I have subscribed. I have paid for PPV.

Why? I have disposable income and I feel good when I spend it supporting creators I like. I subscribe to several Patreons of artists and YouTube creators, I’ve got that yearly Nebula subscription locked in, I buy merch and CDs from local bands (even though I don’t really listen to them after shows), and I also will pay folks posting tantalizing stuff on the internet. Sure I can get similar things for free, but sometimes I want content from that person and I see no issue giving them a couple bucks for it. I can afford it, so why not? Why do they not deserve it when I’m willing to also sub to a Patreon for someone who makes cool digital art on Instagram?

The “para-social” aspect is icky to me. At no point do I expect that this person knows who I am or has any care for me; any time I receive messages insinuating or fishing for that I ignore them. My “relationship” to them is a consumer who enjoys their work and is willing to compensate them for it, and that “relationship” only exists for a limited amount of time every so often.

My proverbial homies that use it say it's because they get private show or host will watch via a 2-way video. It's basically peep shows and phone sex meets FaceTime. Stuff like this is why the growing part of their business is "One-off Transactions". It should be called "Jerk-off Transactions" because that's how it's being used.

None of these commenters actually use OnlyFans, because there's literally a free tier option to subscribe. You still need a credit card to sign up because they obviously want to reduce the friction for subscribing or paying for extra content. I've seen a lot of models that will use Twitter > Free OF > Paid OF funnel. Twitter is mostly soft-core / flirty, Free OF has some nudity, typically no videos, and the Paid OF is where most of explicit content is.

Revenue wise, you'll make a lot more money tailoring content to a small group of users who will pay for custom content / live cams etc than having any mass appeal with small donations. The large social media funnel is mostly there to get model's content out there to find the whales.

Context: I have a side business deploying chat LLMs for OnlyFans models for fans to "talk" to that's currently at 65k/MRR. It definitely helps with user retention, as models who chat to their fans will have a 2x or 3x spend rate per fan.

I think it is the general attractiveness of para social relationships (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasocial_interaction). People look for personal, intimate interactions. OF creates (the illusion of) such relationships.

Some of the OF models are more physically attractive than most of the actors in free pornography. There's lots of free pornography on the internet but very little of it contains 9s and 10s.

I have subscribed on and off to many different OF accounts. I usually just want to check out their spicy content, not chat or form a connection of any kind. But I have chatted with and formed connections with people on webcam streaming sites. I've also performed on streaming sites and met many awesome people through those interactions (and earned a tiny amount of money).

The OF content I pay for is usually from someone I discovered via Instagram or a camming site.

But the money I spend on camming sites is usually because it offers two things that aren't easily found elsewhere. 1) direct interaction with the models in real time and 2) seeing couples who are actually couples and have a real and pre-existing relationship. Part 2 is a tiny amount of camming content, but it is some of my all time favorite sex content.

I would liken it as "digital sexual companionship" in many cases, rather than just porn. That's the value here, for a lot of the same reasons that people would engage with a "traditional" prostitute/escort. It's just cheaper (at first), and less likely to get you arrested or put in dangerous areas.

The article makes mention of AI content potentially coming for this industry, but I believe it's the "GirlfriendGPT" and similar that will be the bigger threat, once they improve.

I have known people who have been content creators on OF or similar. The whole industry is pretty abusive and exploitative, but on platforms like OF you can be more (certainly not entirely, but more) sure that the creator isn't being exploited and is the one benefitting from the work. A big part of it is also the creator interacting with the fans up to creating custom content for individuals.

Four years after the pandemic and people still pretend not to know that onlyfans is often free? Its such a tired trope to debate, but there is the possibility you’re serious

The article itself explains how subscriptions are a low part of OnlyFans business

But maybe this is only offering a glimpse

Many successful creators have a marketing strategy that includes a free subscription tier, and make money in pay per view DMs, or charging for DMs at all

So for people browsing for free pornography, its the same or better

Either way, its nice to see your attractive friends naked. Many women you meet in real life have a link in their social media bio that includes their onlyfans. In my world its very predictable based on visual attractiveness. Astoundingly, often it seems other women in their friend groups don’t know this and haven’t checked the “link in bio” of their girl friends. This masquerades as acceptance of sex workers.

Very simple - parasocial relationships. It’s the same reason people donate to Twitch streamers.

Donate to streamer, get mention, get hit of dopamine.

Donate to OF person. Get a “personal” video. Get a hit of dopamine or whatever chemical corresponds to love/friendship.