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Screenshot
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Type of site
| Membership platform |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Headquarters |
,
U.S.
|
| Created by |
|
| Key people | Jack Conte (CEO) |
| URL | patreon |
| Alexa rank |  356 (Global, October 2019) |
| Registration | Required |
| Users | 3 Million monthly active patrons |
| Launched | May 2013 |
| Current status | Active |
Patreon (/ˈpeɪtriɒn/, /-ən/) is a membership platform based in the United States
that provides business tools for creators to run a subscription content
service. It allows creators and artists to earn a monthly income by
providing exclusive rewards and perks to their subscribers, or
"patrons".
Patreon is used by YouTube videographers, webcomic artists, writers, podcasters, musicians, adult content creators, and other categories of creators who post regularly online. It allows artists to receive funding directly from their fans, or patrons, on a recurring basis or per work of art. The company, started by musician Jack Conte and developer Sam Yam in 2013, is based in San Francisco.
Patreon charges a commission of 5 to 12% of creators' monthly
income, in addition to payment processing fees. Memberships are billed
on the first of each month.
History
Logo used from May 2013–June 2017
Patreon was co-founded in May 2013 by Sam Yam and musician Jack Conte, who was looking for a way to make a living from his YouTube videos.
Together with Sam Yam he developed a platform that allows 'patrons' to
pay a set amount of money every time an artist creates a work of art.
The company raised $2.1 million in August 2013 from a group of venture capitalists and angel investors. In June 2014, Patreon raised a further $15 million in a series A round led by Danny Rimer of Index Ventures. In January 2016, the company closed on a fresh round of $30 million in a series B round, led by Thrive Capital, which put the total raised for Patreon at $47.1 million.
They signed up more than 125,000 "patrons" in their first 18 months. In late 2014, the website announced that patrons were sending over $1,000,000 per month to the site's content creators.
In March 2015, Patreon acquired Subbable, a similar voluntary subscription service created by the Green brothers, John and Hank Green, and brought over Subbable creators and contents, including CGP Grey, Destin Sandlin's Smarter Every Day, and the Green brothers' own CrashCourse and SciShow channels. The merger was consequent to an expected migration of payment systems with Amazon Payments that Subbable used.
In October 2015, the site was the target of a large cyber-attack,
with almost 15 gigabytes of password data, donation records, and source
code taken and published. The breach exposed more than 2.3 million
unique e-mail addresses and millions of private messages.
Following the attack, some patrons received extortion emails demanding
Bitcoin payments in exchange for the protection of their personal
information.
In July 2016, Patreon sent out an email
to its users, announcing changes for its more adult-oriented creators.
Such content creators working under the “Not Safe For Work” (NSFW)
categories on Patreon were now able to accept payments through PayPal
via PayPal's subsidiary Braintree.
This move now allows Adult Content creators on Patreon to accept
payment more easily. Prior to this change, these creators could only
accept payments through credit cards.
In January 2017, Patreon announced that it had sent over $100,000,000 to creators since its inception.
In May 2017, Patreon announced that it had over 50,000 active
creators, 1 million monthly patrons, and was on track to send over
$150 million to creators in 2017.
In June 2017, Patreon announced a suite of tools for creators to
run membership businesses on the Patreon platform. Notable improvements
included a CRM system, a mobile app called Lens, and a service to set up exclusive livestreams.
In August 2018, Patreon announced the acquisition of Memberful, a membership services company.
Business model
Patreon users are grouped by content type, such as video/films, podcast, comedy, comics,
games, and education. These content creators set up a page on the
Patreon website, where patrons can choose to pay a fixed amount to a
creator on a monthly basis.
Alternatively, content creators can configure their page so that
patrons pay every time the artist releases a new piece of art. A creator
typically displays a goal that the ongoing revenue will go towards, and
can set a maximum limit of how much they receive per month. Patrons can
cancel their payment at any time. Creators typically provide membership
benefits (commonly in the form of exclusive content or
behind-the-scenes work) for their patrons, depending on the amount that
each patron pays.
Patrons can unlock monetary tiers that increase the content type
they see from the user. A number of content creators on Patreon are also
YouTubers. They are able to create content on multiple platforms, and
while the YouTube videos may be available to the public, the patrons
receive private content made exclusively for them in exchange for aiding
the Patreon user's goal. Patreon takes a 5% commission on pledges. As of May 2017, the average pledge per patron was around $12, and a new patron pledged to a creator every 5.5 seconds.
As of February 2014, almost half of the artists on Patreon produce YouTube videos, while most of the rest are writers, webcomics artists, musicians, or podcasters. As of December 2016,
Patreon's Community Guidelines allow nudity and suggestive imagery as
long as they are clearly marked, but prohibit content that may be deemed
pornographic or as glorifying sexual violence.
Unlike other online platforms such as YouTube and Facebook,
which use trained algorithms to identify potentially inappropriate
content, Patreon's trust and safety team monitors users and investigates
complaints of Terms of Service violations.
Controversies
In July 2017, conservative pundit and YouTube personality Lauren Southern was banned from Patreon over concerns about Génération Identitaire's blocking of NGO
ships in the Mediterranean, ferrying migrants to Europe off the Libyan
coast. A letter she received from Patreon said she was removed for
"raising funds in order to take part in activities that are likely to
cause loss of life," referring to an incident in May involving Southern,
and the larger Defend Europe mission in July, which she covered on YouTube. Philosopher, writer, and podcast host Sam Harris,
who also received contributions from patrons on the website, objected
to Patreon's approach and announced that he would be leaving the
platform because of it. Shortly thereafter Patreon deleted the account of It's Going Down, a left-wing news website, for allegedly doxing.
In October 2017, Patreon published an expanded version of its
community guidelines, triggering a backlash from some adult content
creators. A petition in protest at the changes gained 1,800 signatures, and drew a response from Jack Conte.
In December 2017, Patreon announced a service fee starting on
December 18, 2017, where some fees would be charged to the patrons
rather than all fees being paid by the creator. This caused backlash
from a number of creators, including some who saw members of their
fanbase withdraw small pledges in response. Under the new payment model,
a $1 pledge would have cost a patron $1.38, and a $5 pledge would have
cost $5.50, representing a 38% and 10% rise respectively.
Due to this backlash and the loss of many pledges for creators, Patreon
announced that they would not be rolling out these changes, and
apologized to their users.
In 2018, Patreon was accused of cracking down on ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) videos.
In December 2018, Patreon banned far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos a day after he created an account as well as far-right American political commentator James Allsup. In the same month, Patreon also banned Carl Benjamin because he used homophobic and racist slurs in a YouTube interview in February 2018. Benjamin defended himself, claiming Patreon had taken his words out of context, and that "the video in question should not fall under Patreon’s rules because it was on YouTube."
This ban was criticized by Sam Harris and American libertarians, who have accused it of being politically motivated. Furthermore, Jordan Peterson announced a plan to launch an alternative service that will be safe from political interference, and jointly announced with Dave Rubin
in a January 1, 2019, video that they will be leaving Patreon by
January 15, 2019, as a direct response to its treatment of Carl
Benjamin.
