OnlyFans, the subscription platform best known for adult content, is reportedly in talks to sell at a valuation of around $8 billion (€7.05 billion), with an initial public offering (IPO) also under consideration.
An IPO for a porn-centric site would be tricky for obvious reasons, but the platform’s explosive growth during the pandemic – revenues soared from $375 million in 2020 to $6.6 billion in 2023, and its Ukrainian-American owner Leonid Radvinsky has pocketed at least $1 billion in dividends over the last three years – has attracted investor interest.
Indeed, $8 billion may be cheap, suggests the Financial Times’s Lex column.
OnlyFans has a scalable model and rising profits and, like Uber and Airbnb, it takes a cut from creators – 20 per cent in its case, versus Uber’s 25 per cent.
If earnings hit $1 billion by 2025, as Lex speculates, and it traded on Uber-style multiples, the business could be worth $20 billion.
The catch? Wall Street’s aversion to porn. Banks and payment firms treat OnlyFans as high-risk, and compliance worries linger.
Diversification is under way – fitness and cooking creators are being courted – but rebranding won’t be easy. Selling sex is one thing; selling the sex business quite another.
