$37.6 million per head! This UK-based firm crushes Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Google and Meta combined

UK-based streaming and content platform OnlyFans generates the highest revenue per employee, beating out tech giants such as Apple, Meta, Google, Nvidia and Microsoft combined, according to a report by the Economic Times.

The report cited analysis by financial and marketing firm Barchart, which showed that each of OnlyFans' 42 employees generated a whopping $37.6 million in revenue on average.

Comparison: How much did tech giant employees generate?

• For comparison, OpenAI and Microsoft employees generate an average of $1.1 million worth of revenue each.
• While Google staff generate slightly more per head at $1.9 million.
• Meta employees recorded $2.2 million revenue each.
• And Apple staff generated $2.4 million per head.
• Chipmaker Nvidia's employees recorded $3.6 million in revenues each on average.

Is revenue per employee an important business metric?

Despite their per employee contribution combined falling behind OnlyFans, one must note that these tech companies employ in the thousands. Thus, in terms of total revenue, the tech companies do outpace OnlyFans by a large margin.

With only 42 employees behind the scene, OnlyFans' revenue streams is largely dependent on its 2.1 million strong content creator base.

So, is revenue per employee a significant business metric? It is used to gauge operational efficiency rather than overall company size or market capitalisation. When it comes to making operational or organisational decisions, the metric is useful.

How has OnlyFans managed to beat big tech?

If anything, OnlyFans' operational success has demonstrated how the shift to monetisation and subscriber plans can be implemented, the report noted. Only 42 employees generating $1.3 billion in a year? OnlyFans' content creators have come up trumps.

OnlyFans charges 20 per cent fee on any subscriptions or content including videos, pictures and chats sold via the platform, as per a Bloomberg report.

The streaming platform has 2.1 million content creators posting independent videos, livestreams and programmes for their audiences and monetised directly through tips and subscription plans, the report noted.

It has thus been able to beat the traditional companies by providing the infrastructure and payments processing for independent creators to build their dedicated audiences, the ET report noted.

OnlyFans CEO Keily Blair said that the company has paid out $25 billion to creators since it was founded in 2016, the Bloomberg report added.

“There’s not very many companies that can talk about creating wealth for others rather than just profiteering,” Blair said at Bloomberg Tech in London.

On future plans, Blair told Bloomberg that “the next five years is going to be an interesting time for all of us.”

(With inputs from Bloomberg)