Passes captures fan transaction flow

A take rate makes Passes behave more like a marketplace than a SaaS tool. The company only gets paid when fans actually buy access, messages, or livestreams, which ties revenue to creator earnings and lets Passes undercut subscription software on upfront cost. That model also works especially well in a high spend niche, where a small base of creators can drive large GMV and unusually high revenue per creator.1 2 3 4

• Passes was estimated at a $9.5M revenue run rate on $95M GMV across about 900 creators in February 2024, implying roughly $6,666 in annualized revenue per creator. That is far denser monetization than Stan, which had about $482 ARPC across 55,697 customers in March 2024 because Stan sells software subscriptions, not a cut of every fan purchase.1 4
• The 10% plus $0.30 fee matters because Passes sits between OnlyFans and creator SaaS tools. OnlyFans takes 20% of creator earnings, while Stan historically monetized with a flat monthly subscription. Passes can pitch creators a meaningfully lower rake than OnlyFans while still capturing more upside per successful seller than a pure SaaS product.1 2 4
• This model is strengthened by Passes' content positioning. By allowing risqué content but banning nudity, Passes can still attract fans who pay for intimate access while qualifying as a lower risk merchant with payment processors, which helps protect margins on every transaction instead of giving that economics away in higher processing costs.1 3

The likely direction is deeper payments infrastructure and more tools that increase fan spend per creator. As the category matures, the biggest winners will be the platforms that own the transaction flow, because they can compound revenue every time a creator adds a new paid behavior, from memberships to DMs to livestreams, without needing to constantly raise software prices.1 4