The owner of OnlyFans, a site known for its adult content that is credited with revolutionising the online porn industry, has died at the age of 43.
Leonid Radvinsky, who was born in Ukraine and grew up in Chicago, had purchased the company in 2018 from its two UK-based founders.
The site’s popularity surged during the Covid-19 pandemic, landing him on Forbes’ annual list of billionaires just three years later.
He “passed away peacefully after a long battle with cancer,” OnlyFans confirmed in a statement, which asked for privacy for his family.
So he didn’t do any of the work for originally coming up with the idea or making the site, and then he also didn’t do any of the work in making the site’s popular content.
I do see there is some risk and some value in investing in a company, but it seems wrong that he became a billionaire when the people who did the actual work didn’t. More evidence that we don’t need billionaires.
Every CEO ever. Valueless drain through which money is removed
their Wikipedia article claims that he bought 75% of the site from the founders, and that the founders were still involved after the sale. Terms were not disclosed in that article, and I am not inclined to search further. But it is safe to assume the founders got their bag.
If this guy came along and made more off their work, who cares? I think those founders made enough that they don’t have to worry about paying for porn ever again.
That money came of the backs of the performers, developers, and god only knows how many third world “content screeners” working for dollars a day to keep the site in compliance with local laws.
He didn’t just get rich ex nihilio. He extracted that money from other people’s hard work.
Well, yeah, that’s what owners and CEOs do, make money off the backs of others. (And other body parts, too, in this case). He’s no worse (or better) than the others.
That same Wiki article states that OnlyFans claims to have paid out $25B to “creators” as of last October. Ironically, these folks might be getting less screwed than content creators in other disciplines.
Enslaved on OnlyFans: Women describe lives of isolation, torment and sexual servitude
Something tells me that if OnlyFans didn’t exist, Andrew Tate would have still found a way to be an exploitative asshole.
If Mossad didn’t exist, Epstein would have still found a way to be a pedophile
I do. That’s the thing I am complaining about. People who only contributed money taking the lion’s share of the profits.
But what if the original founders got enough? If we are against billionaires existing, shouldn’t we be cheering on folks who find an off ramp before getting there?
Since I wasn’t complaining about the original founders, I’m not sure that this hypothetical is relevant.
What I do know is that a billion dollars is far more money than anybody needs to live extravagantly for the rest of their lives.