46-530: Substack is an American online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters . It allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers. Founded in 2017, Substack is headquartered in San Francisco . Substack was founded in 2017 by Chris Best, the co-founder of Kik Messenger ; Jairaj Sethi, a head of platform and principal developer at Kik Messenger ; and Hamish McKenzie,
92-854: A 10% fee from subscription payments. Substack earns no revenue from advertisements placed by publishers. In February 2019, the platform began allowing creators to monetize podcasts. Substack reported 11,000 paid subscribers as of 2018, rising to 50,000 in 2019. Substack raised an initial seed round in 2018 from investors including The Chernin Group , Zhen Fund , Twitch CEO Emmett Shear , and Zynga co-founder Justin Waldron . Andreessen Horowitz provided $ 15.3 million in Series A funding in 2019, some of which went to bringing high-profile writers into Substack's network. Substack has provided some content creators with advances to start working on their platform. In 2019,
138-491: A donationware mode of exchange, whereby website use is free but financial donations are requested or accepted to offset production and maintenance costs (e.g. The Khan Academy). Sourcing collaboration New technologies have sparked entrepreneurial creativity to develop new breeds of intermediates. They claim to challenge conventional business , and they do so, because they operate business differently, without delivering or producing anything by themselves, but by capitalizing on
184-665: A former PandoDaily tech reporter. Best and McKenzie describe Ben Thompson's Stratechery , a subscription-based tech and media newsletter, as a major inspiration for their platform. Best is chief executive as of March 2019. Substack users include journalists, subject-matter experts, and media platforms. Among the high-profile writers to have used the platform are Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist and author Glenn Greenwald ; Seymour Hersh ; culture critic Anne Helen Petersen ; music essayist Robert Christgau ; and food writer Alison Roman . The New York Times columnist Mike Isaac argued in 2019 that companies like Substack see newsletters as
230-945: A friendly home for journalism, ... few of its newsletters publish original reporting; the majority offer personal writing, opinion pieces, research, and analysis." It described Substack's content moderation policy as "lightweight", with rules against "harassment, threats, spam, pornography, and calls for violence; moderation decisions are made by the founders". In 2019, Substack added support for podcasts and discussion threads among newsletter subscribers. Major writers on Substack include historian Heather Cox Richardson , tech journalists Casey Newton and Eric Newcomer , journalist Matthew Yglesias , economists Glenn Loury and Emily Oster , linguist John McWhorter , journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss , and authors Daniel M. Lavery , George Saunders , Blake Nelson , Chuck Palahniuk , Marianne Williamson , Salman Rushdie , Tui T. Sutherland , David Bentley Hart , and Skottie Young . As of November 2021,
276-510: A given resource distribution system, distinguishes conventional consumption from collaborative consumption. Rachel Botsman , co-author of What's Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption , defines collaborative consumption—also known as "shared consumption"—as "traditional sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping redefined through technology and peer communities." She states that we are reinventing "not just what we consume – but how we consume." Botsman uses
322-552: A more stable means to maintain readers through a more direct connection with writers. In 2020, The New Republic said there was an absence of local news newsletters, especially in contrast to the large number of national-level political newsletters. As of late 2020, large numbers of journalists and reporters were coming to the platform, driven in part by the long-term decline in traditional media (there were half as many newsroom jobs in 2019 as in 2004). Around that time, The New Yorker wrote that while "Substack has advertised itself as
368-434: A peer-to-peer relationship signals sourcing collaboration and its corollary, trading collaboration (see below). Collaborative consumption can be conceived of as a "resource circulation system" incurring different levels of collaborative intensity, namely: A mediating or intermediary organization may be a for-profit or a not-for-profit: Pure collaboration involves direct P2P exchanges, in which consumers directly exchange
