Genki — creating a new monetisation model for creators
How Genki launches a new way for fans to support creators for free.
Fans appreciate the content the creators make, want to support them but often feel like it’s too big of a commitment to pay them directly.
Creators, on the other hand, would love to get more control over monetising their content, but most of the tools either make them feel like they are begging for money or don’t actually give them much control at all.
At Genki, we have a different vision:
give creators more control and fans a way to appreciate them without paying more.
Let’s look at current creator monetisation models:
The creator demand curve shows how many fans are willing to pay for your content at a particular price.
Note: Creator demand curve slides are inspired by Peter Yang article “Creator Demand Curve”. If you are interested in creator economy, definitely go subscribe to his newsletter.
Monetisation from brands: sponsorships and advertising allow creators to earn money on their audience at a flat fee per fan.
This leaves a lot of wasted opportunity for fans who would be willing to do more to support the creator.
Advertising and sponsorship opportunities are often out of the creator’s control — they can be demonetised by the platform at any time or just not be given sponsorship opportunities, thus leaving them at the mercy of the brands.
Monetisation from fans: subscriptions, products or tips and donations give creators more control of their income.
Active fans are usually willing to pay an amount of money for subscriptions or offer an occasional tip. Superfans (though, there aren’t a lot of them) are willing to buy more expensive subs, digital goods or even gift them to the community.
However, a single fan can only spend a certain amount of money to support a creator. Maintaining a steady flow of content for a paid community is a time-consuming task for the creator.
Monetising with Genki: the income is not tied to the willingness of the fan to pay anything to the creator.
Genki is a simple cashback extension that fans install and choose which creator they would like to appreciate. Then, they just do their normal, everyday online shopping in over 30,000 participating shops. The creator gets a 1–6% commission from their purchases. Fans do not need to pay anything extra and the creator earns money to grow.
For the fan, the money barrier changes into an action (registration and setup) barrier. Creators earn with Genki based on how much a fan spends online in total.
A casual fan might be the one who brings in $100 a month just by being an active shopper. They want to support the creator, but would not be willing to pay that much from their own pocket.
There is little effort required to install an extension (equivalent to a couple of clicks when setting up a subscription but absolutely free) and gives creators an opportunity to earn from casual+ and active fans at scale.
Genki gives creators control just like subscriptions and other fan-based models but for a bigger % of the fanbase.
Genki is the future of patronage.
In the next stages of development, Genki will let creators thank fans by displaying their supporters nicknames in their content and provide fan perks.
Currently, the Genki beta has over 600 creators and over 300 fans registered.
Who made Genki?
Created by creators for creators.
Genki is created by inSTREAMLY a company I co-founded. inSTREAMLY is a platform that helps streamers get the best sponsors for their stream. We helped over 15k streamers sign 25832 micro-sponsorship deals with brands like Netflix, Samsung or PlayStation. We believe that creators should have more control over their content and be able to monetise their work despite the platform they use. As the next step in our mission, we created Genki.