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Tim Stokely, founder and CEO of OnlyFans, set his sights on his career as a property surveyor before launching what has arguably become the hottest social media platform in the world.
“I think the success of TV channels was growing,” she said of the 37-year-old’s decision to agree on her own in the world of glamor modeling ten years ago.
Essex-born Stokely’s first three businesses – GlamGirls and Customs4U adult performance sites, as well as a platform that connects people to retailers – never became as big as OnlyFans, a five-year-old start-up company that lifted worldwide subscriptions during the pandemic. 20m to 120m.
The platform, which charges fans for sex workers, celebrities and agents for photos, videos and personalized content, rose 615 per cent to 1.7 billion euros last year, making it the fastest growing technology company in the UK.
OnlyFans is fast becoming the music and influencer industry, as rappers Cardi B and Bhad Bhabie are uploading content and Madonna told Instagram fans last month that she was thinking of posting a concert on the platform. Critics say the site is forcing more people to consider sex work.
Katrin Tiidenberg, a sociologist at Tallinn University who studies online sex culture, said the idea of self-expression sex on the net has always been influenced by “that clumsy pearl” that thinks about the kind of “children’s” concern. He argued that people post and post nudes much earlier than OnlyFans, which he said makes it easier for content to make money.
“What we’re talking about is a change in the job market, the future of work, and creative work,” Tiidenberg said. “Why isn’t it part of the conversation, of course when he’s there?”
Rapper Cardi B is among the musicians to upload OnlyFans content © Daniel DeSlover / ZUMA Wire / Shutterstock
Stokely gave his opinion that the OnlyFans family business is primarily a platform for adult content, arguing that it has been driven by actors from all industries from the beginning.
“We are really proud that OnlyFans welcomes all content creators and from day one,” he said, adding that it was a natural place to gather adult performers from the age of 18.
Stokely’s first founder of the platform was Dannii Harwood, a glamor model who now manages the careers of Only 270 clients, including adult performers, chefs, fitness bloggers and light-hearted. OnlyFans is among the 300 creators who claim to have earned more than a million dollars through the platform.
Harwood considers himself an old friend of Stokely’s, and said he is “thematic,” as he met her in 2010 when he saw the newborn activist on the babe channels and proposed to her to join GlamGirls.
“Savile Row appeared in a business suit, with her hair shaved, her suitcase and a copy of the Financial Times newspaper,” she said at the first meeting. “It wasn’t the usual kind of person you’d meet in that kind of industry.”
300 million pounds
OnlyFans expects pre-tax profit for this year, compared to 53 million euros in 2020
He added that Stokelys was not “the kind of family you would associate with big billion dollar businesses – they are very humble and very close.”
Stokely, a 77-year-old father of his father Guy, retired in 1998 as a former investment banker at Barclays, head of finance at OnlyFans, and Thomas as his older brother. If so, the business creates “conversations that are interesting in family conversations”.
As with previous projects, he approached his father with the idea of OnlyFans, asking for a loan of 10,000 euros.
“I borrowed money to start several other initiatives,” Tim said, “this will be the last one,” Guy Stokely said, adding that he has recovered the money by the end of the year. OnlyFans, which is reducing its subscriptions, expects a profit of more than 300 million euros before tax this year, compared to 53 million euros last year.
The company is proud not to have raised more capital, but would not disclose how much Leonid Radvinsky, the entrepreneur behind the porn site MyFreeCams, paid in 2018 to OnlyFans ’Fenix International Ltd. in exchange for a majority stake in the parent company.
“So Leo sent us an email in 2018 and we were very impressed with his thoughts and soon realized that we were sharing a similar approach to the platform,” the chief executive said of the partnership.
Being the youngest brother in the Stokely family, Tim said the company did not have “your regular report in contact with the CEO.” He recalled that his chief financial officer reprimanded him in 2016 when he predicted that next year the transactions would reach a record 400,000 euros.
“My dad scolded me, he said,‘ Tim, you always give me unrealistic predictions and this is another one. ’OnlyFans’ transactions reached £ 2.4 million in 2017, Stokely added.
Stokely is accustomed to working from his Hertfordshire home since he ran the business until 2018, but he hopes to meet some celebrities who signed up for the pandemic site.
“I’m not friends with Beyoncé,” she said when she mentioned the platform in the song about the singer who only helped get worldwide traction tonight. “I wish I could have that if it was possible, but unfortunately not at the moment.”
OnlyFans is growing particularly fast in Latin America and continental Europe, and the question is how far it can go. “Be it fitness, sport, fashion or play, we’re seeing more and more different creative genres entering the platform,” Stokely said.
But he didn’t want to speculate on whether OnlyFans could become the next Instagram. “My predictive skills are usually not very accurate,” he offered.
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