414-856: A program known as Substack Pro. Substack has been criticized for not disclosing which writers were part of Substack Pro. Substack provides legal advice to its writers through its program Substack Defender. Lawyers provide a legal review of stories before they are published, and provide advice surrounding cease-and-desist letters related to writers' work. This includes stating that they will defend Jessica Reed Kraus if Amber Heard decided to sue her. In 2020, popular platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube began restricting or removing accounts that they claim spread COVID-19 misinformation , which violates those platforms' content policies. Some prominent authors accused of spreading misinformation have moved from those platforms to Substack. The Washington Post mentioned Joseph Mercola (whose content Imran Ahmed, CEO of
460-399: A resource mediated by an organization but originally provided by another consumer (i.e. provider) via sourcing collaboration. The obtainer thus benefits from a resource that has been originally sourced by a provider to a mediator. The mediator, in turn, offers the provider's resource to the obtainer, usually—but not exclusively—at a cost, which will be fully, partially, or not at all returned to
506-432: A response to changes at Twitter under the ownership of Elon Musk . The launch of Substack Notes resulted in criticism by Musk, and Twitter began censoring links to Substack on its platform. Authors can decide to make subscribing to their newsletter free or paid, and to make specific posts publicly available to non-subscribers. As of 2020, the minimum fee for a subscription was $ 5/month or $ 30/year, and Substack usually takes
SECTION 10
#1732779698009552-1358: A small pool of writers in 2017 to acquire their first creators. Bill Bishop was among the first to put his newsletter, Sinocism, on Substack, providing his newsletter for $ 11 a month or $ 118 a year with daily content. As of 2019, Bishop's Sinocism was the top paid newsletter on the service. By late 2020, the conservative newsletter The Dispatch claimed the title of top Substack user, with more than 100,000 subscribers and over $ 2 million in first-year revenue, according to founder Steve Hayes. In May 2021, Substack acquired Brooklyn-based startup People & Company. In August 2020, Substack reported that over 100,000 users were paying for at least one newsletter. As of August 2021, Substack had more than 250,000 paying subscribers and its top ten publishers were making $ 7 million in annualized revenue. In April 2022, The New York Times reported Substack may be valued at $ 650 million. Substack dropped an effort to raise money in May 2022. The company had aimed to raise between $ 75 million and $ 100 million. On July 28, 2020, Substack sent out email notifications to all its users about changing privacy policies and notification about California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) compliance. In this notification email, email addresses of all recipients were inadvertently included in
598-408: A specific resource or service. For example, on online platforms such as classified ads or auctions websites, consumers directly provide and obtain resources or services. Although these online platforms are intermediates they are not "mediators", because consumers are free to devise the terms and conditions of distribution and consumption of the resource or service together, whereas mediators interfere in
644-413: A tangible resource may circulate across multiple organizations (intermediates) from the provider to the obtainer. For example, a car sold by a consumer to a professional car dealer may then be sold and resold by several other car dealers, before being eventually resold to a consumer. Trading collaboration is the symmetrical opposite of "sourcing collaboration", in that it refers to the obtainer who enjoys
690-504: A two-sided consumer role which goes beyond the classic notion of a buyer/consumer, who typically has no input in the production or distribution process. Companies have traditionally sold products and services to consumers; they now start pulling on their resources too through co-creation or prosumption. According to Scaraboto, this means that individuals are able to "switch roles, engage in embedded entrepreneurship and collaborate to produce and access resources". Collaborative consumption
736-418: Is a car rental service that offers an alternative to owning a car. Users can access a car when and where they need one and pay for their usage by the minute. A variety of traditional companies now also offer sharing services. A system of collaborative consumption is based on used or pre-owned goods being passed on from someone who does not want them to someone who does want them. This is another alternative to
782-407: Is best explained as the sharing of intangible resources. Product service systems provide the benefits of a product without having to own it outright; instead of buying products that are used to fulfill specific purposes, they can be shared. These different systems bring about change in society by providing new employment opportunities, including ways for people to earn money peer-to-peer, and decreasing
