If you don’t know what OnlyFans is, you’ve probably been living under a rock. The social media website, based in the United Kingdom, launched in 2016 as way users could post original content and sell it to people who want to see it. There are chefs who share cooking videos and fitness instructors who lead workout classes. However today, the site is primarily known for the porn stars who have amassed giant followings – charging upwards of $5 for a month’s subscription—the maximum a creator can charge is $50 a month—plus extra for personalised photos and videos.
And while the adult industry has been trending towards something like OnlyFans for years, the second biggest category would have to be the most amateur: social media influencers using it to sell sexy homemade content during the pandemic.
Some Instagram stars have found that OnlyFans offers a valuable alternative to the Facebook-owned platform, which bans nudity. In an email, OnlyFans told Menshealth.com that its top performers included Jem Wolfie and Mario Adrion, both of whom also have large Instagram followings. (Wolfie is a fitness model with 2.7 million Instagram followers; Adrion is a model and YouTuber with 219,000 followers.) Wolfie has said she can make up to USD $30,000 a day on OnlyFans, and the platform has said she’s earned over USD $5 million since joining OnlyFans last August.
So we know why people are feeling content on it, but what about why people are buying the content rather than just jumping on good-ol’ Pornhub?
Well, men – majority of its users – have revealed their reasons for subscribing to content creators on OnlyFans, after the issue was raised by the good people of Reddit..
On the subreddit AskReddit, a user asked: “Guys that pay for OnlyFans, why?”
Here are some of the most interesting answers:
To support people they know
Responding to the original question, one person gave this honest answer: “I want to support my wife and help her algorithm.”
A crush
“I knew the girl, I had a crush on her in High School,” which makes sense.
Scratching an itch
“I subbed for one month for two separate girls I’ve personally known, and it was to satisfy the curiosity that has been there since high school of what lies under that cute girl’s clothes.
“If I thought they were hot in high school, and I know they’re still hot based on recent irl interaction and/or social media, I’ll still wanna see them naked and I’m perfectly willing to make a one time payment of $5-10 to scratch that longtime itch.”
Not wanting to support the more exploitative end of the porn industry
“Free range, farm to table organic fair trade porn.”
“I want my money to go to hot women, not sleazy porn producers.”
But it seems not everyone is a fan.
One rather unsatisfied customer wrote: “Not going to lie, a photo of her in a sundress made me obsessed so I payed for a month. Didn’t end up liking OF as I expected a lot more sexual content to which I only received lewd photos not appropriate for Instagram.”
While another unhappy guy said: “There’s a few leechers on there though man. I paid 50 to some Aussie chick for a 5 min custom video. It was 36 seconds long and she just messaged like, sorry it’s short you were my first custom video, I got nervous!
“Then there’s the ones you subscribe to for 25 per month and all of their posts are censored nudes with the full nudes being unlockable for an additional 20 a post lol.”
The latter was borne out by one person admitting: “I wanted to see my ex’s t**s again,” while another person who was checking out a former flame said: “Honestly it’s sad but I made an account and bought a subscription for a month after my roommate showed me that my ex made one.”
They continued: “Found out she had been doing it for the last six months, five of which we were dating during and I suppose she just never told me about it.”
Well, there you go.
