Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Innovations:Subscription

💡 In simple words: A subscription means you pay a small amount every month to use the platform, instead of paying a big fee each time. It is like a monthly pass. The price is only meant to cover what the platform really costs to run: nobody is supposed to make a profit on it, and the money is shared to keep the community strong.

🎯 In 20 seconds (expert summary): Initial hypothesis for the WikiDeal revenue engine: a CHF 1/month (or CHF 10/year) subscription, billed at transaction time, intended to run the platform at real costs, with no profit for any third-party company. Subscribers would also be members, with voting rights and a path to co-ownership. Subscription revenue would first cover the Rewards owed to Early Supporters, operating costs (servers, coordination team, committee) and the awards of the Open Calls. Subscriptions could also be offered (solidarity gift, supported request, third-party payment). The page also explains why the term "subscription" was preferred over "membership".

The Subscription Model

Wiki Core · Concept. This page presents an initial hypothesis, proposed as a basis for discussion.

Real costs, no profit

The first argument for the paid subscription is simple: it aims at guaranteeing that the platform runs at real costs, with no profit for a third-party company. What subscribers pay is intended to cover what the platform actually costs to operate, nothing more.

This is intended to be the exact opposite of the model of large speculative platforms, whose business logic is sometimes compared to offering the first dose for free, then overcharging users once a dependence has been created. Here, users would pay a small, transparent price from the start, the price would stay aligned with real costs, and users would never be the product.

Subscription model at a glance

Monthly price	CHF 1 (≈1 EUR ≈1 USD)
Annual price	CHF 10/year
Annual increase	Under study (draft Open Call)
Billing method	At Transaction time
Inactive months	Retroactive billing
1B users scenario	CHF 12B/year revenue
NOT in	Funding Contract
See also	Fund WikiDeal
See also	Why Fund WikiDeal

The WikiDeal Subscription Model is intended to be the revenue engine that would make the entire system sustainable, and the source of funds that would ultimately pay back Early Supporters through Rewards. At CHF 1/month, it is designed for global accessibility: approximately equivalent to 1 EUR and 1 USD (not an exact equivalence), making it one of the most affordable community schemes in the digital economy.

CHF 1/month is not intended as a price for a service: it would work as a subscription to a community-governed commons. Every franc is intended to go back to the community.

Why subscribe: the main arguments

The arguments proposed in favour of the paid subscription, in order of importance:

1. Real costs, no profit for a third-party company. This is the number one argument: the subscription aims at guaranteeing a platform run at cost, not for the benefit of shareholders.
2. Co-ownership guarantee. Subscribing is intended to guarantee the possibility of becoming a co-owner of the platform.
3. Commissions at real cost. Transaction commissions are intended to be set at real cost, without profit.
4. Support for vulnerable people. The platform intends to provide incentives and levers for people in vulnerable or fragile situations.
5. Fair access to dispute management and to developments. Every subscriber would have equitable access to dispute resolution and to the developments of the platform.

What the subscription gives access to

The subscription is intended to give access to:

• All contract templates. They could be copied and pasted freely, because they are intended to be published under a free license.
• All the marketplaces at cost price. Use of every marketplace would be charged at real cost, with no profit for the User Groups operating them.
• Honest revenues only. People working for the platform would receive salaries at standard market rates. There would never be extreme bonuses, and no possibility of reselling shares or the company itself, since the operating entities are intended to be non-profit. Nobody would ever be able to capture a large share of the benefits, unlike the extreme bonus and equity practices seen at some large commercial platforms.

Pricing structure

• Monthly: CHF 1.00 per month
• Annual: CHF 10.00 per year (a discount for paying a year in advance, compared with 12 monthly payments of CHF 1, which would total CHF 12)
• Annual value increase: a possible annual percentage increase is under study through a draft Open Call (not yet launched); no percentage is decided.

Why CHF 1/month?

