Will Subs be the new OnlyFans?

When it was launched in 2016, OnlyFans managed to attract numerous users in a relatively short time, but real success came with the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2019, around 100,000 people were publishing content on the platform, but within a year that number had grown to about one million. Today, according to estimates, the number of active creators on OnlyFans exceeds one and a half million. Despite this market continuing to expand, the platform presents several issues that are increasingly disliked by those who use it professionally. One of the most criticized aspects of OnlyFans is the lack of internal visibility offered to creators, which forces most users to rely on other channels to discover and reach their profiles. It’s no secret that the company owes its fame to the explicit content published by models and sex workers, even though other types of material are also shared on the platform. But anyone wishing to attract new subscribers is almost always forced to maintain a presence on other social networks, particularly Instagram. It is well known that on these platforms, creators share free photos or short videos with the goal of directing followers toward the paid content available on OnlyFans. As the New York Times pointed out back in 2021, enjoying a certain degree of online visibility becomes an almost essential element to channel a solid user base to one’s OnlyFans profile and thus hope to generate income.

There is no shortage of competition on OnlyFans. In fact, the market is already quite saturated. For an active creator on OnlyFans, success depends on a combination of factors that are not always easy to control — from previous fame to the amount of time one is willing to dedicate to this activity, among many other variables. Moreover, those working on OnlyFans are still exposed to various risks, even though online sex work is generally safer than offline. The most evident and common danger is social stigma: on OnlyFans, even those who do not publish explicitly sexual content are often associated with sex work, with all the related consequences such as insults and discrimination. Additionally, in almost all Western countries there are laws that restrict or prohibit the sale or purchase of sexual services, which significantly limits the recognition of rights for those working in the paid sex industry. And the consequences are real: there are creators who struggle to access mortgages and other financial services, among other things. Furthermore, those who have another job and use OnlyFans to “make ends meet” often risk ending up in a shitstorm, as recently happened to an Italian preschool teacher who was fired for inappropriate behavior.

Due to these problems tied to the creator economy, especially regarding explicit content, Tim Stokely – founder of OnlyFans and CEO until 2021, when he left the company – launched Subs, a new platform born from listening to the criticisms and needs of many workers active on OnlyFans. Although it resembles the latter in terms of features (adult content can also be shared on Subs), Stokely says the new platform has different goals and aims to offer more freedom, visibility, and earning opportunities to individual creators. The intent, as stated in the U.S. edition of Wired, is to be brand-friendly. In other words, Stokely does not want to alienate creators as seems to have happened with OnlyFans.

Subs provides tools that are not available on OnlyFans and allow creators not to be necessarily present on other social media to direct users. To do this, the platform has integrated into one space many features already found on other sites, such as the ability to watch video essays, browse the feed, make calls, or use AI to get targeted suggestions. The goal is to combine in a single platform what creators today are forced to spread across multiple channels. Furthermore, Subs guarantees (at least on paper) a more balanced management of creators and more complete monetization tools, such as revenue sharing among collaborators and incentives for users who invite others to join the platform. However, Wired points out that Stokely's project, despite his vast experience in the sector, is quite challenging. The backlash against platforms like OnlyFans is gradually paving the way for the opening of new online spaces, but whether these can actually be occupied — displacing the big names from their dominant positions — remains to be seen: is there still room for a major new social network?