As consumers desire greater control over how they spend their attention, an emerging biz model will be paying for ongoing access to *people*–or what I’ll call “Community-as-a-Service.”
There’s now lots of subscription services for high-quality premium content (Substack for newsletters; Knowable & Luminary for audio, etc). But for creators who lack the ability to sell something tangible, Community-as-a-Service enables monetizing *time* and *access*.
Examples of Communities-as-a-Service:
– Tools like InviteRobot & LaunchPass enable paid Slack groups
– Knowledge Planet in China allows KOLs to create paid groups & interact w/ subscribers
– Video games: people pay for status & attention in communities like Twitch, Fortnite, etc
The Community-as-a-Service model can combine paid subscriptions for access to the community itself, and tipping to express support/appreciation (including admins tipping community members for valuable contributions!).
Not every community can successfully charge for access. The paid model works best when there’s high intentionality (the community is a destination), desire for recognition within the community, peer-to-peer affinity & interactions, and potential for ongoing exchange of value.
For fans, the value prop is meaningful conversations and connection with each other and deeper engagement w/ someone they have affinity for. For creators, the benefit is being able to earn money and engage with fans, without having to produce something.
Deeper trends driving this:
– Creators have amassed audiences but lack ways to monetize it in a value-aligned way (not ads)
– Desire for creators to own user relationships directly
– Move towards curated micro-communities
– Value of experience over things
Another example that many folks don’t want to talk about: OnlyFans! The functions (like captions shown to free followers but photos only for subscribers, pay per view DMs, etc) might have been designed for sex workers, but would be incredibly powerful for Instagram influencers and other online personalities.
In many ways, the adult industry is ahead of the game on this one. I had a conversation with Hamish at Substack where he told me that they were huge admirers of OnlyFans — they’re smart to be paying attention!
OnlyFans is FASCINATING – agree it’s an interesting case to study on how to monetize access and exclusivity.