828-478: Is characterized by consumers' capacity to be both "providers" and "obtainers" of resources in a given "resource circulation system". A collaborative consumption system means therefore a resource circulation system in which the individual is not only a mere "consumer" but also an obtainer who has the opportunity to endorse, if wanted or needed, a "provider" role (e.g. Kijiji , Craigslist , eBay ), as follows: Through collaborative consumption, consumers become part of
874-419: Is in spite of Substack's Terms of Service that supposedly prohibit hate speech . In an open letter, more than 100 Substack users implored Substack's leadership to stop giving bigotry a platform. Substack CEO Hamish McKenzie responded to the controversy by confirming that the company will continue to allow the publication of extremist views, saying that attempting to censor them would make the problem worse. In
920-512: Is the set of those resource circulation systems in which consumers both "obtain" and "provide", temporarily or permanently, valuable resources or services through direct interaction with other consumers or through a mediator. It is sometimes paired with the concept of the " sharing economy ". Collaborative consumption is not new; it has always existed (e.g. in the form of flea markets , swap meets , garage sales , car boot sales , and second-hand shops ). In 2011, collaborative consumption
966-836: Is used in online marketplaces such as eBay as well as emerging sectors such as social lending, peer-to-peer accommodation, peer-to-peer travel experiences, peer-to-peer task assignments or travel advising, and carsharing or commuting -bus sharing. In 2010, Botsman and Rogers identified three resource circulation systems within collaborative consumption or the sharing economy: product-service systems, redistribution markets, and collaborative lifestyles. Product-service systems are commercial peer-to-peer mutualization systems (CPMS), that allow consumers to engage in monetized exchanges through Social peer-to-peer processes for temporary access to goods. Consumers can share or rent out goods that they privately own by means of peer-to-peer marketplaces. For example, BMW 's " DriveNow ", established in 2011,
SECTION 20
#17327796980091012-511: The Center for Countering Digital Hate , called "so bad [that] no one else will host it") and Steve Bannon (whom Elizabeth Dwoskin, writing for The Washington Post , accused of spreading "violent rhetoric and false claims about the [2020] election in the weeks leading up to the Capitol siege on Jan. 6 ") as conspiracy theorists who have moved their online presence to Substack. In January 2022,
1058-474: The value creation process, not as formal workers, employees , or suppliers , but as informal suppliers (i.e. providers). Organizations also tap into the sphere of private assets and skills , as formal organizations and not as family , friends , or acquaintances, to make profits or reach other objectives. The practices obtainers and providers may engage in are therefore classified into: Consumers may exchange resources and services directly with or without
1104-699: The Canadian-based "Kijiji Secondhand Economy Index" of 2016, estimated that about 85% of consumers acquired or disposed of pre-owned goods through second-hand marketplaces (second-hand purchase and resale), donation , or barter , through either online or offline exchange channels. According to the "Kijiji Secondhand Economy Index" of 2015, the Canadian second-hand market alone was estimated at 230 billion dollars. In addition, for-profit mutualization platforms, commonly referred to as " commercial peer-to-peer mutualization systems " (CPMS) or, more colloquially,
1150-685: The Center for Countering Digital Hate accused Substack of allowing content that could be dangerous to public health . The Center estimated that the company earned $ 2.5 million per year from the top five anti-vaccine authors alone (who have tens of thousands of subscribers). Presumably in response to press inquiries, the three founders affirmed their commitment to minimal censorship in a blog post. Substack faced further criticism in November 2023 for allowing its platform to be used by white nationalists , Nazis , and antisemites . Critics highlighted that this
1196-510: The December 23, 2023, edition of his Substack The Racket newsletter, a post titled "The Social Network", Jonathan Katz provided details about dialogue he has had with the platform about the controversy noted in the aforementioned open letter, which was titled "Substackers Against Nazis". He took issue not only with Substack's promotion of extremist newsletters on the platform but also its subjection of subscribers to non-extremist newsletters on
1242-708: The collaborative economy. The analysis suggests that this last cluster was under-researched in contrast to the three others, but started to increase in importance after 2017. Collaborative consumption contrasts with conventional consumption or traditional consumption. Conventional consumption involves passive consumers who cannot, or are not given the capacity to, provide any resource or service. In contrast, collaborative consumption involves not mere "consumers" but "obtainers", who do not only "obtain" but also "provide" resources to others (e.g. consumers, organizations , governments ). Consumers' capacity to switch roles from "provider" to "obtainer" and from "obtainer" to "provider", in
