Adblock Plus has joined up with Flattr to create “Flattr Plus,” a system for web users who want to pay online content creators. Under the new scheme, users set a monthly budget to pay for content around the Web, such as thier favourite bloggers, musicians, artists, or newspapers. The payments will be apportioned automatically, based […]
Adblock Plus has joined up with Flattr to create “Flattr Plus,” a system for web users who want to pay online content creators.
Under the new scheme, users set a monthly budget to pay for content around the Web, such as thier favourite bloggers, musicians, artists, or newspapers.
The payments will be apportioned automatically, based on a user’s engagement with various websites.
Flattr was co-founded Peter Sunde, who also created and operated The Pirate Bay.
“Our goal with Flattr Plus is to finally evolve the Web into what it was supposed to have been to begin with: a place for creators to meet their audience, and a mechanism for audiences to directly and sustainably support creators,” said Sunde in a press release.
Ben Williams, head of operations for Adblock Plus parent company Eyeo, told The Wall Street Journal that his company has been working with Flattr for “a couple of years” on the project. Eyeo has purchased a minority stake in Flattr.payments service Flattr.
Users sign up for Flattr Plus (which is currently in beta) and then set their own monthly budget – for instance $5 per month – which they can use to ‘flattr’ the web content they consume. The algorithms used by the web extension then determine how to divide the funds between publishers.
Speaking to the Drum, Ben Williams, chief operations officer at Eyeo, said that it hopes to raise $500m for publishers following the full rollout of Flattr Plus next year (this is based on a projection of 10 million of its 80 million users agreeing a budget of $5 per month).
Meanwhile, Till Faida, co-founder of Adblock Plus, commented: “The current model of showing obnoxious ads to users and violating their privacy in return for content has failed: users are increasingly frustrated with the advertising experience on the Web and at the same time aggressive ads provide less and less value to publishers.”
The announcement of the beta trial comes the same period as AdBlock Plus attempts to complete the process of setting up its Acceptable Ads Committee as an independent entity, a process it hopes to complete by the end of the year.
Read the press release here