The CHF 1/month price is not arbitrary. It is intended to be:

• Globally accessible: approximately equivalent to 1 EUR and 1 USD in most markets (approximate, not exact)
• Below the friction threshold: low enough that cost is not a barrier to participation
• Scalable to sustainability: at large user numbers, CHF 1/month would generate transformative revenue
• Fair: no tiered pricing, no premium plans, everyone would pay the same

Offered subscriptions

The subscription is designed so that it can also be offered, not only bought for oneself. Three options are envisaged, proposed as a base for discussion:

1. Solidarity gift: people with sufficient income could offer subscriptions to others.
2. Supported request: a person could fill in a request form to benefit from an offered subscription, mentioning in their profile how they engage in the community, for example as a volunteer.
3. Third-party payment: the subscription could be paid by a third party, for example an association that engages volunteers and offers them the subscription.

Offered subscriptions are expected to be frequent: gifts to volunteers, gifts within families, or subscriptions included in professional programs and continuous training programs.

Access rules and billing at transaction time

The rules proposed for subscription access:

• Free access: WikiDeal is intended to remain freely accessible: anyone could browse, read and explore contracts without any subscription.
• Contract signing requires subscription: to sign a contract on WikiDeal, both parties would need to be up to date with their monthly subscription. If there are overdue months, the unpaid fees would be settled at the time of signing.
• Retroactive billing: if a user has never paid or has missed months, all overdue subscription fees would be collected retroactively at the time of their next contract signing.
• Charged on top of commission: the subscription fee would be billed in addition to the transaction commission, not deducted from it. The transaction itself would carry a double commission: one for the User Group operating the service, and one for the WikiDeal platform. This double commission is intended to stay between 5% and 15%, with justified exceptions possible in either direction.
• Micro-payments for small transactions: for frequent small transactions, overdue subscription fees could be collected in micro-installments spread across multiple transactions. For larger contracts, the full overdue amount would be settled in one payment at signing.

The billing approach explored here is unusual: subscription fees would be billed at transaction time, not as a recurring monthly charge. This means:

• If you sign a contract in March but had not paid January or February, those fees would be collected retroactively at the March transaction.
• Inactive users would not be constantly billed, but their subscription debt would accumulate and be settled in full at their next contract signing.

Where the money goes

At the beginning, subscription revenue is intended to cover three things:

1. Rewards for the Early Supporters who believed in the project by supporting it at its riskiest stage. These Rewards are tied to the deliverables of the first funding round: see Prototype 1 Deliverables.
2. Operating costs: servers, the coordination team and the committee.
3. Awards (prizes) for the Open Calls. A note on terminology: on WikiDeal, "rewards" designates the compensation of supporters under the funding model, while "awards" designates the prizes of the Open Calls. The two words are deliberately kept distinct.

Over time, subscription revenue is also intended to support community programmes and User Groups.

Scalability: the path to CHF 12 billion

Users	Monthly Revenue (CHF)	Annual Revenue (CHF)
10,000	10,000	120,000
100,000	100,000	1,200,000
1,000,000	1,000,000	12,000,000
1,000,000,000	1,000,000,000	12,000,000,000

At 1 billion users × CHF 12/year = CHF 12 billion annual revenue. This is the long-term vision: not a promise, but a demonstration of the model's potential.

Subscription revenue and supporters

The subscription model is intended to be the direct source of the revenue that would pay back Early Supporters. When you support WikiDeal today, the underlying hypothesis is that subscription revenue would grow to the point where your Rewards could be converted to CHF. The subscription model is therefore not just a pricing decision: it is the financial mechanism intended to make the entire Rewards system work.

ℹ️ The subscription model is separate from the Funding Contract. The Funding Contract would govern support contributions and Reward allocation. The subscription model would govern ongoing usage fees. These are two distinct financial flows.

Why "subscription" and not "membership"

As an initial hypothesis, the term "subscription" was preferred over "membership", while recognizing that what is proposed is, in reality, a subscription for a membership: subscribers would also be members, with voting rights. As this naming choice sits at the heart of the system, it is explained in detail at Subscription or Membership.

See also

See also: Subscription or Membership · Rewards · Why Fund WikiDeal · Fund WikiDeal · Funding Contract · Need-Driven Funding

💡 Improve this concept: submit a proposal via Open Call