1288-650: The company recruits less strongly in that market. In 2020, following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Substack extended grants of $ 1,000–$ 3,000 to over 40 writers to begin working on the platform. Substack expanded into comics content in 2021 and signed creators including Saladin Ahmed , Jonathan Hickman , Molly Ostertag , Scott Snyder , and James Tynion IV , paying them while keeping their subscription revenue. After their first year, Substack will take 10 percent of subscription revenue. The Substack founders reached out to
1334-517: The delivery of her groceries by consumer A, through the Instacart crowdsourcing application. Collaborative consumption is a sort of economic arrangement in which participants mutualize access to products or services, in addition to finding original ways to individual ownership. The phenomenon stems from consumers' desire to be in control of their consumption instead of "passive 'victims' of hyperconsumption". The collaborative consumption model
1380-400: The devising. In sum, mediators are intermediates but not all intermediates are necessarily mediators. For example, the Canadian-based carpool website Amigo Express does not allow obtainers (riders) and providers (drivers) to get into contact to arrange the terms of the ride. Rather, each agent needs to separately contact and pay a fee to the website in order to, respectively, obtain and provide
1426-654: The ecological impact on the environment. At TEDGlobal2012 Botsman asserted that the concept of trust, across multiple platforms, would constitute the currency of a new collaborative economy, saying that "reputation capital creates a massive positive disruption in who has power, influence and trust." The sharing economy is built on the sharing of underused assets, both tangible and intangible. If people start sharing underused resources or services, this will decrease not only their material waste but also their waste of resources . There are broadly two forms of collaborative consumption: Focusing on redistribution systems only,
Substack - Misplaced Pages Continue
1472-463: The email " cc " field rather than in the " bcc " field. This exposed the email addresses of many Substack users. The company acknowledged the issue on Twitter and said that it was remedied after the initial batch of emails but did not disclose the number of users affected. In March 2021, Substack revealed that it had been experimenting with a revenue sharing program in which it paid advances for writers to create publications on its platform; this became
1518-504: The evolution of scholarly research on collaborative consumption, and identified that this expression started in 2010 with Botsman and Rogers' (2010) book What's Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption . The number of studies published on the subject then increased in 2014. There are four clusters of research: 1) exploration and conceptualization of collaborative consumption; 2) consumer behavior and marketing empiricism; 3) mutualization and sharing systems; 4) sustainability in
1564-657: The example of a power drill to make her case for collaborative consumption: power drills are inherently underused since "what [is needed] is the hole, not the drill", so, instead, we should share goods such as these. For another example, cars cost at least $ 8,000 per year to run, even though they sit parked roughly 96 percent of the time. Botsman defines three systems that constitute collaborative consumption: Distribution markets where services match haves and wants so that personal unused assets can be redistributed where they will be put to better use. Collaborative lifestyles allow people to share resources like money, skills, and time; this
1610-581: The logics of crowdsourcing to do so. Sourcing collaboration, therefore, means that organizations do not provide a resource or deliver a service to consumers by themselves, but rely on providers (i.e. consumers) to do either. They benefit from the internet to mediate, at a cost and more efficiently, exchanges that would otherwise be authentically C2C exchanges. As an example, sourcing collaboration may refer to refurbished or reconditioned products, sold by conventional organizations, but provided by consumers (i.e. providers) who were, for some reason, dissatisfied with
