Crowdfunding platform Patreon has published some new stats, including a pair of significant milestones. First, that creators have earned more than $1bn from Patreon since its launch, and second, that there are now more than four million patrons stumping up money for those creators. “That’s an increase of a million patrons in less than a year,” explained Patreon in a blog post, with an additional swipe at other forms of creator income. “People would have to stream Old Town Road for a combined 836,695 years to generate a billion dollars in revenue…”
Alongside the announcement, Patreon has signalled its intentions to expand internationally. “We are moving into Europe in a number of ways,” SVP of product Wyatt Jenkins told Variety. The company says it is also planning to add more features for specific kinds of media, including video, podcasts and other audio content.
The $1bn milestone means Patreon has hit its goal of paying out more than $500m to creators in 2019 so far, following an estimated $250m of payouts in 2018, and $150m in 2017. This year also saw Patreon raise a $60m funding round of its own, taking its total raised so far to nearly $166m.
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