Leonid Radvinsky, the somewhat reclusive owner of OnlyFans, the subscription-based platform best known for its more explicit content, received $701 million in dividends last year, according to recent financial filings Friday by Fenix International Ltd., the London-based company that runs the platform.
There have been rumors that the platform was preparing to be sold and was valued at $8 billion, but it’s been months since there was much activity around the potential sale to the Forest Road Company, a US investment firm.
But with the recent announcement that the UK-based company reported revenue of $1.4 billion last year (that’s a 9% increase from the previous year), speculation is starting up again. Especially since the company’s pre-tax profit also rose by 4% to $683.6 million in that same time frame.
OnlyFans has exploded in growth since 2020, making its money from the 20% fee it charges creators for any subscriptions or content including videos, pictures and chats sold on the platform. While much of the content is explicit, the platform has openly recruited non-pornographic creators like athletes, comedians, and artists to increase their more PG content.
The platform only continues to grow, with the total number of creator accounts increasing by 13% last year to 4.6 million creators — and the total number of fan accounts (users and subscribers) grew by 24% to more than 377 million.
In regards to the recent filings, the company said “significant growth and profitability” is thanks to the increase in platform users and higher earnings for existing creators.
The platform’s chief executive, Keily Blair, is a former privacy lawyer who has been with the company for three years and recently shared that the platform had “expanded in new verticals, demonstrating the strength and potential of the platform across a wide range of genres” in the last year.
While it’s clear that OnlyFans is a lucrative business, it’s also a risky one thanks to the ever-present concerns about online safety and the explicit nature of most of the content on the platform. While the company has emphasized that moderators review all content that’s posted and that it checks to make sure creators are over 18, they have also faced scrutiny and fines in countries, including the UK where they are headquartered.
The dividends paid to Radvinsky are indications to some that a sale is imminent, but we’ll see what actually happens as many investors have hesitated to tie themselves to the platform.
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