Gov/en/Portal:Economy/Main

💡 In simple words: The economy is how money moves on the platform. Small commissions on deals help pay for the tools and services everyone shares, keeping the whole community running fairly.

🎯 In 20 seconds (scientific summary): WikiDeal's economy aims at financial autonomy, without depending on governmental or parapublic aid, while encouraging partnerships and support (donations, specific projects) as long as the project remains user-owned. Funding rests on two main sources: user subscriptions (the general subscription, starting at CHF 1 per month, giving access to the platform and its models of contract, not to the transactions) and commissions on each transaction, at real cost, by nature generally lower than those of today's dominant platforms, with full public transparency and surplus returned to the community.

Economy Portal

The fundamentals in five points

1. Financial autonomy as a goal. The economy of WikiDeal aims at being financially autonomous and at not depending on governmental or parapublic aid. WikiDeal encourages partnerships and support, and seeks support especially at the beginning, in the form of Donations or specific projects, as long as it remains a project owned by its users: a citizen-based research and development programme.
2. Two main funding sources. The financing of the platform is covered by user subscriptions (the general subscription) and commissions on each transaction.
3. The fundamental rule: at real cost. Commissions must be at real cost. Real costs include a share of volunteering and semi-volunteering (volunteering rewarded with Karma tokens, that is, exchange rights), notably for assistance. By nature, this makes commissions generally lower than the commissions observed on the leading platforms currently dominating their domains.
4. The bet. Lower commissions, more flexibility, more participativity: that is the bet WikiDeal takes.
5. Radical transparency. Everyone should know where the money goes: accounts are public, every commission is broken down publicly, and any surplus is returned to the community (see Surplus Return).

The sections below detail each point.

Subscription

The subscription starts at 1 Swiss franc per month, approximately 1 euro or 1 US dollar, and the intention is to keep this cost low. This general user subscription gives access to the use of the platform and to its models of contract (the contract templates users need to make deals), but not to the transactions themselves. For details, see Monthly Subscriptions.

Commissions

Like on today's large platforms, transactions carry commissions. On each transaction, one part of the commission goes to the functioning of WikiDeal, one part goes to the functioning of the User Group operating the service, and everything else goes to the provider of the service or product. The goal is for these commissions to be extremely low.

WikiDeal's Commission structure is built on one principle: at real cost. The platform charges only what it needs to cover the real, auditable costs of processing Transactions, maintaining Infrastructure, and providing legal frameworks. There are no contributor returns embedded in the Commission rate, no growth skimming, and no algorithmic nudges designed to increase take rate over time.

Double Commission Structure

Every WikiDeal transaction carries a double commission: one part goes to the User Group operating the service, and one part goes to the WikiDeal platform itself. These two layers are distinct and transparent.

The total combined commission (User Group + WikiDeal platform) must be between 5% and 15% of the transaction value. Justified exceptions are possible in both directions: a lower rate may apply for civic or non-profit contexts, a higher rate may apply for complex or high-risk services, but any exception must be documented and approved through the Open Call process.

Example breakdown (10% total commission):

• User Group operating the service: ~7-8% (covers service coordination, dispute resolution, community management)
• WikiDeal platform: ~2-3% (covers infrastructure, legal frameworks, open-source maintenance)

These figures are initial working hypotheses. What is certain is the fundamental principle: at real cost, with real costs based on a mix that includes volunteering and semi-volunteering rewarded with Karma tokens, notably for assistance.

The subscription fee is billed on top of the commission, not deducted from it.

Commission Trends

For an order of magnitude in transport today: commissions commonly range from 5 to 10% at a minimum, and can reach 40 to 50% in some configurations for groups such as Uber (see the references below). Independent analyses report average take rates close to 30% for ride-hailing, with documented cases above 50% of the consumer fare.

WikiDeal's applied research hypothesis is that, depending on configurations, commissions can be significantly reduced, by 10% to 90% compared to current market rates. WikiDeal's model could bring transport commissions down to between 1% and 15-20%, depending on community maturity, citizen participation levels, market complexity, service complexity, and available tools.

What counts is simple: commissions should be lower, attractive, and above all transparent. Users should know where the money goes, and everything should be public.

The exact commission is determined by the User Group operating each service vertical. For instance, a babysitting User Group in Geneva may set commissions at 8%, while a tutoring group in Nairobi may set them at 6% based on local infrastructure costs. The floor is set by actual transaction processing costs (payment processing, dispute resolution, platform maintenance), and the ceiling is bounded by the WikiDeal community standard, which can be reviewed through the Open Call process. These are trends, not guarantees: the exact reduction depends on each vertical and its specific conditions.

Transparency is non-negotiable. Every Commission charged is broken down publicly: what portion goes to payment processing, what to server costs, what to legal compliance, what to the Open Call process, and what (if any) remains as buffer. If the buffer exceeds a defined threshold, the excess is automatically distributed back to the community through the standard Reward mechanism. There is no profit centre within WikiDeal's Commission structure.

Surplus Return

When Commission income exceeds verified operating costs, the surplus is returned to the community. This is not a discretionary policy decision: it is a structural rule embedded in the WikiDeal model. The surplus return mechanism operates quarterly: the foundation publishes audited cost accounts, the difference between income and costs is calculated, and the surplus is distributed through the community pool (Karma tokens and subsidized access).

This logic already exists elsewhere: La Mobilière (mobi.ch), a Swiss insurance group anchored in a cooperative, has been returning part of its surplus to its clients for years, in many domains, and does it very well.

This mechanism creates a powerful alignment: as the platform scales and per-Transaction costs fall (servers become cheaper per Transaction as volume grows), users benefit directly from economies of scale rather than watching them flow to shareholders. The more WikiDeal grows, the less each Transaction costs, and the more of the Transaction value stays with the parties to the Transaction.

Notes and references

• UC Berkeley Labor Center, Jacobs, Reich et al., Gig Passenger and Delivery Driver Pay in Five Metro Areas (2024): laborcenter.berkeley.edu
• FourWeekMBA, Uber Take Rate (2024): Uber Mobility recorded a 28.8% take rate in 2023 (27% in 2022, 19% in 2021): fourweekmba.com
• National Employment Law Project, Unpacking Uber & Lyft's Take Rates (May 2025), documenting cases where the platform share exceeds 50% of the consumer fare: PDF

Pages in this portal

• Why Fund WikiDeal
• Financing Development
• Targeted Donations
• Initial Funding
• Funder Stories
• Monthly Subscriptions
• Commissions
• Civic Incentive
• What You Get
• Revenue Structure
• Subscription Distribution
• Rewards Explained
• Karma Token Market
• Civic Flex Pricing

See also: Why and How WikiDeal Can Work