When Did OnlyFans Start? The 2016 Launch and What Came Next

OnlyFans timeline, 2016 to 2026

Each row gives the date, what happened and where it is recorded. Company events come from the public Companies House record for company 10354575; leadership and product dates come from OnlyFans' own announcements; regulatory dates come from Ofcom.

Who founded OnlyFans, and who has led it since

The founder's own post is the best source for the start. Stokely writes that he launched OnlyFans in 2016 without a big office or millions in venture capital, building it at his brother's home, because creators had little control over how they earned online. His answer was direct subscriptions from fans. The same post says he is now working on a separate creator platform, Subs.com.

One detail surprises people who search the company register: Tim Stokely is not listed among the officers of Fenix International Limited. The register shows other directors, starting with two short-lived initial officers and then Guy Robert Stokely from November 2016. That is why this page treats the founder's role and the company's legal records as two separate strands rather than one.

The July 2023 announcement put numbers on Gan's period in charge: it said the platform passed 220 million fans, 3 million creators and $10 billion paid to creators. Those are the company's own figures in the July 2023 press release; the audited accounts below are the firmer record.

Who owns OnlyFans? What the register records

UK companies must report the people with significant control over them. The Fenix register of persons with significant control has four entries since 2016:

1. 1 September to 19 November 2016: an initial shareholder recorded from incorporation, with more than half of the shares and votes.
2. 19 November 2016 to 3 October 2018: Guy Robert Stokely, with more than 50% but less than 75% of the shares.
3. 3 October 2018 to 20 March 2026: Leonid Radvinsky, with 75% or more of the shares and voting rights and the right to appoint or remove directors.
4. From 20 March 2026: Yekaterina Chudnovsky, with the same three forms of control. The notification was filed on 7 May 2026.

OnlyFans by the numbers: published accounts, year by year

Fenix files group accounts every year for the twelve months to 30 November. The figures below are taken from the strategic report in each set of accounts and are in US dollars, the currency the group switched to from pounds in its accounts for the year to 30 November 2021.

Read the columns carefully. Gross payments are what fans paid, net of sales taxes, refunds and deferred or contract amounts; revenue is the group's own share. The account totals count every creator and fan account ever opened that has not been deleted or deactivated, so they are not active users and say nothing about how many creators earn. The FY2025 strategic report adds that $6.2bn was paid out to creators in that year, against $5.7bn in 2024, under the 80/20 split the company describes.

Earlier filings are smaller. The filing history lists total-exemption accounts for the years to 30 November 2017 and 2018, small-company accounts for 2019 and the first group accounts for 2020, all prepared before the switch to dollars. Note too that accounts are published many months after the year they describe: the 2025 figures were filed in September 2026, so a “2026 revenue” figure cannot come from the accounts yet. For other figures and how to judge them, see our OnlyFans statistics guide.

The August 2021 content-policy reversal

The most-searched episode in OnlyFans' history played out over a few days in August 2021. That month the company said it would change what creators could post from 1 October 2021. On 21 August its official account posted a message to sex workers saying the change was necessary to secure banking and payment services, and that it was working on solutions. Four days later, on 25 August, it announced it had suspended the planned October 1 change, saying it had secured the assurances it needed and would continue to provide a home for all creators.

The same month brought the OFTV launch, and four months later Stokely handed the CEO role to Gan. Those events are dated in the company's own releases. Reasons beyond what OnlyFans said publicly, such as which banks were involved, come from press reporting rather than primary records, so this timeline leaves them out. Today's content rules are set by OnlyFans' current Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy, not by the 2021 episode.

How Ofcom came to regulate OnlyFans

Ofcom regulated OnlyFans as a video-sharing platform, or VSP, under Part 4B of the Communications Act 2003; its case page describes Fenix as the provider of the VSP OnlyFans. Ofcom's retrospective on the regime says those duties came into effect on 1 November 2020 and that the regime was repealed on 25 July 2025, when in-scope platforms moved fully under the Online Safety Act.

• Information requests, 2022 and 2023. Ofcom asked Fenix in June 2022 and June 2023 about the age checks on OnlyFans, including its facial age estimation.
• An error found, January 2024. According to Ofcom's fine announcement, Fenix had reported a “challenge age” of 23 for that technology, learned on 4 January 2024 that it had been set to 20 since 1 November 2021, and told Ofcom on 22 January 2024.
• Investigation, May 2024. Ofcom's case page shows the case opened on 1 May 2024 and closed on 26 March 2025, with an update on a revision of its scope on 4 February 2025.
• Penalty, March 2025. Ofcom fined Fenix £1.05 million for inaccurate and incomplete answers, including a 30% reduction because Fenix accepted the findings and settled.

The fine was about the accuracy of information given to the regulator, not a finding about any individual creator. The FY2025 accounts describe the group as working to comply with the UK's Online Safety Act and the EU's Digital Services Act. For what this means for users now, read our guide on whether OnlyFans is safe.

How to read OnlyFans dates without mixing them up

Most errors about OnlyFans' history come from treating different kinds of record as if they meant the same thing. Before you quote a date, check which of these it is:

• Launch: when the product went live. For OnlyFans the sources give a year, 2016, not a day.
• Incorporation: when the legal company was registered. For Fenix that is 1 September 2016.
• Control: who the register says controls the company, from a stated date. It changed in 2016, 2018 and 2026.
• Leadership: who runs the business day to day, which the company announces itself and which need not match the directors list.
• Reporting period: the twelve months an annual report covers, which ends on 30 November and is published the following year.

Creators researching the platform before they sign up can find the practical side in our OnlyFans account help hub and the latest platform changes in OnlyFans news.

Limitations: this history was reviewed on 4 October 2026 from the sources listed below. Company registers change, press releases reflect what the company chose to say, and the accounts cover past reporting periods only, so none of it establishes current ownership beyond the live register, current platform rules or any individual creator's earnings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Tim Stokely, What I Learned Starting a Billion-Dollar Business from the Kitchen Table. Reviewed 4 October 2026.
• Companies House, Fenix International Limited (10354575): overview, officers, persons with significant control and filing history. Reviewed 4 October 2026.
• Fenix International Limited group accounts, strategic reports for the years ended 30 November 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Reviewed 4 October 2026.
• OnlyFans announcements: OFTV launch (17 August 2021), Amrapali Gan as CEO (21 December 2021), Keily Blair as CEO (18 July 2023). Reviewed 4 October 2026.
• OnlyFans on X: 21 August 2021 and 25 August 2021 posts. Reviewed 4 October 2026.
• Ofcom: Online Nation 2021, OnlyFans investigation case page, fine announcement and VSP regime retrospective. Reviewed 4 October 2026.