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Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

matthewball.co

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Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#31

Post by sigmar »

tennisflyi wrote: post #7

Seminal article (I guess), https://xsrus.com/the-economics-of-onlyfans > It’s just as easy to imagine demand for the “real thing” going down due to the emergence of more substitutes as it is to imagine the premium for parasocial authenticity going up. And yet only Generative AI “creators” will truly do whatever “you” want and only for you. And unlike real ones, they speak in every language and are available at any ti…

To what extent is the current content being paid for on onlyfans "real content?" There are companies that you can pay to manage your onlyfans messages[1]. As in- people think they are messaging the content creator, but are actually messaging some random employee of a third party company. I'm not sure how many of the people paying to message the content creator understand that this is common, but I'd imagine some are willfully ignorant about who is replying to their messages. Couldn't they also be similarly "blind" when interfacing with an AI substitute?

[1] https://www.vice.com/en/article/onlyfans-management-agency-c...

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#32

Post by squigz »

kiba wrote: post #21
nemothekid wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the same pipe dream as "AI content creators will take over youtube". There is no "formula" for success in the creator economy - the winners are largely random. A better way to look at it is there are 4 million humans out there trying every permutation to crack success, and ~400k actually do it. Unless you have a sufficiently advanced AI agent that is both varying it's content and it's marketing strategy to the t…

A good AI girlfriend wouldn't be a therapist but would mimics every aspect of a girlfriend, including arguments and fights and makeups, because that's how bonding occurs. That's going to be how successful AI girlfriend will be made.

Nobody is going to pay for an AI girlfriend service for it to breakup with the user and refuse to get back together - because that's how growth happens in reality.

What AI girlfriends will do is mimic perfect Hollywood relationships, complete with hot makeup sex.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#33

Post by paulpauper »

CSMastermind wrote: post #28

I have a buddy how likes to tell how he "had the idea for Onlyfans first" but I advised him not to pursue it. The reality is that OnlyFans wasn't the first to try this model. You have to give them credit for successfully building the business, especially with several close calls between them and government regulations.

It was covid

Otherwise, paid porn was already on the downswing due to the rise of free tube sites. Onlyfans somehow got men paying for porn again.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#34

Post by creer »

tennisflyi wrote: post #7

Seminal article (I guess), https://xsrus.com/the-economics-of-onlyfans > It’s just as easy to imagine demand for the “real thing” going down due to the emergence of more substitutes as it is to imagine the premium for parasocial authenticity going up. And yet only Generative AI “creators” will truly do whatever “you” want and only for you. And unlike real ones, they speak in every language and are available at any ti…

Further, different audiences are looking for different things.

One other response mentions social status.

I will contribute another: personal human interaction with someone that seems both "out of your league" AND "no-need-to-get-away-from-the-computer" available. That configuration has significant value (as real content from a real human) for enough of these fans, enough of which recognize this and pay well for it - to make it worth the performer's time. And still very far from "generative AI".

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#35

Post by Loughla »

ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #29
l0ng1nu5 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Why? They're common people, not sociopaths.

I think maybe it's my own personal bias, but it does feel like anyone who pays money for an AI girlfriend really won't want it to disagree with them. I believe they'll want an idyllic and fantasy version of a relationship.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#36

Post by creer »

doix wrote: post #30
CSMastermind wrote: post #28

I have a buddy how likes to tell how he "had the idea for Onlyfans first" but I advised him not to pursue it. The reality is that OnlyFans wasn't the first to try this model. You have to give them credit for successfully building the business, especially with several close calls between them and government regulations.

Yeah, I'm sure millions of people had this idea. My friends and I talked about it at some point as well. The problem is the payment processor. How the heck do you accept adult-content related payments? That is the hardest problem to solve when it comes to these things in my book.

Second is the issue of promotion: how to you become known to enough fans to make it worth it. The sites offer a true service of discovery.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#37

Post by jimmygrapes »

dragonwriter wrote: post #25
throw7 wrote: post #20

2/3 of its revenues were from the U.S. That's... sad.

> 2/3 of its revenues were from the U.S. That's... sad. Probably common for a lot of luxury products; US is like 1/4 of world GDP, and a lot higher than that in personal income beyond basic needs.

But still around 4 to 5% of the global population. Every stat in the global context of usage/consumerism gets weird when you consider this, and even weirder when you account for debt-to-income ratio.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#38

Post by Loughla »

xyst wrote: post #22

Wow - those AI generated influencers would be enough to fool older populations. If I was a shitty person, I would build my own network of “influencers” to manage and pump money from the lonely/desperate. Baby steps towards the “dead internet theory”

Old people and desperate people who are inclined to believe, yes. But the glitching and weird movements are a dead giveaway, I think.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#39

Post by paulpauper »

doix wrote: post #30
CSMastermind wrote: post #28

I have a buddy how likes to tell how he "had the idea for Onlyfans first" but I advised him not to pursue it. The reality is that OnlyFans wasn't the first to try this model. You have to give them credit for successfully building the business, especially with several close calls between them and government regulations.

Yeah, I'm sure millions of people had this idea. My friends and I talked about it at some point as well. The problem is the payment processor. How the heck do you accept adult-content related payments? That is the hardest problem to solve when it comes to these things in my book.

Payment processing for porn has existed a long time. The problem is trying to convince people to pay for porn. The assumption was free tube site would replace membership sites, as the was the trend already.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#40

Post by mattfrommars »

doix wrote: post #30
CSMastermind wrote: post #28

I have a buddy how likes to tell how he "had the idea for Onlyfans first" but I advised him not to pursue it. The reality is that OnlyFans wasn't the first to try this model. You have to give them credit for successfully building the business, especially with several close calls between them and government regulations.

Yeah, I'm sure millions of people had this idea. My friends and I talked about it at some point as well. The problem is the payment processor. How the heck do you accept adult-content related payments? That is the hardest problem to solve when it comes to these things in my book.

Payment is the hardest part in this space. Somehow OnlyFans had the privilege to use Stripe for all their transactions.

It's beyond knowing the business model, I guess the founder were at the right place and right time and knew the right people to make this venture succeed.

Also, the marketing, how the heck did these guy blow up so fast. The funds for marketing and all, it's not cheap!

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