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This was likely the strategy. The board wanted more profit, knew they needed to change some things, and decided to do it before a real competitor made it to the

This was likely the strategy. The board wanted more profit, knew they needed to change some things, and decided to do it before a real competitor made it to the scene.

siffland 9y ago
Amen. Like always it is all about the Benjamin's. They are a for profit business. The best thing you can do is switch to another service with better rates. Most people wont do that. I currently give $38 a month to 19 creators ($2 each, I don't really have much to give). So that is like what $13 in fees for me. I think not.
- robryan 9y ago
  Patreon would only need to bill you once, not sure why they need to add processing fees to each pledge?
  - trowawee 9y ago
    Because it lets them extract a lot more cash from their users under the cover of processing fees.
  - njarboe 9y ago
    I agree. Without an efficient micropayment system available, I can understand a charge per transaction. But adding a transaction fee to each pledge, when the patron is making one monthly payment, is a bad idea. Maybe they want to get rid of patrons supporting lots of people at low levels for some reason.
  - runj__ 9y ago
    They could argue they're potentially paying a transaction fee when they're paying the creator if you're the only patreon. That's a silly argument though. I'd be happy to pay a single 2.9% of my total pledges + a single 35c fee. This just kills $1 donations (and in my mind: anything up to $10)
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - zimpenfish 9y ago
    It seems that they might also be de-aggregating pledges - which means not only will you be paying the 2.9% + 35c on each pledge, you'll also get N charges on your card rather than one. There was also some other hint that pledges would continue to be charged on the day you signed up rather than the 1st - just to make a triple whammy of idiocy.
- endless1234 9y ago
  >So that is like what $13 in fees for me. No, 19 * .35 + 38 * .029 = 7.752. Still quite a lot of course. This change really disincentivizes making multiple small donations (no shit). If instead you'd pick 4 creators to give 9.5 to, the fees would drop to under a third.
tehwebguy 9y ago
I asked this elsewhere and got no answer so far: > how will this earn Patreon more profits? Am I doing the math wrong?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- falcolas 9y ago
  EDIT: Due to a blog post I was unaware of, the rest of this post is incorrect. Patreon will still make a bit more money than before, but with the new structure of billing each pledge on its own schedule, not nearly as much as I had outlined. https://blog.patreon.com/updating-patreons-fee-structure/ https://blog.patreon.com/updating-patreons-fee-structure/ ORIGINAL: Most patrons provide many small donation amounts. Patreon will, as called out in the article, get a lot more money from those patrons. If you assume a 2.9% + $0.30 CC charge fee (i.e. Stripe), and a patron giving $1 to 100 artists: Before: Patreon gets $5 from their cut from the artists; the patron is charged $100, the artists each get $0.67. After: Patreon gets $5 from their cut from the artists, and $34.70 from the additional fees; the patron is charged $137.50, the artists each get $0.95.
  - freeone3000 9y ago
    The structure to avoid increased fees is dumb. Charge once, wallet the money, distribute as needed. Steam can handle this. Bitcoin can handle this. Why can't Patreon handle this?

This was likely the strategy. The board wanted more profit, knew they needed to change some things, and decided to do it before a real competitor made it to the scene.

siffland 9y ago

Amen. Like always it is all about the Benjamin's. They are a for profit business. The best thing you can do is switch to another service with better rates. Most people wont do that. I currently give $38 a month to 19 creators ($2 each, I don't really have much to give). So that is like what $13 in fees for me. I think not.

robryan 9y ago
Patreon would only need to bill you once, not sure why they need to add processing fees to each pledge?
- trowawee 9y ago
  Because it lets them extract a lot more cash from their users under the cover of processing fees.
- njarboe 9y ago
  I agree. Without an efficient micropayment system available, I can understand a charge per transaction. But adding a transaction fee to each pledge, when the patron is making one monthly payment, is a bad idea. Maybe they want to get rid of patrons supporting lots of people at low levels for some reason.
- runj__ 9y ago
  They could argue they're potentially paying a transaction fee when they're paying the creator if you're the only patreon. That's a silly argument though. I'd be happy to pay a single 2.9% of my total pledges + a single 35c fee. This just kills $1 donations (and in my mind: anything up to $10)
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- zimpenfish 9y ago
  It seems that they might also be de-aggregating pledges - which means not only will you be paying the 2.9% + 35c on each pledge, you'll also get N charges on your card rather than one. There was also some other hint that pledges would continue to be charged on the day you signed up rather than the 1st - just to make a triple whammy of idiocy.
endless1234 9y ago
>So that is like what $13 in fees for me. No, 19 * .35 + 38 * .029 = 7.752. Still quite a lot of course. This change really disincentivizes making multiple small donations (no shit). If instead you'd pick 4 creators to give 9.5 to, the fees would drop to under a third.

tehwebguy 9y ago

I asked this elsewhere and got no answer so far: > how will this earn Patreon more profits? Am I doing the math wrong?

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
falcolas 9y ago
EDIT: Due to a blog post I was unaware of, the rest of this post is incorrect. Patreon will still make a bit more money than before, but with the new structure of billing each pledge on its own schedule, not nearly as much as I had outlined. https://blog.patreon.com/updating-patreons-fee-structure/ https://blog.patreon.com/updating-patreons-fee-structure/ ORIGINAL: Most patrons provide many small donation amounts. Patreon will, as called out in the article, get a lot more money from those patrons. If you assume a 2.9% + $0.30 CC charge fee (i.e. Stripe), and a patron giving $1 to 100 artists: Before: Patreon gets $5 from their cut from the artists; the patron is charged $100, the artists each get $0.67. After: Patreon gets $5 from their cut from the artists, and $34.70 from the additional fees; the patron is charged $137.50, the artists each get $0.95.
- freeone3000 9y ago
  The structure to avoid increased fees is dumb. Charge once, wallet the money, distribute as needed. Steam can handle this. Bitcoin can handle this. Why can't Patreon handle this?