South Asian woman named CEO of OnlyFans
Indian American woman Amrapali Gan, has been named the Chief Executive Officer of the subscription social media and content creation website.
The 36 year old from Mumbai is a Harvard Business School graduate and previously worked as the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the platform. She has taken over from the previous CEO, who was also the founder of the company, British entrepreneur, Tim Stokely.
In a post on Instagram, he congratulated her on her promotion, saying, “Ami has a deep passion for OnlyFans’ business and I am passing the baton to a friend and colleague who has the vision and drive to help the organisation reach it’s tremendous potential. OnlyFans is still a new company and Ami has brings a fresh energy and reflects who we are as a business.” He will remain on as an advisor to the company.
Amrapali for her part said, “I am proud to assume this role. I look forward to continuing to work closely with our creator community to help them maximise control over, and monetise, their content. I will be leading an exceptionally talented team at OnlyFans that is delivering a unique experience for our creators and fans. By blending state of the art technology with creative capital, we are committed to being the safest social media platform in the world.”
The platform, which is based in London, is known for pornographic content that made the site extremely popular at the start of the pandemic, earning it over a £1 billion last year. The site works by charging content creators 20% in commission. In turn, content creators can earn money from users who subscribe to their content - fans. It allows content creators to receive funding directly from their fans on a monthly basis as well as one-time tips and through a pay-per-view (PPV) feature. It currently has two million content creators and 130 million users.
However the site has struggled because of the pornographic content available on it - former CEO and founder Tim, found it hard to get investment and at one point large banks like JP Morgan began closing creator’s accounts after flagging transactions coming from sex work. In response, the company banned such content but reversed it a month later after enraging and alienating it’s core customer base. Amrapali’s plans on making OnlyFans the safest social media platform will be closely watched.