Patreon Acquires Competitor Subbable, Now Serving 250,000 Active Patrons
It has been a breakthrough month for Patreon. First Amanda Palmer launched on the patronage platform, quickly breaking records. Today, founder Jack Conte shares that Patreon has just under 250,000 fans with active paying subscriptions netting creators $2 million monthly, and has made it's first acquisition, Subbable.
Artist patronage platform Patreon announced today that is has acquired Subbable, a subscription service that also allows audiences to connect with and fund the creators. Subbable was founded by brothers and YouTube content creators John and Hank Green in 2013. Videos by Subbable creators collectively have more than 1 billion views on YouTube.
Why Sell?
No details of the sale were announced, but a shift at Amazon was given as a reason. Subbable relied on Amazon Payments to process subscriptions. When Amazon introduced a system‐wide change in late 2014, the startup faced a decision: switch payment services and risk high attrition, or seek support.
What's Next
John Green will be joining brother Hank as an advisor to Patreon. Aside from creators, no other Subbable employees or affiliates will be joining Patreon. Patreon has already begun onboarding Subbable's 24 curators.
As part of the agreement, Patreon will onboard and launch John and Hank Green’s online video series SciShow (2.4 million subscribers) and Crash Course (2.8 million subscribers). The two shows are dedicated to providing free education to global audiences and have cumulatively amassed 451 million views.
"We've always been aligned in principle, now we are united in practice," says Patreon founder Jack Conte. "I also have a huge creator crush on the Vlogbrothers, so I couldn’t be happier today.”
We asked asked Erica Castello, the startups Director of Marketing & Special Projects, if more acquisitions are Patreon's future, and she replied, "Not right now. But anything is possible!"
