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They probably have the biggest platform for paying creatives, I wonder when they'll ditch YouTube to get more control over their user base and increase their 5%

by gourou 9y ago

They probably have the biggest platform for paying creatives, I wonder when they'll ditch YouTube to get more control over their user base and increase their 5% margin.

wongarsu 9y ago
I fail to see any advantage in ditching YouTube? On private videos for Patreon subscribers Youtube supplies free video hosting with a decent and familiar experience for the content creator. For public videos (or videos that become public after a delay), Youtube offers free hosting and lots of discoverability. In both cases I only see Patreon having additional cost with little to no upside by ditching Youtube (especially since Youtube policies are already very lenient on non-monetized non-public videos). Maybe I'm missing something obvious?
- xemdetia 9y ago
  There are a lot of patreon people that don't have a strong youtube presence, and a lot of that content ends up being cross hosted by youtube. You have people that are working with a pre-payout budget of a few thousand a month- it's possible that they are trying to build out more pay-to-use features that increase the 5% slice they are taking. Private video hosting for supporters that isn't rigged to youtube settings is something that could actually be a boon. Just because youtube is easier doesn't mean delivering on a non-youtube service couldn't help delivering the rewards. I can see how they can upsell a lot of other services though around delivering rewards. If I have 10000 people who need stickers for that 5$ support level is it worth the time to hand-stuff all those envelopes? Or is it worth an extra 20c a letter to have someone else stuff it for you? The more I think about it the more I think that they can actually provide legitimate services in the same frames as vistaprint, teespring and others for these physical deliverables and just providing that fulfillment. Videos that I can schedule to release on patreon might just be worth it to some people.
  - wongarsu 9y ago
    Something with merchandise will likely happen. Quote from the article: >Deeper pockets could also allow Patreon to build out its suite of bonus tools for creators, some of which it could charge extra for. “There’s going to be new opportunities to build revenue streams into the product” Conte has promised me. He suggested that could include selling event tickets or merchandise, or better helping creators understand and communicate with fans. With them having a partnership with a livestreaming platform, I wouldn't put it past them to do something to replace private YouTube videos. But I think shipping postcards or stickers or art prints is a much more direct way to more revenue, and could be relatively cheap to set up with the right partnerships.
vollmond 9y ago
What do you mean by "ditch YouTube"?
- gourou 9y ago
  A lot of Patreon content is private YouTube videos
toomuchtodo 9y ago
Or just partner with Vimeo?
nemothekid 9y ago
I keep seeing this idea that they should ditch YouTube. Why? Video Distribution is expensive at any meaningful scale, YouTune charges them nothing to use their platform, and it's almost impossible at this point to build a better video platform than YouTube. Why burn millions of dollars trying to build a YouTube clone?

by gourou 9y ago

They probably have the biggest platform for paying creatives, I wonder when they'll ditch YouTube to get more control over their user base and increase their 5% margin.

wongarsu 9y ago

I fail to see any advantage in ditching YouTube? On private videos for Patreon subscribers Youtube supplies free video hosting with a decent and familiar experience for the content creator. For public videos (or videos that become public after a delay), Youtube offers free hosting and lots of discoverability. In both cases I only see Patreon having additional cost with little to no upside by ditching Youtube (especially since Youtube policies are already very lenient on non-monetized non-public videos). Maybe I'm missing something obvious?

xemdetia 9y ago
There are a lot of patreon people that don't have a strong youtube presence, and a lot of that content ends up being cross hosted by youtube. You have people that are working with a pre-payout budget of a few thousand a month- it's possible that they are trying to build out more pay-to-use features that increase the 5% slice they are taking. Private video hosting for supporters that isn't rigged to youtube settings is something that could actually be a boon. Just because youtube is easier doesn't mean delivering on a non-youtube service couldn't help delivering the rewards. I can see how they can upsell a lot of other services though around delivering rewards. If I have 10000 people who need stickers for that 5$ support level is it worth the time to hand-stuff all those envelopes? Or is it worth an extra 20c a letter to have someone else stuff it for you? The more I think about it the more I think that they can actually provide legitimate services in the same frames as vistaprint, teespring and others for these physical deliverables and just providing that fulfillment. Videos that I can schedule to release on patreon might just be worth it to some people.
- wongarsu 9y ago
  Something with merchandise will likely happen. Quote from the article: >Deeper pockets could also allow Patreon to build out its suite of bonus tools for creators, some of which it could charge extra for. “There’s going to be new opportunities to build revenue streams into the product” Conte has promised me. He suggested that could include selling event tickets or merchandise, or better helping creators understand and communicate with fans. With them having a partnership with a livestreaming platform, I wouldn't put it past them to do something to replace private YouTube videos. But I think shipping postcards or stickers or art prints is a much more direct way to more revenue, and could be relatively cheap to set up with the right partnerships.

vollmond 9y ago

What do you mean by "ditch YouTube"?

gourou 9y ago
A lot of Patreon content is private YouTube videos

toomuchtodo 9y ago

Or just partner with Vimeo?

nemothekid 9y ago

I keep seeing this idea that they should ditch YouTube. Why? Video Distribution is expensive at any meaningful scale, YouTune charges them nothing to use their platform, and it's almost impossible at this point to build a better video platform than YouTube. Why burn millions of dollars trying to build a YouTube clone?