The porn biz

[NotWise]

I found an article on Bloomberg News, and this story without a paywall.

Leonid Radvinsky is looking to sell Fans Only for $8 billion.

Just in case, you know, you thought that maybe porn wasn't big business.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I found an article on Bloomberg News, and this story without a paywall.

Leonid Radvinsky is looking to sell Fans Only for $8 billion.

Just in case, you know, you thought that maybe porn wasn't big business.

That's theoretically enough to pay for Phase 2 or the Second Avenue subway (three stations!) with $300 million left over for whatever. Of course, there are always cost overruns on these things. Phase One was a scandal in itself. How many women are on OnlyFans anyway?

https://www.piratewires.com/p/100-years-477-billion-new-yorks-second-avenue-subway-disaster?f=home

 

[NotWise]

How many women are on OnlyFans anyway?

According the this article there are over 3.5 million creators and 10.5 million approved creator accounts. Not all women. Probably not all currently active.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Not sure if that qualifies as big business. The smallest firm in the SP 500 has a market cap of 13 billion.

 

[PapaRomantic]

Not sure if that qualifies as big business. The smallest firm in the SP 500 has a market cap of 13 billion.

8 billion would be big to me...

 

[Kelliezgirl]

8 billion would be big to me...

True enough, just saying in world of high finance it's chump change.

I'm curious what the end play is here. Private equity firms are usually all about stripping a company of its assets under the guise of "unlocking value" or some other corporate speak. Not much to sell off on an online platform that's really just a middle man.

 

[iwatchus]

True enough, just saying in world of high finance it's chump change.

I'm curious what the end play is here. Private equity firms are usually all about stripping a company of its assets under the guise of "unlocking value" or some other corporate speak. Not much to sell off on an online platform that's really just a middle man.

The biggest value might be data on the habits of some many millions of customers paying for the (mostly) women. Not sure whether the marketing value outweighs the blackmail potential or not. It takes a pretty low percentage of the customers being willing to pay a few grand to kill that information to cover the 8 billion.

Of course, I was disappointed in the lack of scandals coming out of the Ashley Madison leak. A lot of good potential Loving Husbands BTB potential there.

 

[NotWise]

True enough, just saying in world of high finance it's chump change.

I'm curious what the end play is here. Private equity firms are usually all about stripping a company of its assets under the guise of "unlocking value" or some other corporate speak. Not much to sell off on an online platform that's really just a middle man.

Not quite chump change. If Fans Only were publicly held (it isn't) $8 billion would put it near the top of the Mid-cap classification. Another $2B in value would make it a large-cap company.

Fans Only had 2024 revenues of $6.63B (according to Google), which would place it at about #99 in Forbes' list of the largest privately-held US companies, but it's not a US company. It's parent company is based in London.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

The biggest value might be data on the habits of some many millions of customers paying for the (mostly) women. Not sure whether the marketing value outweighs the blackmail potential or not. It takes a pretty low percentage of the customers being willing to pay a few grand to kill that information to cover the 8 billion.

Of course, I was disappointed in the lack of scandals coming out of the Ashley Madison leak. A lot of good potential Loving Husbands BTB potential there.

Good point, if they can find/unlock the value of the data they might have something.

 

[lovecraft68]

Not sure if that qualifies as big business. The smallest firm in the SP 500 has a market cap of 13 billion.

8 billion is big for an industry still much maligned and always under attack by "moralists"

 

[SimonDoom]

Good point, if they can find/unlock the value of the data they might have something.

I don't think data or content are the key to value, in the future. It's going to be interactivity. This is the key to OF. It's what makes it different from Pornhub. Somebody will figure out how to create an online platform where people come together to fulfill erotic fantasies, and they'll make a fortune. Like Facebook. The content doesn't matter. The key is to create the right platform.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I don't think data or content are the key to value, in the future. It's going to be interactivity. This is the key to OF. It's what makes it different from Pornhub. Somebody will figure out how to create an online platform where people come together to fulfill erotic fantasies, and they'll make a fortune. Like Facebook. The content doesn't matter. The key is to create the right platform.

Interesting idea, not sure if that's the end goal of buying OF.

I think the other risk of buying that platform is that the people paying see their relationship as being between them and the content creator. If people are paying for access to Cindy they are going to follow her to a different platform.
Somebody creates a platform like you're describing and creators flock to it OF becomes MySpace.

 

[TiberiusPrime]

To get past the paywall, go here: LINK

 

[Britva415]

Not sure if that qualifies as big business. The smallest firm in the SP 500 has a market cap of 13 billion.

The S&P 500 are 500 BIG companies.

 

[SimonDoom]

I think the other risk of buying that platform is that the people paying see their relationship as being between them and the content creator. If people are paying for access to Cindy they are going to follow her to a different platform.
Somebody creates a platform like you're describing and creators flock to it OF becomes MySpace.

True, but at some point, if the platform is big enough, it benefits from the Facebook/Amazon effect. People want ONE place to go to interact in this way. OF beats its competition in this space because people like the platform and its terms are relatively favorable to the creator, who gets a larger cut than at some other platforms. Scale helps.

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

Those interactive sites do exist - you’ve got Chatirbate and all the other live streaming show services that are constantly getting advertised. I’m sure combined they make a good amount, but OF is the 100 pound Gorilla.

Think about it - this is a $6 bil company that probably has the lowest overhead of anybody in that revenue bracket; They cover the internet distribution and that’s basically it. No advertising. The workers are all independent contractors who get paid based on their performance and the site gets a cut. They have to be making an obscene profit, pun intended.