Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Innovations:Real Cost Commission

💡 In simple words: When people exchange things on WikiDeal, they only pay the "real cost" to keep the platform running safely. There are no secret fees to make rich owners richer. It's like a cooperative where everyone works together to keep prices fair and low.

🎯 In 20 seconds (scientific summary): The Real Cost Commission is a proposed fee structure designed to operate strictly at "real cost." It splits into four to five transparent components (five when a credit card is used, four with a wallet). Cost levels are not fixed unilaterally: they are set within a framework of policies discussed periodically between users and providers. Unlike speculative platforms that extract profit for shareholders, this cooperative model eliminates profit margins, aiming for commissions roughly 20% lower than commercial equivalents (Airbnb typically 15-20%, Uber up to 30%). The model combines professional services with volunteer contributions to maintain affordability, supporting socio-economic rebalancing and the "long tail" of independent actors.

Origin	🔵 Wikimedia Foundation / Cooperative models
Status	Prototype 1 - In testing
Key term	Real Cost Commission

Most people who sell a service through a commercial platform discover, sometimes with surprise, how much of the price never reaches them. The problem is structural: closed platforms have shareholders to satisfy, so fees tend to grow opaquely to generate profit. The Real Cost Commission aims to take the opposite path: a cooperative approach operating strictly at real cost, with commissions defined transparently within a framework of policies discussed periodically between users and providers.

Summary

• The core principle: At real cost, without profit
• Transparency: policies discussed periodically
• Combining professionalization and volunteering
• How the Real Cost Commission works: four to five components
• Socio-economic rebalancing (The Long Tail)
• Philosophical vision: Taking back the economy
• State of the art

The core principle: At real cost, without profit

The fundamental concept behind the Real Cost Commission is the "real cost" economy, inspired by housing cooperatives (like those under the Swiss Federal Office for Housing) and mutual insurance cooperatives.

Because WikiDeal has no investors seeking dividends—only users acting as partners—there is no need to generate a profit margin. The commissions are defined transparently based on what is strictly necessary to run the service: accounting audits, daily management, and infrastructure.

This model aims to be approximately 20% cheaper than speculative commercial platforms. For example, where commercial transport platforms such as Uber can charge up to 30%, a cooperative approach could lower this to around 10%; where accommodation platforms such as Airbnb typically charge 15-20%, the real-cost approach keeps only what running the service actually requires. In the housing sector, cooperative rents are typically 20% below speculative market rates.

Transparency: policies discussed periodically

The Real Cost Commission is not a percentage decided behind closed doors. The cost levels and the packages attached to them are set within a framework of policies discussed periodically between users and providers. Because the platform takes no hidden margin, every component is shown openly and can be challenged, compared and revised through this participatory process. Transparency is therefore not only a display of numbers, but a governance commitment: the people who pay the commission and the people who receive it shape together what "real cost" means.

Combining professionalization and volunteering

To maintain these low real costs, the ecosystem relies on a hybrid model. During the startup phase, and permanently thereafter, the system mixes professional paid work (salaries or mandates) with volunteer contributions.

This is similar to the evolution of the Wikimedia Foundation and its User Groups over 25 years: moving from a single structure to dozens of professionalized entities, but always retaining a strong base of volunteering. Some people might provide paid services, while others volunteer time to support the cooperative itself. The cursor between volunteerism and professionalization adjusts dynamically, but the primary indicator remains constant: keeping real costs low and affordable.

How the Real Cost Commission works: four to five components

Every transaction on WikiDeal carries a transparent breakdown of four to five components — five when the payment is made by credit card, four when it is made with a wallet. The first line is the final beneficiary; the others are transparent, at-cost commissions:

1. The final beneficiary (the provider): by far the largest share (roughly 80-90%), paid to the person or organization actually delivering the service (e.g. babysitting, transport).
2. The User Group fee: a small share (roughly 1-10%, illustrative) for the local or thematic community that runs the specific service (organization, welcoming newcomers, support).
3. The WikiDeal operator fee (WI-SUP, Wikideal Support): a small share sustaining the common technical and governance infrastructure, charged strictly at real cost.
4. The subscription top-up: a micro-amount covering the cost of the subscription since the last transaction, for those who have not paid the automatic subscription. It can range from a few cents to a few francs.
5. The payment-processing fee (credit card only): the fee charged by the card network (e.g. Visa) or other payment intermediaries. This fifth component exists only when the user pays by credit card; with a wallet, there are only four components.

All components are charged strictly at cost and shown openly.

Flexible packages and internal competition

Commissions are not fixed, universal percentages. They are flexibilized based on user choices and the specific policies of different User Groups.

For instance, a User Group might offer a commission package that includes mandatory cancellation insurance or high-level support, while another might offer a lower commission with no insurance and less support. For recurring transactions (like a long-term rental extension or regular transport), the effort required from the platform drops, and the commission could drop proportionally.

This creates healthy internal competition: User Groups will propose different definitions of "real cost" and different service packages, allowing users to make conscious choices.

Socio-economic rebalancing (The Long Tail)

By operating at real cost, the Real Cost Commission does more than just lower prices. It is a tool for socio-economic rebalancing.

In today's speculative economy, transaction after transaction, a fraction of the value is siphoned off to a tiny minority—the 1% who own the majority of global wealth (as highlighted by UN inequality reports). By eliminating this extractive profit, value stays within the "long tail" of independent actors and local communities. The goal is not to aggressively crush competitors like multinational tech monopolies do, but to inclusively gather all the actors of the long tail into a fair-trade framework.

Keeping costs low also acts as a powerful support mechanism for families in socio-economic fragility. Much like institutional social programs (such as the Bolsa Família in Brazil, where reports show most beneficiaries use the aid for an average of 3 years before exiting poverty), the WikiDeal cooperative model aims to provide temporary, community-driven economic relief that helps people get back on their feet.

Philosophical vision: Taking back the economy

Ultimately, the Real Cost Commission is tied to WikiDeal's Founding Question. It represents a philosophical shift: users taking the economy back into their own hands to manage it better.

It proves that a global marketplace can be owned, run, and sustained by its users, at real cost, turning an extractive economy into a mutualist one.

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State of the art

Small transparent fees on each transaction relate to the economics of two-sided markets and to research on cooperative platform ownership. These references provide context, not validation.

• Jean-Charles Rochet and Jean Tirole (2006), Two-Sided Markets: A Progress Report, RAND Journal of Economics, 37(3): doi:10.1111/j.1756-2171.2006.tb00036.x.
• Marc Rysman (2009), The Economics of Two-Sided Markets, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 23(3): doi:10.1257/jep.23.3.125 · two-sided market on Wikipedia.
• Andrei Hagiu and Julian Wright (2015), Marketplace or Reseller?, Management Science, 61(1): doi:10.1287/mnsc.2014.2042.
• Trebor Scholz (2016), Platform Cooperativism: Challenging the Corporate Sharing Economy, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung: platform cooperative on Wikipedia.
• Trebor Scholz and Nathan Schneider, editors (2016), Ours to Hack and to Own: The Rise of Platform Cooperativism, OR Books: publisher page.

See also: All innovations · R&D Portal