Patreon is introducing a suite of new features, and some of them are reminiscent of traditional social media platforms.
The most obvious callback is something Patreon is calling Quips, which — you guessed it — are essentially tweets. Quips are smaller text, photo, or video posts that are public by default and open for anyone to comment on, unlike premium content behind a paywall that Patreon made its name on. The idea is that Quips can entice would-be subscribers by offering them a sneak peek at paid content.
The platform is also adding ways for creators to cross-pollinate their audiences. First, content creators will be able to collaborate on posts so that both groups of fans see them, similar to features on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Patreon will also add to its existing recommendation system that users see and push creators when there is audience overlap between content creators. Fans will have the option to view content only from creators they follow, Patreon says. The company is opening up a waitlist on Monday for creators to request early access to the features. In the future, the platform will test other user controls like a “not interested” button for posts, creator @ mentions, and a folder with saved content collected.
Patreon in recent months has poached a handful of high-profile writers from its rival Substack, including Anne Helen Petersen, the author of the popular Culture Study newsletter. At this point it feels like there are mini-Substack exoduses happening every day for a variety of reasons: a lack of tech support, the pivot to the Substack app and tweet-like Notes, and of course the ecosystem of neo-Nazi content hosted on the platform. Some users and creators have complained about Substack’s straying away from its newsletter focus, especially because the original promise for writers was that they would not have to fight social media algorithms to get their work to readers.
Patreon, too, has emphasized creator-to-fan relationships as an antidote to fickle social media algorithms that giveth and taketh away. But creators also want to grow their audiences, and that requires getting in front of new people. Patreon will need to find a balance where the platform can support growing fan bases — without it feeling like a whole new algorithm that creators have to crack.