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Patreon cuts deep inside creators’ pockets

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Re: Patreon cuts deep inside creators’ pockets

#41

Post by cuteboy19 »

colechristensen wrote: post #18
comboy wrote: post #3

I'm not sure it's that high. They probably have AML regulations in multiple countries on their backs, and they are dealing with tons of tiny payments not a few big ones. For each tiny payment there's some chance of a problem occurring which will require support time.

Banks take care of an enormous amount of small transactions on credit and debit cards and only charge ~3%, some European countries have fees as low as 0.3%. The high fees of patreon have nothing to do with payment support issues.

In India, the cost of instant payments is exactly zero. Additionally, RuPay cards have a Zero MDR which has really really made Visa and MasterCard angry

Re: Patreon cuts deep inside creators’ pockets

#42

Post by kareemsabri »

zippergz wrote: post #39
tolmasky wrote: post #38

The thing about Patreon is that it sucks for users too (as in, the consumers). Both the website and the app really suck. They look horrible, have few features, and often work poorly. It essentially serves as a notification platform that I then try to bounce out of into YouTube or wherever as soon as possible. It's kind of mind boggling that they seem to leave so much engagement on the table when even a mediocre websi…

What features should Patreon have? I'm not paying for website features. I am paying to support creators I like. I'd actually be happier if the platform did even less. Just get the money to the people I want to support in a low-friction manner, and get out of the way.

How can they "get out of the way" when you need to use the app to play the content?

The player sucks, episode search sucks.

Re: Patreon cuts deep inside creators’ pockets

#43

Post by dfinninger »

agf wrote: post #34
WesleyLivesay wrote: post #16

These articles seem to pop up from time to time, and the persons numbers seem roughly accurate in my experience. In my experience Patreon has been around 11% cut scenario, split very roughly between Payment Fees and Platform fees. But I am on the Founders plan, which is the same 5% platform fees as Patreon Lite, but with the extra features of the 8% Pro plans. I do think it is probably best for creators to diversify…

I'm a fan of Patreon, but in my experience, it's not a well known platform outside of tech. I've mentioned it a number of times to a variety of different musicians, music producers, etc., and until maybe the past year none of them had ever heard of it, though recently one had. I think it does have the potential to be like Kickstarter and really broaden the appeal of this type of contribution, but from what I can see,…

As an anecdotal counterpoint from the people I talk to, anyone who watches YouTube videos regularly seems to know what Patreon is. That might not be a massive section of the population, but it’s not comprised of mainly tech workers.

Re: Patreon cuts deep inside creators’ pockets

#44

Post by Nextgrid »

jdwithit wrote: post #31
dubswithus wrote: post #20

How many engineers does Patreon have?

According to this article[0], product and engineering was ~150 people at the end of 2021 and they hope to scale to 400. Which...seems like a lot for what the company is? Although the hiring landscape has changed drastically in the last month so who knows how accurate that plan is today. [0] https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/21/patreon-cpo-interview-doub...

Yes that's absolutely a lot considering the code to solve Patreon's business problem has been written long ago and works just as well. The core business problem can be boiled down to a set of spreadsheets - based on payments going in and creators subscription timeframes you work out the payout for each creator. If it takes you 150 engineers to do the aforementioned I'd look at you in a funny way or start suspecting ulterior motives (and in this case there indeed are ulterior motives - hint: the objective is not to build a profitable product).

Re: Patreon cuts deep inside creators’ pockets

#45

Post by raverbashing »

kareemsabri wrote: post #11

Patreon is a business and I don't begrudge them the ability to charge customers for their service (though I think it's pretty buggy). Before Patreon, I did not subscribe to a single podcast. After Patreon, I subscribe to 3-5 at various times. I subscribe to a couple other standalone products but the bar is certainly higher as the value they must provide is greater to get over having another subscription on another pl…

Exactly. And in the end, 80% of something is still something (or better said, 100% of zero is, you guessed, zero)

A lot of people have been able to offer niche content through Patreon, so it's a net positive even if they fumble their offer sometimes

Re: Patreon cuts deep inside creators’ pockets

#46

Post by Macha »

kareemsabri wrote: post #42
zippergz wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What features should Patreon have? I'm not paying for website features. I am paying to support creators I like. I'd actually be happier if the platform did even less. Just get the money to the people I want to support in a low-friction manner, and get out of the way.

How can they "get out of the way" when you need to use the app to play the content? The player sucks, episode search sucks.

I guess most creators I watch tend to link to unlisted youtube videos to share with their patrons rather than use Patreon's built in uploads.

Re: Patreon cuts deep inside creators’ pockets

#48

Post by kareemsabri »

Macha wrote: post #46
kareemsabri wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can they "get out of the way" when you need to use the app to play the content? The player sucks, episode search sucks.

I guess most creators I watch tend to link to unlisted youtube videos to share with their patrons rather than use Patreon's built in uploads.

Oh. I wish more did that.

Re: Patreon cuts deep inside creators’ pockets

#49

Post by Ekaros »

bratwurst3000 wrote: post #47

I know patreon only because of youtube. Are there many creators not connected to youtube on patreon? My impression is if youtube would allow donations to creators, patreon would be dead. Am I wrong?

They already have superchats and and memberships(paid, different from subscribing) on Youtube. These are mostly used by streamers. Then again I think you can give superchats on premiers. Not sure if you can limit videos to membership only.

Re: Patreon cuts deep inside creators’ pockets

#50

Post by sorenjan »

jeroenhd wrote: post #36

What I think is something people easily overlook with Patreon and similar platforms is that it's quite hard to make a decent profit on $1 or $5 transactions that most of Patreon's income seems to come from. They're definitely overcharging for more profit, but your margins won't be much lower if you handle payment yourself. Your 3% bank cut to receive money doesn't always work because often there's a minimum fee per t…

I think this is one of the problems flattr tries to solve. instead of multiple micro transactions you make one larger transaction each month to flattr, who then divides it up to all the creators you want to support. I don't know how Patreon does it, if they make one charge for each creator you support I guess the transactions fees can become a large part of the total amount.

https://flattr.com/

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