Patreon’s new service fee spurs concern that creators will lose patrons
It's worth remembering that less than three months ago, Patreon raised $60M in a series C (<a href="https://patreonhq.com/new-round-funding-816d5a592477" rel="nofollow">https://patreonhq.com/new-round-funding-816d5a592477</a>):<p><i>I’ve got some exciting news! Patreon has just secured an additional round of financing ($60M!), which means we will be scaling our team, building faster, and building more — all in service of getting you paid what you deserve to be paid, for the value you give the world. YESSS!</i><p>So why is Patreon changing their fees now, when they just got a ton of money and can basically do whatever they want in order to grow?  Their Zendesk article (<a href="https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005631963" rel="nofollow">https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005631963</a>) isn't much help:<p><i>Q: Why is Patreon doing this now?<p>A: Patreon exists to allow creators to get paid what they deserve to be paid, for the value they give the world. This is awesome and to continue this vision, we need to constantly evaluate our processes. As we work to deliver bigger and better features for creators and patrons in 2018, we felt like sooner than later made sense to put this change into effect.</i><p>This doesn't actually answer the question: why do the fees need to be changed at all, whether sooner <i>or</i> later?  Were creators asking for this change?  What was wrong with the way it worked before?<p>The obvious answer is that Patreon needs more money for some reason.  But… they just raised a bunch of money.  So I really don't understand how this change makes sense or helps anyone.