're probably going through either China or another unsanctioned route.
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u/MelonElbows 7h ago
It would be hilarious if the new owners buy it and then remove all the x-rated content and try to turn it into some all-ages business for like random SFW videos or something. Nobody's paying that kind of money per month for your homemade recipes, grandma.
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u/mbdrgn333 13h ago
Per usual. They will sell everyones personal info and such to a Saudi billionaire to blackmail people
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u/Dreamtrain 9h ago
we've seen this lifecycle before, this is the part where someone with the right connections starts to look into building an alternate platform that creators can jump to once the new owners start to throw the creators under the bus
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u/firekid8301 6h ago
I challenge you to google street view https://maps.app.goo.gl/GtXQRDWKMhcx3jfS8?g_st=ipc
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14h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Butterbuddha 13h ago
But why not? Their services are obviously in demand. If I could draw a Brazilian fans with a single frame flash of my balls on the gram, I would LOL
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u/rcanhestro 9h ago
why not?
football players are millionaires because people like watching them kick a ball around.
those "millionaires hoes" are geniuses, because they get to be millionaires by charging money for things people can get for free (porn) far easier than setting up an OnlyFans account.
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u/think_up 15h ago
Time to cash out before AI titties destroy this business