Flattr: The World’s Next Social Sharing Button?

Today, social sharing buttons are, essentially, a core part of most web pages. Users “like” content for Facebook, retweet it for Twitter, +1 it for Google+, and even pin it for Pinterest.

Since these actions have become a very popular way of promoting content across the Internet, a Swedish based company that has put a unique spin on social sharing hopes to become the next big sharing mechanism. The service is called Flattr and is designed to help people share not only content, but also money.

Is there room for another social sharing button? Let us know.

Flattr is the world’s first micro-payment service and allows users to make monetary donations to their favorite bloggers and publishers. As Flattr’s CEO and Co-founder Linus Olsson explained to WebProNews, users set an amount for how much money they want to donate, and, at the end of the month, Flattr divides it evenly between all the content they’ve “flattr’d.”

Although it is often referred to as an “Internet tip jar,” Olsson told us that users don’t make any purchases. Instead, they simply make a donation if they like the content.

“We call it social donations, social micro-donations, or social micro-payments because you actually pay for content,” he said. “You have got the content already, but you want to pay for it.”

The content consists of anything from music to software to articles – whatever users think deserve a donation. Olsson said Flattr is “agnostic” to content as long as no laws are broken. Incidentally, Flattr was said to be used as a method of donating money to WikiLeaks after PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard cut off submissions to the site.

PayPal and other payment systems have been a standard up to this point, but Flattr believes its service is a better alternative for micro-donations. Olsson explained that, while PayPal is a great platform, its system is “too tedious” for small payments since it is based on purchases.

“A micro-payment service needs to be instantaneous and one-click and a no-brainer to use,” he said. “That is not PayPal.”

On the social side, Flattr is integrated into both Facebook and Twitter. Last week, the company also announced an Explore feature that allows users to follow content producers and fellow donators. Olsson told us that this feature was the first step toward a more social and personalized experience through Flattr.

“Donations and monetary payments toward content on the Web should be as social as the content itself,” he pointed out.

According to Olsson, Flattr is taking social sharing to an entirely different level. As a result, he thinks that Flattr will soon be listed with all the other social sharing buttons.

Would you be willing to “flattr” your favorite content? Could this change the way businesses are funded? Please share.

There are 5 Comments. Add Yours.

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Manar
March 24, 2012 at 12:40 pm

which payment system flattr will use for donations to go thru ? will it be as global as paypal ? thanks for the article

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denzil
March 24, 2012 at 12:50 pm

I think a service like this will be great for small websites . A dollar or two would be nice.

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Dan
March 24, 2012 at 5:50 pm

Flattr has the potential for popularity among users looking for something different, but with Naymz, Digg and others already in the market…there’s a lot of competition. I definitely like the concept, it will be interesting to see how their online community develops over the next few months.

Dan
Social Media San Diego

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NIck Brand
March 25, 2012 at 12:32 pm

I don’t think Flattr stands a snowball’s chance with the micro payment tip jar primarily because the majority of users don’t tip. Moreover, most users are “suspect” of any new vehicle for making a payment. How does a company like Flattr even make money from micro payment processing? The margins must be micro! Flattr’s best chance is to get bought out by a company with legitimacy like Facebook for it to have any chance of success.

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coxy
March 26, 2012 at 7:46 am

I’ve been using Flattr for a while now and the only real problems I see with the service is the pick-up of new users. I can find content across the web daily that I wish to Flattr, but am unable to, since that individual site owner is not signed up – nor is there an easy way to get in touch with them.

In turn, if there’s nothing for me to Flattr – or I can’t tip the things I want to – why should I use the service? I’ve stuck with it, for now, but not sure how long it will last.