SA’s OnlyFans economy: Who is really making money?

You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.

JEREMY MAGGS: South Africa’s adult content economy is now estimated to be worth something in the region of R6 billion a year, with thousands of local creators using platforms such as OnlyFans. But behind the money is a more complicated question, I think, about work, about identity and about stigma. Many of those selling explicit content reject the label sex worker altogether, preferring adult content creator.

Well, someone who’s been doing a bit of work in this respect is UCT (University of Cape Town) researcher and doctoral candidate Phiwokazi Qoza, who’s been investigating why that distinction actually matters. Phiwokazi, welcome to you. First of all, let’s just look at the number, that R6 billion estimate that I just referenced, how big is the OnlyFans economy? How reliable do you think that number is?

PHIWOKAZI QOZA: I think it’s even an underestimation because I think at the time when I started the research, they said there were an estimated 500 000 sex workers and that was around 2022, 2023. Those are the estimated ones. There are many people who do things like OnlyFans and do sell sexual services on other platforms like RedVelvet in Cape Town that I know of. But there are many similar websites that are not part of the stats.

So I do think that we grossly underestimate how many people are involved in this digital sex work, and as the stigma around sex work decreases and as more narratives are pushed to the front, then we can have a better idea of what the beast looks like.

JEREMY MAGGS: What do you think is driving the growth? And I’m interested that you call it the beast. Do you think it’s opportunity, unemployment or just pure financial pressure?

PHIWOKAZI QOZA: A bit of many things. So, definitely, I would say with my participants the financial pressure of those years when the government told people, stay at home, [and] the anxieties about how Covid itself spread. It wasn’t just the government telling people to stay at home, a lot of people themselves were scared of succumbing to many viruses like that, so there is that element.

ADVERTISEMENT

CONTINUE READING BELOW

But for me, I think another thing, because the participants are quite young and they do want to have fanciful social media careers, it is trendy to be on the platform. There is that trendy part of it, where you are a cool girl. There was a part of it in 2022, 2023 that there was something cool about being bold enough to exercise your agency as a young woman, as a young black woman, not being told what to do about your body. So there is that aspect.

Read:/listen:
OnlyFans in talks to sell 60% stake
Sars targets social media influencers as part of tax crackdown
The rise of SA’s influencer economy and its tax implications

But also, I think the fact that you have autonomy of time where you can do it. So in addition to being a student, in addition to having a nine to five, in addition to whatever else you do in your life, you could slot this in. You don’t have to be selling sexually explicit pictures. I think one of the examples that I was given by my participants is that many people sell pictures of their feet on these platforms.

So you have a bit of freedom to play around with it. So I think it’s that and yeah, obviously the money is good when it’s good.

JEREMY MAGGS: So people then are increasingly treating this, you’d suggest, as a legitimate form of work. It’s not just a side hustle.

PHIWOKAZI QOZA: I think at the time it was, but it was very rare to find someone who’s just doing OnlyFans. So what would happen is they would do OnlyFans and they would also be doing YouTube. They would also have an Instagram store where they sell, I would say, hair or even clothing.

So it was always part of the gig economy where someone is taking different gigs that add up at the end of the day to make up a significant income.

But on its own, it was very rare to meet someone who was like, this is all I’m doing and I’m not doing anything else on the side. It’s for me, in my approximation, even the research that I haven’t done, it’s a gig amongst other gigs that’s taken on.

ADVERTISEMENT:

CONTINUE READING BELOW

JEREMY MAGGS: Do you think the income is spread widely or just concentrated among a tiny group of top or successful creators?

PHIWOKAZI QOZA: Yes. The money itself, when it’s good, it’s good for about 10%, 15%, 20% of the creators. The rest of the 80% are not making as much money. I think another thing that I haven’t really spoken about in the other interviews I’ve done is it takes a lot of money to make money on this. So, for instance, you need to have a camera ring. You need to have a very high [quality] HD camera. The costs that go into it, the costumes, the locations. Because many people shoot at Airbnbs and things like that, it can cost someone up to R100 000, the costs that go into it.

Obviously, the content will be distributed over a couple of weeks or even a couple of months on the platforms when it’s being sold, but what it takes to get the job done, it takes a lot of money.

Then in addition to what it takes, many of the creators have managers who get a portion of the money and then the photographers themselves get paid.

Yes, they are independent creators who are doing it all by themselves. They’re shooting, they’re editing, but there are many people who have managers, who have photographers, who have editors, who have social media managers. So there’s a lot of money that goes into what we see.

JEREMY MAGGS: So you’ve got to be fairly strategic then if you’re planning, expectations of instant easy money would be badly misplaced.

PHIWOKAZI QOZA: A lot of people have been disappointed by that thinking, oh, I can do this, it’s easy, sex work is easy itself. So at the time when OnlyFans boomed, there were creators who would be interviewed by the media and say, I make R500 000 a month from this platform. Many people were duped into that thinking, if someone can make that much money, then I can also make that much money. Then when they started, they did not see the returns that other people were speaking about, and many people had to leave without actually even making back the money that they thought they would make.

JEREMY MAGGS: Do you have any sense of who’s watching? Are they local or overseas subscribers?

ADVERTISEMENT:

CONTINUE READING BELOW

PHIWOKAZI QOZA: I did ask those questions. The majority of the participants I spoke to, they said their clientele is international and that’s who they aim for. But also, how they aim for it is on the platform you can exclude a particular geographical area, and this is also to manage stigma. So on the platform you can just say I do not want this content visible to the South African geographical location.

So many creators, because they feel that it’s an easier commitment for someone in the US or the UK to subscribe for $50 a month or $100 a month. That’s nothing to them. Whereas when you convert that to rand, that’s R1000.

That could be a bigger commitment to a South African. So they themselves position themselves and they strategically place themselves on the international market hoping for that audience, not necessarily this audience.

JEREMY MAGGS: I’m interested in that phrase adult content creator. Do you think it makes it easier to monetise the work and build a business around it, instead of just saying that you’re involved in sex work?

PHIWOKAZI QOZA: Absolutely, because we are in the age of the influencer. So back in the day, to say that your career was an influencer, what is that? But there are so many people who have been successful, who are doing this type of work where there are no contracts, where I’m travelling, I’m working at the same time. So to put it in that discourse manner, I am not selling sexual services only, but I am an adult content creator.

I am part of an elite set of new workers, a new generation of work. The future of work. I’m not just on the corner of the street.

So there’s a particular posturing of a fanciful language being used by many participants to place themselves amongst the global class of this new generation of workers.

JEREMY MAGGS: Thank you very much for joining us.

#SAs #OnlyFans #economy #making #money