Is Thingiverse's Business Model a Bad One?

[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.