More and more Gen Zers are jumping on the content creation bandwagon in an effort to make a living beyond a regular 9am-5pm gig. According to a study 2022 According to Adobe, approximately 45% of Gen Z creators surveyed said they want to make money from their content.
However, given the recent drama surrounding major social media apps, with Meta interrupt it’s monthly Reels Play bonus program and the potential TikTok banmany creators get worried. Sixty percent of Gen Z creators use TikTok to monetize content, according to the study.
Fanfix, a Patreon competitor that focuses on Gen Z creators and only allows clean content, may provide an additional revenue stream for creators. The subscription content monetization platform allows influencers to earn money directly from their subscribers.
Fanfix has attracted more than 10 million users, including 3,000 creators, according to the company. The average annual income of active creators is $70,000, according to its data.
As of this month, Fanfix said it has paid out $11 million to creators so far, with projections of $50 million by the end of the year. It also claims a revenue rate of $35 million and believes it will be profitable by the first quarter of 2024, co-founder Harry Gestetner told TechCrunch.
The numbers are remarkable for a two-year-old startup, especially when the current market makes it harder for creator-focused startups to succeed.
Fanfix is a web app where creators can create a subscription, set a paywall, and then publish content behind the paywall. Creators can set their own subscription price, with the minimum cost being $5 per month and the maximum being $50.
Influencers can also earn even more with features like “Tip-to-DM,” a pay-per-message feature that lets fans pay between $3 and $500 to chat privately with their favorite creators.
Fanfix also recently launched a one-time purchases feature as well as a new broadcast message feature, where creators can contact all of their followers at once.
Other features in the works include one-to-one calls, personalized videos and live streaming.
Additionally, Fanfix has an analytics dashboard, allowing users to track their revenue, number of subscribers, and other performance metrics. This can be a useful tool if creators want to share stats with brands and hopefully seize opportunities.
The platform generates revenue by charging a 20% commission. It’s a bit high compared to some competitors, like fanhouse which only takes 10%. Patreon requires creators to sign up for one of its subscription plans, charging monthly fees ranging from 5% to 12%.
While Fanfix isn’t planning to cut commission fees, the company stressed that it has no hidden fees and offers a “premium service” that’s better than most competitors, Gestetner said.
“If you look at other platforms, a lot of them charge creators payment processing fees, so there are a lot of hidden fees and we’re very transparent about how we monetize,” added the co-founder Simon Pompan.
“Fanfix is part of this space that is emerging as the leader in the Gen Z clean monetization space because our platform, quite simply, has been where creators make the most money,” said said Gestetner. “Creators are generally very happy with commission fees because they know they’re making more money on our platform than anywhere else.”
Simon Pompan (left) and Harry Gestetner (right)
Gestetner and Pompan have been friends since high school and started Fanfix in August 2021 while attending college. Shortly after Fanfix launched, Gestetner and Pompan brought Vine star Cameron Dallas to the team.
The idea for Fanfix was born when Gestetner’s cousin exploded on TikTok, gaining tens of millions of views but unable to monetize. After doing some research, Gestetner discovered that many creators struggled to make money.
In general, the creator economy can be a tricky area to get into, especially for small, full-time creators looking to make ends meet. Smaller creators rarely get brand deals, let alone consistent deals that provide a stable revenue stream.
“Brand deals have served a large majority of creators poorly, and a way was needed for creators to monetize directly to their loyal fans without having to rely on brands, agents, studios, or record labels. There was a gap in the market for a clean, family-friendly Gen Z fan membership platform,” he said.
Fanfix’s target audience is between 13 and 24 years old, so the platform has strict rules content guidelines and prohibits nudity and content promoting illegal activities.
The platform makes sure to protect users and creators under the age of 18 with additional safety features such as reporting functions and human moderators who monitor private messages 24/7 and review the 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 posts.
Overall, the whole platform is human moderated.
Fanfix only accepts creators with a subscriber count of 10,000 or more. The creator must match Fanfix’s “brand image” and be able to convert.
We spoke with Savannah Rae Demersa 22-year-old content creator who started using Fanfix in the spring of 2022. Demers said that, so far, she has earned nearly $100,000 on the platform.
“My subscription rate is currently $8, which lets me earn about $6.40 from each subscriber per month,” Demers told us. “With about 2,100 subscribers, that’s already about $13,500 a month just for subscribers. This doesn’t even include extra tips and courier earnings.
Fanfix is home to other successful creators, including Madi Monroe, Brooke Monk, and Anna Shumate, among others. There are on average about 200 Fanfix subscribers per creator on the platform, according to the company.
“I was immediately intrigued by the overall concept of this platform – having a place to document behind-the-scenes content and not just having branded offerings to rely on felt pretty good to me! Also having a place to really chatting and engaging with my subscriber community is very special to me and that’s exactly what Fanfix has given me with the messaging side of the platform,” Demers added.
Picture credits: @savannahraedemers (Opens in a new window)
Gestetner and Pompan were only 21 and 23 respectively when they sold Fanfix to SuperOrdinary in June 2022 for eight figures. SuperOrdinary partners with over 140 brands, such as Farmacy, OLAPLEX, The Honest Company, etc.
SuperOrdinary has its own e-commerce platform called The GalaGalawhich offers a selection of brands selected by influencers.
Eventually, Fanfix creators will be able to collaborate with SuperOrdinary to sell products in their own online stores.
“By being part of Fanfix, these creators have access to the entire SuperOrdinary ecosystem. Whether it’s giving access to brands or whatever, access to a system that no other platform shape really can provide,” Gestetner said.
In November 2022, the company launched SuperLink, a monetization-focused in-bio link platform that displays a creator’s Fanfix page. Creators get 46% of ad revenue.