Is Thingiverse's Business Model a Bad One?

[JMK]

I agree with awerby. Thingiverse doesn't have a business model in and of itself. Thingiverse is an offshoot of MakerBot. It's a community that is driven by MakerBot. The idea behind Thingiverse isn't to make money, it's to get people interested in 3D printing, which in turn gets people interested in MakerBot, thus generating sales for the company.

[urbanmyth]

I believe that Makerbot will regret the decision not to open Thingiverse up to allow people to sell their designs. Sure it's based on open source, but they have a good thing going, and are the most popular depository for 3D designs. There are already a bunch of other sites that are trying to open to sell digital 3d models. The could have been the leader in this market, if they really wanted to.

[Roxy]

Guys, don't you think that giving away your awesome 3D designs is a bit of an insult to yourselves? I feel that if we design something that is really innovative and useful, we should get compensated for it in some way or another.

I'm going to be argumentative throughout this post just to make a point.

The answer is "No..." You have full control over what you put up on Thingiverse. If your design is so valuable, do something else with it. But lets leave that alone. Lets shift gears and talk about some related topics.

What you are saying is you don't think the people that did the Open Source design for the printers we are using should have given away the design. They should have created a company or sold their design to somebody that could gouge the market for every penny. Certainly everybody with a Rep-Rap printer is using all that creativity, design work, experimentation, etc. without paying a $.01 to the early pioneers. How is that fair?

I believe that Thingiverse should charge users a fee in order to be able to download products, and in turn give developers money based on the number of times their 'things' are downloaded. Either this or allow designers to charge for the download of their designs.

That sounds like a great business model. And with some financial backing and lots of effort and promotion, you might be able to get the site launched. I'll be looking forward to seeing a link for it when you get it built and running. But of course, you will be charging money so I want a few extra things that Thingiverse doesn't have. I want you to check out every design that gets uploaded to make sure it actually works and is usable. I want the site to qualify it with different hardware setups so I don't have to guess if my equipment is going to be satisfactory. I don't want your parasite site to just take the money and run. I expect something extra if I'm paying you money.

I think it's only a matter of time before there is some money involved. If thingiverse doesn't do it, another popular website will emerge that allows for the sale of designs.

Perhaps. But by the time that happens, Thingiverse will be even bigger. Remember what makes the internet great. It is the ability for anybody to publish information and for anybody that is interested to find that information. Thingiverse is doing just that. People freely publish their information and other people are able to find it. There may be room for a different venue but Thingiverse isn't going to get pushed aside by it.

3D-Printing is a really cool hobby for most people and they are not trying to make money from their designs. They are just trying to have fun. And sharing stuff on Thingiverse is fun for these people. Nothing needs to change. My brother has an old classic car. At the swap meets where he gets parts almost everybody is into it as a hobby. So everybody talks about this and that old car. Think what it would do to the hobby if all of a sudden he says "I'm not letting you use what I know unless you pay me for it." If people started acting like that the hobby would die.

[Roxy]

To be specific, there is one issue we all are going to have to face at some point and that is ABS Smoothing. Apparently someone got a patent for it, smoothing ABS with Acetone vapor. Anyone who works with ABS knows that Acetone is a solvent for it and smooths it. A patent for that is like getting a patent for cleaning your paint brush by running it under the sink.

If there really is a patent filed on this... My guess is it is valid. The reason is this: Much of the 3D-Printer work is happening on the internet and there is discussion on every topic in the 3D-Printer forums. If this patent got filed, the process to invalidate it would involve finding prior art. If you find a post in some forum talking about smoothing ABS with acetone vapor prior to when they filed the patent, it is over. My guess is they wouldn't spend the money to pursue a patent unless they really were first.

It will be an interesting one to watch!

[RimReaping]

Thingiverse's business model is a really good one IMHO. It allows MakerBot to get plenty of free advertising, while keeping designs open source. So much good comes out of open source design files. I love looking at all the remixes. I've seen so many cool designs evolve to become even cooler.

[Roxy]

Thingiverse's business model is a really good one IMHO. It allows MakerBot to get plenty of free advertising, while keeping designs open source. So much good comes out of open source design files. I love looking at all the remixes. I've seen so many cool designs evolve to become even cooler.

Besides everything you said... Having lots and lots of gadgets that can be found and printed increases the end user demand for 3D-Printers, which obviously MakerBot profits from.

[3dkarma]

Besides everything you said... Having lots and lots of gadgets that can be found and printed increases the end user demand for 3D-Printers, which obviously MakerBot profits from.

This is an extremely important point. There are relatively few people with the skillset needed to create designs. Having a platform that encourages sharing designs means we can get people involved in 3D printing without needing to build that skillset.

[Geoff]

I have stopped putting my original meshes on Thingiverse, simply because the copyright infringement is disgusting there and no one cares really.

I'll give you an example.. no names, just an example of something recently.

Someone uploaded a 3d model of a bust of a favourite star wars character some time back. This person is around 20 years old form what i've gathered.

Now, I found the exact same 3d model (and I mean polygon for polygon.. it's a perfect match, this is impossible to do with another model) but the funny thing.. it was made by someone 16 years ago, so unless this guy modelled it when he was Four years old, he is full of it. But it gets better.

I then read in the comments someone telling this 20 year old that people are selling his printed model on another site (which we should all remind ourselves at this point is a star wars licensed trademark and selling things from it could actually land you in hot water.) Do you want to take Disney on in court?)) So then this big mess starts because this fake author is stopping people from selling a print from a model, he didn't actually create himself, and is actually a licensed figure from Star Wars..

The irony of it all both sickens me and astounds me at the same time - all the while no one asks any questions....

Why don't they ask any questions?

Because they are all happy to get it for free and they don't care who made it or where it came from, it's just 'gimme gimme gimme' and that's what this society is becoming like. It's like Itunes killed the fun in the music industry. Kids want a new song? theres no going to the record shop or taping it off the radio, no they just click a button on their phone and it's there, instant gratification.

Until the Thingiverse community starts to heal itself, it will just become cancerous and I'm getting out now while I still have time for treatment.

[Berr]

I agree with what Geoff is saying in principle but, beyond hoping that on new year's eve the clock sets back to 1982 I don't think there's any going back. This conversation reminded me of this Ted talk on fashion. I think it's relevant and worth watching. I guess the take away for me is that if technology takes away your ability to make money being cleaver you better figure out a way to be more cleaver.
http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_cultur e

[3dfilemarket]

Your thoughts are exactly why I set up 3dfilemarket.com good designers should be rewarded for their talent. We are all used to paying a dollar to download an app from the app store so why not pay for good design to 3dprint. The only way for 3dprinting to keep expanding is to offer rewards for designers, otherwise what is the point. Artists do not give their art away free, if people want it they have to pay for it. Also the more people add their designs to thingiverse for free, the more makerbot and their eco system is worth. So ultimately 3dprinting enthusiasts are making a corporate company mega rich by helping grow their platform. When they were aquired by Stratsys would the company have been worth the mega price it was sold for without thingiverse???

Guys, don't you think that giving away your awesome 3D designs is a bit of an insult to yourselves? I feel that if we design something that is really innovative and useful, we should get compensated for it in some way or another.

I believe that Thingiverse should charge users a fee in order to be able to download products, and in turn give developers money based on the number of times their 'things' are downloaded. Either this or allow designers to charge for the download of their designs.


I think it's only a matter of time before there is some money involved. If thingiverse doesn't do it, another popular website will emerge that allows for the sale of designs.