Twitter’s reported video paywall may put it in a face to face battle with OnlyFans

The function, stories The Washington Submit, may go dwell inside two weeks, although the workforce has recognized it as a excessive danger operation, given the potential for individuals to try to promote copyrighted materials and different attainable authorized hurdles.

Twitter didn’t instantly reply to Fortune’s request for remark.

The monetary attraction is difficult to overlook, although. Subscribers to OnlyFans spent $4.8 billion on the location final yr, simply shy of Twitter’s annual income for the yr. Whereas 80% of that spending went to the creators on the location, that also resulted in practically $1 billion in earnings for OnlyFans. Pre-tax earnings on the firm rose by 615% to $432 million within the 12 months ending September 2021.

OnlyFans creators set their very own costs, however Twitter is reportedly planning to preset what they’ll cost to $1, $2, $5 or $10.

OnlyFans, in fact, is essentially related to grownup performers and the grownup leisure business. For a lot of intercourse staff, it has turn out to be the first supply of earnings because the period of huge function movies in that business has died up.

OnlyFans has no unique holdings on the content material its creators supply. Whereas some favor to make use of it solely for comfort’s sake, others will use it as a house for brand new movies, then (after a couple of months) will start to supply older content material on different platforms as nicely.

Twitter has, for a while, been the preeminent on-line grownup content material platform, say business insiders, because it permits nudity and pornography, and has prevented the authorized issues of others and has a big userbase. Whereas performers can’t monetize their posts straight, they frequently submit images and movies, steering followers to platforms like OnlyFans. So many could possibly be wanting to cost for content material on the location.

One query is how Twitter customers would react. The location has provided video content material (each grownup and different kinds) at no cost since its inception, so followers may balk at having to pay for it.  

The chatter a few video paywall comes on the identical time Musk has mentioned he plans to cost $8 per thirty days for the verification verify. Many customers have mentioned they’d refuse to pay for the mark, which was designed to stop dangerous actors from impersonating individuals and add a layer of belief to the platform.