Sign of the times? Just on the same day that the sale of the British newspaper 'Daily Telegraph' to an American millionaire for 595 million euros was announced, OnlyFans, the world's largest adults content website, modeled in part like major social networks, which is also British, was negotiating its sale for 7.000 million euros to an investment fund also from the United States. In the era of social networks and the Internet, the so-called "content creators" of OnlyFans have managed in just 9 years to build an empire worth more than thirteen times the value of a newspaper that will turn 170 years old next month.
The success of OnlyFans can also be seen from a geopolitical perspective: at a time when European technological weakness is more evident than ever, this platform can boast of being the greatest success of the Old Continent in the new world of the Internet. We have not been able to create Meta, YouTube, Snap, TikTok, or Apple's 'walled garden'. But in online porn, we are a global power.
Ultimately, OnlyFans has 305 million registered users, most of whom have to pay the 'creators' to enjoy their works and interact with them in forums. In the past year, the platform has tried to diversify its content and promote videos of sports figures and celebrities, with very moderate success, given that these personalities tend to appear dressed and do not engage in acts that are sometimes true displays of creativity and flexibility.
This is how the company that owns the platform, Fenix International, recorded profits of 485 million pounds (578 million euros), with a spectacular 29% increase compared to 2023. The owner of the company, the Ukrainian-American businessman Leonid Radvinsky, received 416 million euros in dividends, according to the Financial Times. Radvinsky acquired 75% of the company seven years ago from its founders for a figure that has never been made public. OnlyFans started as a family business in the strictest sense of the term: the founders were brothers Tim and Tom Stokely, and their father, also named Guy, was the financier.
The potential buyer is the Forest Road fund from California, created the same year Radvinsky acquired OnlyFans, and it invests in media, online assets, renewable energies, and biotechnology. The price being considered is approximately equivalent to the total money the platform moves in a year. OnlyFans generated around 7.900 billion dollars in revenue last year, of which 80% goes to content creators and the rest is kept by the company. The transaction price would be almost 14 times its annual profits.
However, the deal is still being negotiated.Adults companies often face challenges in carrying out large financial operations due to their reputational issues. Banks are usually reluctant to get involved, and there is always the risk of being tainted by scandals or crimes related to human trafficking or child abuse. Nevertheless, just two years ago, the Canadian fund Ethical Partheners acquired the American company MindGeek (which means NerdMind), owner of the porn video portal PornHub, for 400 million dollars (352 million euros).