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Playboy positions itself as a direct competitor to OnlyFans

After a few complicated months for Playboy, the brand just got a second wind with the purchase of the Dream platform for 30 million dollars. An opportunity for the company to accelerate its deployment and to position itself as a direct competitor to the content platform OnlyFans.

04 Nov 2021 - 2 min read

Hey you, 

Does the name OnlyFans ring a bell? No surprise! It’s a platform dedicated to content creators, which has had some setbacks lately. Now, the market should know a new upheaval with the arrival of Playboy in the game. The iconic brand has just announced the acquisition of the Dream platform, and aims to accelerate the deployment of its Centerfold platform, dedicated to content creators. Passion Media reviews this announcement with you.

Playboy buys Dream 

Playboy (owned by PLBY Group Inc) has just announced the acquisition of the content platform Dream for a modest sum of 30 million dollars. A more than strategic operation for the group, which shows its will to accelerate the deployment of its new platform Centerfold.  

A second wind for this iconic brand

The Playboy website’s traffic has suffered a lot from the crisis. Last March, the company announced that the spring edition of the magazine would be the last one of the year… A shocking announcement for a brand that has become a reference since its creation in 1953. Now Playboy is reborn from its ashes! The company has just announced the release of its new website for the end of 2021 (with a half-year advance on what it had initially planned). 

A positioning in line with OnlyFans

With this new platform (Centerfold), OnlyFans is positioning itself as a direct competitor of OnlyFans. The objective of this new tool? To allow content creators to interact directly with their fans (notably via a paid subscription system), to develop their communities, to make their commercial business flourish. 

Centerfold will also offer additional features and tools: 

  • Direct connection to the Playboy brand website to make purchases in a few clicks
  • Payment via crypto-currencies 
  • Applications around NFT 

What vision for sexually explicit content?

Spotlight on a subject that comes up regularly and has indeed put the Only Fans platform in turmoil: sexually explicit content. On this point, Mr. Kohn, CEO of Playboy, does not hide his ambition. Here is what he said in a recent interview :

“We’ve been a platform for free expression for over 70 years for some of the world’s greatest talents and we’re in the next generation. We’re looking to not only provide a great platform for talent to work with us, but also leverage that to provide a much larger digital membership offering by 2022.”

In other words? The platform should in no way limit this type of content, quite the opposite. So, who do you think will win the duel between OnlyFans and Playboy?