A chart has been doing the rounds. It ranks tech companies by revenue per employee. At the top, by a distance that is almost rude, is OnlyFans at about $33 million per employee. At the bottom is Microsoft, at about $1.49 million.
So should Microsoft fire everyone and start selling subscriptions to exclusive Excel content? Pivot tables, but spicy?
Not quite. Here is what the chart actually says, and what it does not.
The numbers, as shown
- OnlyFans: about $33M per employee
- NVIDIA: about $7.2M
- Anthropic: about $6.6M
- Meta: about $3.6M
- Apple: about $3.1M
- Google: about $2.1M
- Microsoft: about $1.49M
The method is simple: latest annual revenue divided by total employees. The chart credits company reports and the Financial Times. Other versions of this chart use other years and other sources, so the exact figures move around. The order mostly does not.
Why OnlyFans wins: its workforce is not on the payroll
OnlyFans has a few dozen employees. It also has millions of creators who do the actual work, and they are not employees. They keep most of what they earn, and the platform keeps a cut.
Divide revenue by a headcount that leaves out almost everyone who produces it, and you get a spectacular number. It is a fair measure of how lean the company is. It is a poor measure of how much work goes into the revenue.
Why Microsoft "loses": it does everything
Microsoft builds operating systems, office software, a cloud, data centres, games, devices, security products and AI. It runs global sales and support for millions of business customers. That takes people. Lots of them.
And yet Microsoft is one of the most profitable companies on earth. Revenue per employee does not measure profit, market share, customer lock-in or how long a business lasts. A company can be last on this chart and still be the one nobody can replace.
The part the chart does not show: the ecosystem
Here is the angle we care about at SARVO. Microsoft does not deliver most of its products alone. Behind it sits a huge network of partners who sell, implement, migrate, customise and support Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, Azure and the rest.
Those partners are not on Microsoft's payroll either. In a way, Microsoft and OnlyFans are running the same playbook: a platform in the middle, and an ecosystem around it doing much of the work and earning much of the money.
The difference is what the ecosystem does. On one platform it is content. On the other, it is ERP rollouts, cloud migrations and security programmes that keep companies running.
What this means if you run a technology partner
- Do not chase the vanity number. Revenue per employee looks great in a pitch deck. Your clients care whether the project goes live.
- Be the ecosystem, not the headcount. The big platforms grow by letting partners do the delivery. That is the opportunity.
- Lean is good, thin is risky. A tiny team with a huge revenue figure only works when someone else does the heavy lifting. Know who that is in your business.
- Specialise. The partners who win are the ones a buyer can name for a specific job: Dynamics 365 for manufacturing, Zoho for a 50-person team, Odoo for e-commerce.
What this means if you are buying
Revenue per employee tells you nothing about whether a partner will deliver your project. Ask instead:
- Have you done this for a business like mine?
- Who supports us after go-live?
- Can I speak to two past clients?
The bottom line
OnlyFans is the most efficient company on the chart. Microsoft is the most essential one. Only one of them runs your payroll, your books and your cloud.
Looking for a partner who can deliver on Microsoft, Zoho, Odoo, SAP or Salesforce? Compare technology partners on SARVO, or see Microsoft partners in India.
FAQ
What is revenue per employee? It is a company's annual revenue divided by its total number of employees. It shows how much revenue each person on the payroll brings in, on average.
Which tech company has the highest revenue per employee? In the widely shared chart, OnlyFans is highest at about $33 million per employee, because its creators are not counted as employees.
Why does Microsoft have the lowest revenue per employee among big tech? Microsoft employs people across software, cloud, data centres, devices, gaming, sales and support, so its headcount is very large. It is still one of the most profitable companies in the world.
What is NVIDIA's revenue per employee? The chart shows about $7.2 million per employee, driven by demand for its AI chips. Figures vary by source and year.
Is revenue per employee a good way to judge a company? It measures efficiency, not profit, market share or how essential a company is. Use it alongside other numbers, never on its own.
How does this affect Microsoft partners? Microsoft relies on a large partner ecosystem to sell, implement and support its products, which is a big opportunity for partners who specialise.