EPTOn February 14 2012 06:36 Primadog wrote:
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Why flattr? That system has no uptake and is simply not viable. Look at their cost structure:
http://flattr.com/support/faq
Minusing the transaction and flattr tithe, you're looking at 15% or more of the contribution going somewhere not eSports related. In comparison, Chipin is free. Why not build over chipin instead?
When you add or withdraw money you only pay a fee to the payment provider you choose. This fee is displayed when you add or withdraw money (you can see it on your payment history as well). We take 10% of your incoming revenue as a fee to keep the Flattr systems afloat, hope that's ok?
http://flattr.com/support/faq
Minusing the transaction and flattr tithe, you're looking at 15% or more of the contribution going somewhere not eSports related. In comparison, Chipin is free. Why not build over chipin instead?
Hi Primadog, that’s a really good question!
Flattrs obviously “large” cut of the money is definitely something we thought about too. Here is the backstory. But we want to start with saying that even though we plan to use Flattr it wont be the only way to support via “project hive”. We want to hook in any system that people wants to use to support the community as that is the main reason for us doing this. We plan to add PayPal, Kickstarter, or any great system that we can. But we think Project Hive and Flattr is the perfect match here is why. (Feel free to speak if you have a different opinion as this is an open discussion.)
We have thought of a system that makes it possible to support your favorite content provider for a long time. Something simple that works well with the way we consume our favorite form of entertainment, Starcraft. Sure, most big players and casters have a paypal donate somewhere, but a donation with PayPal is invisible to the community and technically not great for how we want to support. We want to easily give small amounts to different types of content, like a vod, stream, team or fan art etc. with one click, show it to the world and feel proud we did something great. Kind of like a Facebook like button, but with actual value, not just a pat on the back. It turned out that Flattr actually is that system. They let you set a monthly budget you can afford and then divide your money by clicking Flattr buttons, just as you click like buttons. That was for us the perfect match, people can support, show it and give something back. At the same time we would get like toplists of content people love and supports.
We have also wondered why the fee for Flattr is as high as it is and found out the following. First Flattr is a very new system (like 1,5 years of public life) which mean that they need to get some kind of revenue to be able to develop and sustain their product. But most important they don’t have any “per transaction fee”, meaning that if you spend 2 euros/month towards 100 different vods/players it will be splitted 100 times. That is not possible with any other system. Eg PayPal have a transaction fee of over 3% but also about 30 cents per transaction. Meaning that if you would to give 50 cents to someone with PayPal they will get almost nothing. Giving 2euros/month to something would yield higher fees with most systems then with Flattr.This project is all about micro donations, it's less about the actual money and more about showing your appreciation.
ChipIn uses PayPal for the actual transactions
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ChipIn does not charge any fees to organizers and contributors of events that send payments directly to the Organizer’s PayPal account. However, PayPal Premier or Business accounts may be subject to fees from PayPal.
We have to accept that if we don’t want do develop our own donation platform from scratch, we have to use an existing system and pay their quote. Once you accept that and focus on pure functionality, Flattr definitely seems to be a perfect fit for this project. Hopefully Flattrs cut will be shaved when they mature and grow as a company. But for now, we just have to deal with it.
Another reason for picking Flattr is that their headquarter is here in Malmö, Sweden - where we live. This means we can have actual physical meetings with their developers/management, which speeds up the process greatly. I pitched this idea to Flattr four months ago and they have been a great help since to our developers. Flattr do have an open and a very advanced API - which is great for us. What’s even greater is that one of their API developers plays Starcraft and likes our idea. He’s been our main contact at Flattr and has helped us greatly with the back end development so far, something he’s doing on his spare time and not as an Flattr employee, which is even cooler. I am pretty sure that if we approached Paypal or any other major service we wouldn’t get this kind of resources and would probably just be ignored. This is a pretty huge project, and the more time we can save without decreasing the quality of the project overall - the better for all parties.
