Patreon (2013): fans fund creators per video, not per view

In May 2013 Jack Conte launched Patreon so fans pledge per video or per month; within weeks his $100-per-video ad income became $5,000.

Patreon

创意是什么Replace per-view ad money with direct patronage: fans pledge dollars per creation or per month, giving creators a recurring income from their own audience.脱胎换骨

当时的题目

Jack Conte's 'Pedals' video cost $10,000 and three months; a million YouTube views would pay about $100 in ads. Kickstarter funded one-off projects, not weekly bloggers and YouTubers, so Conte wanted a way for fans to fund each future work.

它是怎么成立的

In early 2013 musician Jack Conte, one half of Pomplamoose, had spent three months and $10,000 on his video 'Pedals,' with a set full of real robots. A million YouTube views would earn him about $100 in ad revenue. He sketched a different model on 14 sheets of printer paper and brought it to Stanford roommate Sam Yam: a site where fans pledge money per video or per month instead of per view.

Patreon launched May 7, 2013 with Conte as the guinea-pig creator; he asked $1 per video and offered patrons-only streams, presale tickets and Google Hangouts. Within weeks fans were committing more than $5,000 per video, against his usual $100. 'He needs monthly income, and Patreon brings crowd funding away from singular one-off projects and into the realm of regular content creation,' Conte told TechCrunch on launch day.

By 2017 Patreon had 50,000 creators and over a million patrons, was on track to pay out $150M that year, and took just a 5% cut; a $60M Series C valued it near $450M. The Verge called it 'the economic engine of internet culture,' and its mission — funding the creative class — became the blueprint of the creator economy.

妙在哪

It changed the unit of payment from the view to the person: fans fund the creator's next work, not a single campaign.
The founding use case was Conte's own: a creator whose $10,000 video earned $100 from ads built the tool he needed.
Recurring pledges gave creators predictable monthly income, exactly what one-off crowdfunding couldn't provide.
A 5% cut kept the platform cheap enough to undercut ad platforms' 45% take, aligning Patreon's growth with creators' pay.

做出来什么

Fans committed over $5,000 per video within weeks of launch against his usual $100; by 2017 Patreon had 50,000 creators and over a million patrons, was on track to pay out $150M, and raised a $60M Series C at about a $450M valuation.

可以借走的

When ads can't cover the cost of making something, don't fight the rate — change who pays: recurring patronage turned a creator's audience into a salary and made the creative class fundable.

后来

Patreon acquired rival Subbable in 2015, and by early 2019 had 170 employees and over $100M raised. The per-creation model eventually shifted toward monthly memberships, while the idea it proved — fans paying creators directly on a recurring basis — spread across the creator economy. Conte stayed on as CEO, still funding his own music on the platform he built.

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