The reason they blew up as big as they did, is a combination of multiple well executed marketing strategies and also luck .
1. before OF blew up,
Patreon was king and Premiumsnap, BUT Patreon banned all NSFW Adult content , besides artsy nudity
SNAP never allowed adult in their TOS but some camgirls used it as their OF and crushed it, BUT every year snap got stricter on this and banned creators for breaking TOS
This was a huge oppourtunity for Onlyfans , and it would say they got
lucky on this one.
2. Before OF,
Playboy was the king of
celebrity nude content for decades and probably the pioneer,
Hef died, his son runs playboy and its not what it was before, they kept working with established models, but never created a social media effect , so they didnt enter the creator economy correctly
before social media and web 2.0 the celebrities in the world were a small circle who were pushed by the larger media companies , hollywood and the music industry giants.
but on social media and reality shows more and more ppl are semi famous overnight!
Npt famous enough to get mega rich like 80's and 90ies celebrities , but known enough to have large social media followings,
but at the same time, often no clear monetization stategy of their followers, besides some brand deals, and giveaways in many cases.
for a second influencers did get crazy freebies and payments, but then companies started realizing a lot of the followers were fake, and the ROI wasnt always worth it,
so yes certain social media influencers get paid, but nothing like getting 80% of the revenue your content generates,
So for Onlyfans marketing team, getting influencers who didnt make it to the mainstream, was a very smart move
3. doing
PORN is very stigmatized, many females and males would love to earn a lot of income selling some content,
but being labeled a pornstar in many countries and cultures is still frowned upon, and your automatically considered the same as a offline Sexworker, and thats the reason it was never mainstream to be active in the adult performer industry.
Onlyfans however never was an official porn brand with a porn image, they never did the AVN awards , they didnt have their own channel on Pornhub, and their branding was always hot sexy mainstream influencers, but NOT pornstars.
you cant find a anal scene, or a gangbang on the official Onlyfans Twitter acount, and ofcourse their IG, Youtube are very clean.
On top of that more and more celebrities that sell content on Onlyfans, sold the exact same content they posted on IG before.
zero nudity.
Also a lot of content on Onlyfans is paywalled, so someone could say im an influencer, post SFW content on IG, Youtube, bikini content on their OF Feed, and only sell porn in PPV. Behind 2 paywalls, someone could do it secretly without getting caught.
AND on top of that you can block the IP of your entire country , so friends and family wouldnt even know what you sold on OF .
or know you did it at all,
Also being a content seller on the same platform
cardi b, chris brown, Trey Songz, Fat Joe, sell content, is not the same as being on the same adult porn platform, with Jenna Jameson, Rocco Sifredi, for example, cause people know these names are 100% related to hardcore porn.
while Onlyfans is everything, musicians, comedians, rappers, nsfw content creators
So getting mainstream celebrities on board was also a major move, to keep creators out of the Pornstar , Slutshaming , Stigmatized zone
using diferent wording : Influencer, Content Creator, Girl next door that sells nudes VS Pornstar, Amateur Porn, Hardcore Porn, Starlet. Gonzo also helped
And having the overal branding clean, mainstream nothing targeted to the existing porn market mindgeek style
4. As others mentioned, the daily media articles: Nurse got fired for doing Onlyfans , shes making
$100k a month now!
many cases creators pay for this, also since onlyfans is trending these clickbait titles also get more views, and sell more ads.
BUT at the same time, Its a pandemic now, ppl need money, have babies to feed, some ppl are homeless,
if someone doesnt have a marketing background, you could think this is an easy way to earn instant money.
This is Def a major factor for hundreds of thousands Onlyfans creator sign ups,
5.
The pandemic, before #rona Onlyfans was big, and creators were making money,
but right around when the pandemic started, and Beyonce mentioned Onlyfans in the megan thee stalion remix,
shit hit the fan!
Onlyfans went from 100k plus creators to 2 million creators, and to 120 million subscribers.
i would say the pandemic fueled the insane growth of OF in 2020.
cause it was the only way for single dudes to have some kind of intimacy with hot girls, or guys during lockdowns.
And for many people who lost their jobs, it was their only potential source of income.
Also influencers got less super deals around the time the pandemic hit, so if your income goes down and you see other influencers buying new houses, a lot of people figured it was worth getting into
6. Last thing, IG has a very strict policy against nipples, Youtube as well. this turned out to be a huge break for OF
One smart company only needed to recreate what these companies did, and allow nude content,
market is well and nail it.
If mainstream platforms besides reddit twitter , allowed nipples, nudity.
the growth of Onlyfans wouldnt have been so explosive. not at all.
So thanks to Zuck, and the anti nipple policy of mainstream social media, another mainstream social media giant was born!
YOUR IN THE 0.1% OF ALL CREATORS VS Your post is deleted for breaking violations and terms of service

or worse, YOUR PROFILE IS BANNED for breaking the TOS! which one sounds better ?
The Onlyfans Squad got a freebie from Zuck and Alphabet here

But maybe they do care now , cause IG blacklisted Onlyfans links in december

and they have been deleting profiles very agresively
LONG STORY SHORT, they smashed it!
But it was also the right timing and certain things that happened in the world and within the creator economy that worked in their favor!
Mixed with years of hard work on other sites before OF, and other industries ( banking )