Leonid Radvinsky, 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.
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.
Founded in 2016, OnlyFans is a social media platform where creators can post videos and photos and charge subscribers for tips or a monthly fee. The platform is best known for pornography and encourages creators and fans to connect through livestreams, personalised messages, and direct requests for custom-made content. In return for hosting the material, OnlyFans takes a 20% share of all payments.
The company generated $1.4 billion in revenue from over £7 billion transactions and had more than 377 million subscribers in 2024, according to its most recent Companies House filing, with approximately 4.6 million creators actively posting to the site.
The company has faced scrutiny over how it polices content and users on its site, which ideally requires users to be 18 or over. In 2024, British regulators launched an investigation into whether children were accessing pornography, which the company attributed to a technical issue. Ofcom ultimately fined the firm around £1 million.
Radvinsky graduated with an economics degree from Northwestern University and most recently lived in Florida. Besides OnlyFans, he invested in tech companies via a Florida-based venture capital firm, Leo.com. He was also known for his philanthropic efforts, including donations to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
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.
Founded in 2016, OnlyFans is a social media platform where creators can post videos and photos and charge subscribers for tips or a monthly fee. The platform is best known for pornography and encourages creators and fans to connect through livestreams, personalised messages, and direct requests for custom-made content. In return for hosting the material, OnlyFans takes a 20% share of all payments.
The company generated $1.4 billion in revenue from over £7 billion transactions and had more than 377 million subscribers in 2024, according to its most recent Companies House filing, with approximately 4.6 million creators actively posting to the site.
The company has faced scrutiny over how it polices content and users on its site, which ideally requires users to be 18 or over. In 2024, British regulators launched an investigation into whether children were accessing pornography, which the company attributed to a technical issue. Ofcom ultimately fined the firm around £1 million.
Radvinsky graduated with an economics degree from Northwestern University and most recently lived in Florida. Besides OnlyFans, he invested in tech companies via a Florida-based venture capital firm, Leo.com. He was also known for his philanthropic efforts, including donations to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
