Is Thingiverse's Business Model a Bad One?

[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.