Gov/en/Portal:R&D/Innovations:User Groups
💡 In simple words: User groups are teams of people who use the platform for the same reason. They join together to share ideas, help each other, and have a stronger voice when making decisions.
⚠️ Not yet approved. This page describes a proposal that is still under community review. It is documented here so it can be discussed, improved and endorsed.
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User Groups
User Group Model
| Revenue | Commission share + Reward |
| Governance | Local autonomy + global rules |
| Incubation | Foundation support available |
| Examples | Babysitting, Tutoring, Pet Care |
| Scale | Local, regional, or thematic |
User Groups are WikiDeal's primary organisational units below the platform level. A User Group is a community of WikiDeal members organised around a specific service category (babysitting), geographic region (babysitting in Spanish-speaking countries), or combination of both. User Groups operate with significant autonomy — setting their own Commission rates within WikiDeal's boundaries, managing their own arbitration systems, and organising their own community events — while respecting the core WikiDeal principles embedded in the model.
Revenue Model
User Groups generate income through three channels. First, a share of the Commission on every Transaction within their category/region flows to the User Group's operational fund. Second, User Groups can launch their own bonding curve funding rounds — using the same mechanism as WikiDeal Core but for their specific context. A babysitting User Group in East Africa might raise CHF 200,000 through its own curve, using the funds to localise contracts, train arbitrators, and build community Infrastructure. Third, User Groups can apply to WikiDeal's Open Call fund for specific project grants.
This revenue model is designed to align incentives: User Groups that grow the volume and quality of Transactions in their category earn more, reinvesting in further growth. User Groups that operate arbitration services professionally attract more Transactions, because users trust the dispute resolution. The result is a federated system where local expertise is rewarded and central overhead is minimised.
Incubation and Support
New User Groups can apply for incubation support from Ynternet.org Foundation, which provides: legal template adaptation for local jurisdictions; technical setup assistance for the WikiDeal platform; access to the foundation's network of advisors and partner organisations; and a small seed grant from the Open Call fund. Incubation is time-limited (typically 12 months) and requires the User Group to demonstrate genuine community need, governance capacity, and alignment with WikiDeal values.
Co-incubation is also supported: two or more User Groups working in complementary domains (e.g. babysitting and tutoring in the same city) can co-incubate, sharing Infrastructure costs and community events while maintaining separate governance. This reduces the overhead of launching multiple groups in the same geography and creates natural bridges between service categories — a family using WikiDeal for babysitting may discover tutoring services, and vice versa.
Examples of Planned User Groups
WikiDeal's roadmap includes User Groups for: babysitting (global launch, multiple regional groups); private tutoring (language-based and subject-based groups); pet care (sitting, walking, veterinary facilitation); bicycle and tool lending cooperatives; local food markets and community-supported agriculture; freelance creative services; and language learning exchanges. Each of these domains has an established informal economy that is (illustrative example) either unplatformed (and therefore lacks trust Infrastructure) or over-platformed (and therefore paying excessive Commissions to extractive intermediaries).
See also: