OnlyFans founder making millions during lockdown is 37-year-old banker’s son
THE King of OnlyFans who is making millions in lockdown is the son of a banker and lives in a gated mansion.
Timothy Stokely, 37, is the founder of the booming online adult service platform.
OnlyFans is a subscription content service based in London and has only been in existence for four years.
It has been credited with revolutionising the sex industry, but some performers have said they feel pimped by the service.
Fans pay anywhere from £3.90 to £39 a month for pictures from their favourite creators - with OnlyFans taking a 20 per cent piece of the pie.
The site has exploded during lockdown, with a reported 42 per cent increase in new accounts being made.
There are nearly 100,000 British creators on the site and 660,000 worldwide - with 50million users.
The platform has paid its creators more than £956million, meaning Mr Stokely has seen the firm bring in more than £1.2bn in revenue.
The entrepreneur lives in a sprawling £2.4m six-bedroom mansion with a cinema and sauna in Stortford, Herts.
Mr Stokely built OnlyFans after he previously created a BDSM and fetish site GlamWorship.com in 2011.
BOOMING BUSINESS
He noticed a demand for customisable content from fans, which led to him creating Customs4U.com - where users could pay to ask porn stars for content.
The site was sold in 2019 with large profits after cutting studio costs and seeing a demand for more personalised content.
High-profile creators of OnlyFans include former Love Island Megan Barton-Hanson.
During lockdown, British glamour model Dannii Harwood became the first Brit to make £1m from the site since joining in 2019.
She told the: "You can get porn for free. Guys don’t want to pay for that.
"They want the opportunity to get to know somebody they’ve seen in a magazine or on social media. I’m like their online girlfriend."
However, not everyone has had a positive experience with creating content for the.
Creator Ana told she felt weird selling her body online.
The 25-year-old said: "It’s almost like they’re pimping us out and taking their cut."
Another creator added that "it just feels like virtual prostitution".
Mr Stokely has insisted creators chose to be on the site themselves.
He said: "All the creators have joined the platform by choice, and create content as they choose."
Teela Sanders, a criminology professor at the University of Leicester, said creators must be properly protected.
She said: "There certainly is a lot more that needs to be done, especially as we see new platforms popping up all of the time, which don't necessarily have the awareness that they need to be responsible platforms."
After an OnlyFans leak, the company has faced pressure to step up the privacy of its members.
Screenshots with an iOS or Android device nowshow a black screen rather than allowing users to save the picture.
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Furthermore, Users can be banned from OnlyFans if they are caught trying to record or take screenshots.
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A statement on the website reads: "OnlyFans takes content piracy very seriously and has a designated DMCA team that issue formal takedown notices against all reported copyright violations.'
"Our DMCA team issue notice on all illicit target websites, hosting services and domain registrars, whilst also notifying all major search engines of these infringements."
