Patreon

History

Patreon was founded in May 2013 by artist Jack Conte, who was looking for a way to make a living from his popular YouTube videos. Together with Sam Yam he developed a platform that allows patrons to donate a set amount of money every time an artist creates a work of art. The company raised 2.1 million dollars in August 2013 from a group of venture capitalists and angel investors. In June 2014 the company raised a further $15,000,000 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 puts the total raised for Patreon at $47.1 million.

The company signed up more than 125,000 "patrons" in its 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 of an expected migration of payment systems with Amazon Payments that Subbable used.

In October 2015, the site was the target of a massive hacking attack with almost fifteen gigabytes' worth 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. Notably, content creators working under the “NSFW” Not Safe For Work categories on Patreon can now accept payments through PayPal via PayPal’s subsidiary Braintree. This move now allows Adult Content creators on Patreon to accept payment more easily. Before these creators could only accept payments through credit cards. A content creator of patreon also relayed this information on the popular online community Reddit.

Business model

Patreon users are grouped by content type, including video/films, podcast, comedy, comics, games, education, etc. 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 their end goal that the funding will go towards and can set a maximum limit of how much they receive per month. This differs from other crowd-funding platforms like Kickstarter, where creators obtain a single sum after a successful campaign and typically have to start over for every new piece.[4] Patrons can cancel their donation at any time. Similar to other platforms, content creators typically provide benefits (commonly in the form of art and videos) and for their patrons depending on the amount that each patron pays.[19][20]

Patrons can unlock monetary tiers that increases 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 aiding the Patreon user’s goal. Patreon takes a 5% commission on pledges. As of June 2015, the average pledge per creation was $5, there was an approximation of 16 million page views and with over 15,000 creators joining the site monthly.

Participating artists

As of February 2014, almost half of the artists produce YouTube videos, while the rest are writers, webcomics artists, or podcasters. On average, patrons donate $7 per creation. While the website initially targeted musicians (musician and performer Amanda Palmer uses Patreon and operates independently from a music label), established webcomic artists such as Jonathan Rosenberg, Zach Weinersmith and Paul Taylor are successfully using it.

As of December 2016, Patreon's Community Guidelines allows nudity and suggestive imagery, as long as clearly marked as such, but prohibits content that may be deemed pornographic or as glorifying sexual violence.