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| == Where the money goes (visual overview) == | | == Where the money goes (visual overview) == |
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| The bar below shows how a typical credit-card transaction is split across the five components. The vast majority of every payment goes to the service provider. | | The bar below shows the five places the money goes in a typical transaction. Note that only components '''2 and 3 are actual commissions''' (the User's Group fee and the WikiDeal platform management fee). Component 1 is the provider's own income, component 4 is the subscription, and component 5 is a third-party card fee. |
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| {| class="wikitable" style="width:100%; text-align:center; table-layout:fixed; border-collapse:collapse;" | | {| class="wikitable" style="width:100%; text-align:center; table-layout:fixed; border-collapse:collapse;" |
| |- | | |- |
| | style="width:82%; background:#8BC34A; font-weight:bold; padding:12px 4px;" | Service provider<br />~82% | | | style="width:85%; background:#8BC34A; font-weight:bold; padding:12px 4px;" | 1. Service provider raw income<br />~80–90% |
| | style="width:6%; background:#64B5F6; font-size:85%; padding:12px 2px;" | UG<br />~6% | | | style="width:6%; background:#FFD600; font-size:80%; padding:12px 2px;" | 2.<br />UG fee |
| | style="width:5%; background:#FFB74D; font-size:85%; padding:12px 2px;" | WD<br />~5% | | | style="width:4%; background:#64B5F6; font-size:80%; padding:12px 2px;" | 3.<br />WD fee |
| | style="width:4%; background:#FFF176; font-size:85%; padding:12px 2px;" | Sub<br />~4% | | | style="width:3%; background:#66BB6A; font-size:80%; padding:12px 2px;" | 4.<br />Sub |
| | style="width:3%; background:#BDBDBD; font-size:85%; padding:12px 2px;" | CC<br />~3% | | | style="width:2%; background:#AB47BC; font-size:80%; padding:12px 2px;" | 5.<br />Card |
| |} | | |} |
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| '''Legend:''' | | '''Legend (the five places the money goes):''' |
| * <span style="background:#8BC34A;"> </span> '''Service provider (final beneficiary)''' — ~82%: by far the largest share of every transaction
| | # '''Service provider raw income''' – '''~80–90%''': the final beneficiary, by far the largest share. ''(Not a commission.)'' |
| * <span style="background:#64B5F6;"> </span> '''UG — User Group fee''' — ~6%
| | # '''User's Group real-cost commission fee''' – '''~3–15%''': '''actual commission''' for the local or thematic community running the service. |
| * <span style="background:#FFB74D;"> </span> '''WD — WikiDeal operator fee (WI-SUP)''' — ~5%
| | # '''WikiDeal platform management fee''' – '''~2–5%''': '''actual commission''' sustaining the shared technical and governance infrastructure, at real cost. |
| * <span style="background:#FFF176;"> </span> '''Sub — Subscription top-up''' — ~4%
| | # '''WikiDeal monthly subscription''' – '''1 CHF''' (only if not already paid): the subscription due since the last transaction. ''(Not a commission.)'' |
| * <span style="background:#BDBDBD;"> </span> '''CC — Payment processing (Visa/credit card, only if no wallet)''' — ~3%
| | # '''Third-party payment fee''' (e.g. Visa or Mastercard) – '''~2–4%''': charged only when paying by card instead of a wallet. ''(Not a commission.)'' |
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| ''Illustrative split — actual percentages vary by User Group policy and transaction type. In all cases, the service provider's share remains by far the largest, roughly 80–85% or more of the transaction.'' | | ''In other words, what is sometimes called the "double commission" refers to components 2 and 3 only – the two real-cost commissions. Illustrative ranges: actual percentages vary by User Group policy and transaction type. Components 1–4 always apply; component 5 applies only when a card is used instead of a wallet. The service provider's share always remains by far the largest.'' |
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| <span id="commission-trends"></span>
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| === Commission Trends ===
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| 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|references]] below). Independent analyses report average take rates close to 30% for ride-hailing, with documented cases above 50% of the consumer fare.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The exact commission is determined by the [[Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Innovations:User Groups|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 [[Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Open-Calls:Main|Open Call]] process. These are '''trends, not guarantees''': the exact reduction depends on each vertical and its specific conditions.
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| 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 Calls 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.
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| <span id="surplus-return"></span>
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| === Surplus Return ===
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| 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).
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| This logic already exists elsewhere: [https://www.mobiliere.ch/ 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.
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| 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.
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| <span id="references"></span>
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| == Notes and references == | | == Notes and references == |
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