RJ Phillips, the founding CEO of OnlyFans, is once again leaning into controversy as he fine-tunes his latest project: a “mega social app” called Zoop. The platform is the official social media partner of the inaugural Enhanced Games, a multi-sport competition in Las Vegas on May 24 that publicly encourages the use of performance-enhancing drugs to test the limits of human potential.
Nearly 40 athletes are scheduled to compete, including American swimmers and Olympic gold medalists Cody Miller and Hunter Armstrong. Colombian weightlifter and Olympic silver medalist Lady Solis; and Australian swimmer and former world champion James Magnussen, who will come out of retirement to participate in the event. Nearly one million users have already signed up to Zoop or joined its waiting list, with athletes sharing training regimes and glimpses of life inside the event’s training camp in Abu Dhabi.
The enhanced games will feature a $1 million prize pool for world-record-breaking performances, along with additional payouts to the winners of individual events. There will be no drug testing, and the competition will not adhere to the World Anti-Doping Agency rules governing the Olympic Games.
Despite the controversy surrounding gaming, Phillips insists it is not something he actively pursues. “We acknowledge that there is some controversy around games. There are always new things coming out,” he told the Observer. It puts Zoop in familiar terms: Just as OnlyFans is primarily a paid subscription platform rather than a porn site, Zoop is primarily a social hub that returns the bulk of its money to its creators. As he put it: “If you don’t want to watch cartoons, don’t watch Cartoon Network.”
A platform with creatives at heart
Founded in 2020 by Phillips and OnlyFans co-founder Tim Stockley, Zoop initially launched as a platform for fan interaction through digital avatars, with additional NFT trading capabilities. This model reflects the moment, but like many Metaverse and NFT projects — including Metaverse, which reportedly cost $80 billion before shutting down in March — it eventually required a pivot.
“We took a step back and said: What are we trying to accomplish here?” “We are trying to achieve better and more equitable payouts and setups for all participants in this ecosystem,” Phillips said.
It points to an imbalance in how content platforms distribute revenue. “If someone goes and films a knockout, and it’s posted online, the platforms make more money from that than Fury, more than the event organizers or anyone else,” he said. From his perspective, “You’re paying for the table in the restaurant to hold your food while you eat. That doesn’t make sense to me.”
Zoop aims to differentiate itself by sharing over 80 percent of revenue with creators, including improv athletes in swimming, weightlifting and track and field. This model is sustainable, Phillips says, even though major platforms like Instagram and TikTok typically offer closer to 50%.
The platform also includes what Phillips calls an “AI kill switch,” allowing users to opt out of being shown AI-generated content and prioritize human-generated posts.
The broader creator economy underscores Zoop’s offering. From over 200 million content creators around the world, Only about two million people earn six figures a year. Most influencers rely heavily on brand partnerships, with companies now allocating up to a quarter of their digital marketing budgets to influencer campaigns. The real-world influence is seen at events like Coachella, often called the “Olympics of Influencers” due to the influx of brand-sponsored creatives.
Zoop positions itself as an alternative. As they gain a greater share of revenue from advertising and user engagement, creators can enter what Phillips described as a “new world,” where they can earn income “without putting out a product to sell merchandise that they may not necessarily believe in.”
The enhanced games themselves have drawn sharp criticism. Norwegian academics of mathematical sciences Øyvind Sandbaek and Sigmund Loland describe the event as “A high-stakes social experiment [that] It abandons the principles that govern current elite sports: respect for athlete autonomy and health, fair competition and the pursuit of sporting and human excellence.
Phillips says Zoop takes a neutral stance on the debate, though he personally “likes what they’re trying to accomplish there.”
Beyond enhanced games, Zoop is building partnerships with other global events to expand its reach. These events include Asia’s first-ever Eurovision Song Contest, which is scheduled to be held in Bangkok in November. Phillips said the company is also in “advanced talks” to launch in mainland China later this year, an ambitious move given the country’s strict internet restrictions.
However, Zoop draws a clear line when it comes to moderating controversial content. Phillips said that the platform will not serve as an editorial authority on every controversial topic.
“Our responsibility is to operate safely, comply with applicable laws and regulations and provide the infrastructure that allows this [creators] “To reach their audience in a responsible way,” he said. “In such cases, channel owners also have responsibilities around their content environments, while we ensure that platform standards and government requirements are met.”