1656-906: The more common ' reduce, reuse, recycle , repair' methods of dealing with waste. In some markets, the goods may be free, as on The Freecycle Network , Zwaggle , or Kashless.org . In others, the goods are swapped (as on Swap.com ) or sold for cash (as on eBay , craigslist , and uSell ). Collaborative lifestyles refer to community-based platforms that allow consumers to engage in monetized exchanges through social peer-to-peer processes for services or access to resources such as money or skills. In these systems, people with similar needs or interests band together to mutualize and exchange less-tangible assets such as time, space, skills, and money. The growth of mobile technology enables location-based GPS technology and real-time sharing. Peter Chernin Too Many Requests If you report this error to
1702-430: The original provider. In contrast to conventional consumption where the resource being enjoyed originates from a company, trading collaboration presupposes that the resource enjoyed by the obtainer has originally been sourced by another consumer. For example, trading collaboration occurs when consumer B obtains a cheaper refurbished iPhone that has been traded into Best Buy by consumer A. Or it occurs when consumer B enjoys
1748-553: The platform and with its billing partner Stripe to profiteering from said promotion and sharing on behalf of the extremist authors. He discussed options he was exploring in reaction to the platform's assertion that the policy will continue. Substack's decision to allow Nazi and other extremist content led multiple newsletters to leave the platform, including Casey Newton 's Platformer , Molly White 's Citation Needed , and Ryan Broderick 's Garbage Day . Online platforms for collaborative consumption Collaborative consumption
1794-466: The platform said it had more than 500,000 paying subscribers, representing over one million subscriptions. Substack announced in January 2022 that it would begin private Beta testing video on its platform. In April 2023, Substack implemented a Notes feature, which allows users to publish and repost short-form content. This microblogging feature was compared to Twitter , and many outlets considered it to be
1840-424: The products in question. Other examples include consumer provision of resources to antique dealers, consignment shops or Amazon 's Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) program. Similarly, online platforms that take a percentage commission (e.g. Uber , Instacart , TaskRabbit , Airbnb ), actually outsource the fulfillment of specific tasks or jobs to consumer A in order to efficiently redistribute those to consumer B. Also,
1886-445: The service. Amigo Express is, therefore, an intermediate that is a mediator. Conversely, using TheCarpoolingNetwork enables consumers to arrange themselves the terms and conditions of the exchange, and so the website acts as a facilitator, not as a mediator. Most C2C websites are online platforms and operate on the freemium model, where the use of the website is free, but premium features must be paid for (e.g. Craigslist ). Others have
Substack - Misplaced Pages Continue
1932-481: The sharing economy, represented a global market worth 15 billion dollars in 2014; 29 billion dollars in 2015; and are expected to reach 335 billion dollars by 2025. Many thinkers believe that collaborative economy, particularly in its commons-based peer production aspect, can cause major changes to the economic system of capitalism and reduce worldwide inequality . Collaborative consumption challenges business scholars and practitioners alike because it induces
1978-575: The site provided a fellowship to some writers, which included a $ 3,000 stipend and a one-day workshop in San Francisco. The decline of sports-oriented publications such as Sports Illustrated , Deadspin , and SB Nation , coupled with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic , led to a surge in sports journalists moving to write on Substack in 2019 and 2020. Substack competes with subscription site The Athletic in this submarket, so McKenzie says
2024-412: The support of an "intermediary" (an entity that facilitates the exchange between obtainer and provider such as Kijiji , Freecycle , Yerdle). In these exchanges, the consumers set the terms and conditions of the exchange, in pure collaboration. There are also other types of third-parties that are more heavily involved in the consumer-to-consumer relationship. These are called "mediators" and they determine
2070-431: The terms and conditions of the exchange between consumers and typically take for themselves a predetermined proportion of the amount of value being exchanged. Examples include second-hand stores to which consumers may donate or resell goods that are then subsequently resold to other consumers. Some platforms such as Uber , Airbnb , TaskRabbit , or Lending Club are also in this category. The intervention of mediators in
2116-421: Was named one of Time magazine's 10 ideas that will change the world. The first detailed explanation of collaborative consumption in the modern era was in a paper from Marcus Felson and Joe L. Spaeth in 1978. It has regained a new impetus through information technology , especially Web 2.0 , mobile technology , and social media . A June 2018 study, using bibliometrics and network analysis , analyzed
#8991