Digital Patronage Platforms

Abstract

Digital patronage refers to the act of singular and sustained financial support to a content creator as a form of appreciation for their work and occurs within unique sociotechnical systems that support financial exchange in addition to creative expression. In this paper, we present a competitive analysis of five patronage platforms-- Twitch.tv, YouTube, Patreon, Facebook, and OnlyFans. We describe the financial ecosystems of the five platforms and the perk systems embedded in each of the systems that incentivizes patrons to give support. Digital patronage represents an emerging form of sociotechnical practice that offers an alternative to advertisement-driven business models.