Gen Z creators are increasingly taking up content creation as a means of earning a living, with a recent Adobe study revealing that approximately 45% of Gen Z creators surveyed indicated an interest in earning money from their content. Yet, with the recent drama surrounding major social media platforms like Meta discontinuing its monthly Reels Play bonus program and the potential TikTok ban, many creators are getting worried. Sixty percent of Gen Z creators use TikTok to monetize their content, according to the same study.
In light of this, Fanfix, a Patreon competitor focused on Gen Z creators and that only allows clean content, may provide an extra revenue stream for creators. The subscription content monetization platform allows influencers to earn money directly from their followers. Fanfix claims to have over 10 million users, including 3,000 creators, with an average annual income of $70,000 for active creators. As of this month, Fanfix says it has paid out $11 million to creators so far, with projections to be at $50 million by the end of the year, and claims a revenue run rate of $35 million. The platform takes a 20% commission fee, which is a little higher than some of its competitors, such as Fanhouse, which only takes 10%. Patreon, on the other hand, requires creators to sign up for one of its subscription plans, charging a monthly fee ranging from 5% to 12%.
Fanfix provides creators with an analytics dashboard, enabling them to track their earnings, subscriber count, and other performance metrics. This feature can be useful for creators who want to share metrics with brands and potentially land opportunities. The platform offers a range of features, including “Tip-to-DM,” a pay-to-message feature that allows fans to pay between $3 to $500 to chat privately with their favorite creators. Fanfix also recently launched a one-time purchases feature as well as a new message blast feature, where creators can reach out to all their subscribers at once. One-to-one calls, personalized videos, and live streaming are among the platform’s upcoming features.
Fanfix only accepts creators with a follower count of 10,000 or more who fit with Fanfix’s brand image and are able to convert. The platform’s target audience is 13 to 24 years old, so it has strict content guidelines and prohibits nudity, as well as content that promotes illegal activities. Fanfix makes sure to protect users and creators under 18 with additional safety features like report functions and human moderators that monitor private messages 24/7 as well as review creator accounts twice a day. Regardless of a creator’s age, they can use the “safe mode” feature, which allows them to enable human-reviewed messages. Overall, the entire platform is human-moderated.
The idea of Fanfix came about when co-founders Harry Gestetner and Simon Pompan noticed a gap in the market for a clean, family-friendly Gen Z fan membership platform. They launched Fanfix in August 2021, with Vine star Cameron Dallas joining the team shortly after. Gestetner’s cousin had blown up on TikTok, gaining tens of millions of views, but was unable to monetize. After doing some research, Gestetner found that a lot of creators were struggling to make money.
The creator economy can be a tricky space to tackle, especially for full-time, smaller creators looking to make ends meet. Smaller creators seldom secure brand deals, let alone consistent ones that provide a stable revenue stream. Demers Savannah Rae, a 22-year-old content creator who started using Fanfix in the spring of 2022, shared that so far, she has made nearly $100,000 on the platform.
Demers shared with us that he is currently charging $8 per subscription, resulting in a profit of around $6.40 per subscriber per month. With approximately 2,100 subscribers, he’s already making a whopping $13,500 per month, and that’s not even factoring in additional tips and messaging earnings. Fanfix is home to a plethora of successful creators, including Madi Monroe, Brooke Monk, and Anna Shumate, with an average of around 200 subscribers per creator on the platform.
The concept of the platform immediately piqued Demers’ interest, as it offers a space to document behind-the-scenes content and not just rely on brand deals. He also values the messaging feature, as it allows him to engage and connect with his community on a deeper level.
Fanfix’s founders, Gestetner and Pompan, were only 21 and 23 years old, respectively, when they sold the platform to SuperOrdinary in June 2022 for eight figures. SuperOrdinary partners with over 140 brands, including Farmacy, OLAPLEX, and The Honest Company, and has its own e-commerce platform called GalaGala, which features a selection of brands curated by influencers.
Fanfix creators will soon be able to collaborate with SuperOrdinary to sell products in their own online stores, gaining access to the full SuperOrdinary ecosystem. In November 2022, the company launched SuperLink, a monetization-focused link-in-bio platform that showcases a creator’s Fanfix page and offers them 46% of the ad revenue.
