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The Economics of OnlyFans: Most accounts make less than $145/mo

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Re: The Economics of OnlyFans: Most accounts make less than $145/mo

#21

Post by gambiting »

intricatedetail wrote: post #13
sebzim4500 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would that even work? Only Fans has no idea how much time these people are spending doing 'marketing' (spamming reddit)

Like any other employment. Can you be more precise?

No, can you be more precise? Do you know how OnlyFans works? It’s like reading that majority of seller accounts on eBay make less than $145 a month and then replying that they should be treated like employees - employees of who? eBay?

OnlyFans lets you sell your content online, just like you would on eBay or Etsy - if you want to make more money then…make more content? Or make content that people want to buy? I don’t even understand whose employees you think they should be in this scenario.

Re: The Economics of OnlyFans: Most accounts make less than $145/mo

#22

Post by thatguy0900 »

orthoxerox wrote: post #20

I'm sure similar income distribution applies to all user-generated digital content platforms like YT, Patreon, Twitch, etc. A few superstars that make crazy money, some professionals who use the platform as their main source of income and a long thin tail of amateurs. The market is supersaturated now, even with the obesity epidemic there are so many college girls with perfect figures willing to bare everything for $1…

The market seems past supersaturated, theres more college girls with perfect bodies willing to bare everything for free than youll be able to watch in your lifetime

Re: The Economics of OnlyFans: Most accounts make less than $145/mo

#23

Post by Cederfjard »

cblconfederate wrote: post #12

that's ... a lot? compared to $0 most posted videos make, especially porn videos. Onlyfans should expand to non-nsfw content and bring people over from youtube. It's a different monetization model when the ad revenue option is not available.

Are you sure it’s the monetization model, and not the nature of the content, that explains these numbers?

Re: The Economics of OnlyFans: Most accounts make less than $145/mo

#24

Post by cblconfederate »

Cederfjard wrote: post #23
cblconfederate wrote: post #12

that's ... a lot? compared to $0 most posted videos make, especially porn videos. Onlyfans should expand to non-nsfw content and bring people over from youtube. It's a different monetization model when the ad revenue option is not available.

Are you sure it’s the monetization model, and not the nature of the content, that explains these numbers?

are people paying more for porn than movies?

Re: The Economics of OnlyFans: Most accounts make less than $145/mo

#26

Post by alkonaut »

Should this be compared to a “job” or to YouTube or Podcasts? I’d expect there to be a tiny majority making a living, then another tiny majority making anything more than peanuts, and finally a massive tail of accounts that are inactive, only posts sporadically and so on.

It would be interesting to see the stats for users that actually try to live off it, such as a set of accounts publishing at least X hours of material per week for the last 100 weeks.

Re: The Economics of OnlyFans: Most accounts make less than $145/mo

#27

Post by sokoloff »

intricatedetail wrote: post #13
sebzim4500 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would that even work? Only Fans has no idea how much time these people are spending doing 'marketing' (spamming reddit)

Like any other employment. Can you be more precise?

Should YC be paying you minimum wage to post here? Or are you doing it independently. at your own discretion, using your own tools, choosing your own topics, and setting your own hours?

Re: The Economics of OnlyFans: Most accounts make less than $145/mo

#28

Post by Lazare »

So... the punchline here seems to be the median revenue per content creator. Except:

1) The denominator is skewed by a large number of people who signed up but aren't seriously pursuing it, and may not even be active.

2) The numerator is skewed by the fact that this omits tips entirely, and much of the sample is missing the subscription price or the number of subscribers, so numbers had to be guessed.

So in other words, the $145/mo was calculated by taking one number we know is wrong, and dividing by another number we know is wrong. ...offhand, I'm not sure I've obtained any information about the expected earnings of someone trying to post content to OnlyFans.

I have to give props to the author; they're quite clear in the analysis section that they're missing all the data they need ("...many accounts don't have their number of fans available", "[using likes] as a proxy for number of fans [...] is likely an underestimate", many accounts had several subscription tiers). But given all the caveats, I don't think there's anything left to conclude.

Re: The Economics of OnlyFans: Most accounts make less than $145/mo

#29

Post by lostinquebec »

warent wrote: post #7
benrbray wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's two or three weeks of groceries if you're on a budget. It can make a huge difference for some people -- especially the type of people who don't feel like they have any options but sex work. It's hard to blame them since OF is a relatively safe way to do it, too.

exactly. For people in HN who probably make at least 6 figures on average, it's easy to forget that for many people, an extra $1.5k a year reflects a significant pay percent increase, like 5% raise.

And the most humanising 5%, the 5% that you use to either keep your head above water, or buy a tiny luxury you never do, like a meal out or even a steak to cook at home.

I lived by myself on welfare in the last 12 months of university, and my rent was $175 per week, welfare was $175 per week, and I had $3,000 saved to last the year. So I lived on effectively $100 a week after rent and electricity.

Re: The Economics of OnlyFans: Most accounts make less than $145/mo

#30

Post by gostsamo »

saurik wrote: post #11
Quequau wrote: post #2

I'm a mod on Reddit and in a few of the subreddits I moderate I see a steady stream of accounts promoting online sex work, like onlyfans. None of these subreddits welcome promotion or advertising... or for that matter NSFW content. However, so many of these accounts advertise their sex work by posting content that ostensibly complies with the community rules but which somehow encourages other users to look at their u…

> I can't believe I've been subjected to the level of abuse I'm getting from people who are on average making less than $145 a month. Can you unpack this sentence and explain what it is about "people who are on average making less than $145 a month" that makes the abuse you are getting from them specifically unbelievable? (edit: Wow, -3 after only 20 minutes?... I guess people on HN apparently really hate the idea th…

Such people would not bother to put so much effort in spam and abuse for a reward of $136.
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