Draft:Ko-fi

Ko-fi is a crowdfunding platform allowing users to donate small amounts of money, primarily to content creators. Ko-fi does not process any payments by itself, but instead uses services like PayPal and Stripe.

History
Ko-fi.com's domain name was registered on May 15, 2011. The company announced it live on Twitter two days later. It started as a simple button link generator, where users entered a name and a PayPal email address, and donors could enter their name and a message. Donors' names and messages were then posted on Twitter as a promotion.

Ko-fi was fully rebranded in 2017 in helping creators facilitate in making their first one dollar on their platform.

Business model
Ko-fi allows direct donations, monthly subscriptions and commissions to support registered users in what they do. Ko-fi does not take fees with the exception of the 5% fee for building membership, shop, and commission.

While Ko-fi's blog system is generally free to the public, creators can paywall their content to be viewed for members only.

Ko-fi also has a subscription service called Ko-fi Gold. This subscription removes all fees, allows posting of exclusive content, obtain a Gold badge, and other benefits at the cost of $6 per month in an annual subscription.