The payment platform sub.club, creator of the Fediverse, is shutting down.
This attempt at paid content in an open ecosystem has come to an end.
Sub.club, a service that allows creators in the fediverse to offer paid subscriptions and premium content, launched at the end of August and is now shutting down its operations. Last week, the sub.club team regretfully announced that the project would be discontinued in the coming weeks. Creators who used this service will receive full payment, although sub.club feeds will stop functioning by the end of January.
When sub.club emerged, it was seen as an interesting alternative for fediverse users to monetize their audience without having to redirect their followers to platforms like Patreon. However, the group behind this initiative, The BLVD, has faced financial difficulties.
Bart Decrem, founder of The BLVD, commented on the situation in an email, noting that a rapid market positioning was not achieved and that they were unable to attract investors or partners. More than 150 creators were using sub.club. Despite this, Decrem maintains an optimistic outlook for the future of the fediverse and considers the success of Bluesky to be a good sign, although he acknowledges that it will take time to consolidate all the necessary elements.
Anuj Ahooja, an advisor to sub.club, mentioned that as more users join platforms like Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads, the need for a subscription service that is not tied to a single platform but is protocol-based and allows user portability will arise. He expressed hope that sub.club or a similar service can fill that gap in the future.
Due to a lack of funding, The BLVD has also decided to shut down two other projects: Mammoth, an open-source app for iOS designed for Mastodon, and moth.social, a Mastodon instance that serves as a complementary server to Mammoth. At the end of November, the Mammoth account on Mastodon announced that the project was operating without funding or a paid team.
