Consequences of the Partner Program’s Extension to More Countries
One economic factor people rarely mention when discussing the topic.
A few days ago, Medium announced the extension of the Partner Program to 12 more countries starting from August 1st (including India) and plans “to open up to another 50 or so” by the end of the year.
In the current list of countries supported in the partner program, we see mostly “rich” countries:
“Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.”
Some are “richer” than others, but my point stands, these are wealthy countries.
Here are some average salary numbers I got by using the same site (timedoctor.com) because it was ranking high in the Google search, and I wanted to have the same source for all the data (USD monthly):
Average income data are hard to find and vary with definitions, years, exchange rates, and sources, but the amounts give a fair idea of how they compare between countries. See also this data from the World Bank.
Now let’s look at three countries currently NOT supported in the partner program, where many people live and speak English (USD monthly)
In a recent article, I explained how people could make between $120 and $1,200 monthly on Medium using the so-called “Spammer Strategy.”
In summary, it consists in interacting with as many writers as possible daily. It’s a lot of work (you need to publish daily), and Medium rules limit the scope (120 followings and 100 comments maximum per day), but it works.
It works because very few people use it.
And very few people use it because it doesn’t compare so well with the average salaries of the countries currently supported in the partner program.
But compared with the average salaries of India, Indonesia, and Nigeria, the strategy makes more economic sense.
If Medium opened the partner program to all the countries in the world without changing any of its current rules, this is what would happen:
- The number of articles available would significantly increase because of the attractive economic opportunity to earn from writing from the writers living in the newly accepted countries.
- The number of readers might increase but not significantly because the current geographical limitations apply to writers, not readers. Opening the partner program might attract new readers because readers from a given country might be more likely to read writers from a given country because of cultural fit or commonality of interests, for example. However, Medium’s membership price is not country dependent, and it’s relatively more difficult for people in poorer countries to pay $5 per month.
- Many more writers would start using the “Spammer Strategy,” which would
- flood (and upset) many writers with notifications from random accounts clapping, commenting on their stories, and following them,
- and significantly reduce the strategy’s efficiency.
That’s why Medium also announced that “Medium membership will now be a prerequisite for joining the Medium Partner Program.”
So far, you didn’t need to pay $5/month to write and earn on Medium; the membership fee was only for reading. This rule will apply only to future members. “Existing Partner Program writers will not be required to become members at this time,” said Medium.
This move will reduce the potential number of people using the “Spammer Strategy” because they have to invest $50 first.
But “the new application flow and eligibility criteria will launch on August 1st.”
Short-term consequences of Medium’s announcement
I predict a surge in follow-for-follow activity till the end of July. People from currently eligible countries have an incentive to create accounts and reach 100 followers before the end of July for a chance to write and earn without paying the membership fees.
Medium-term predictions (after August 1st)
Even with the new barrier forcing Partner Program members to pay the membership fee, I predict a surge in usage of the “Spammer Strategy” because it makes economic sense for (some of) the new countries.
It will negatively impact the experience of writers on the platform. The question is: will the spammy behaviors increase so much as to affect the sense of community?
And even without the spammy behaviors, writers’ average views and earnings will likely decrease because of increased competition to catch readers’ attention.
For readers, assuming the algorithm and the boost program do a good job, opening the Partner Program will be a positive impact as readers will have more articles to choose from.
Conclusion
Opening the Partner Program to more countries will increase the number of writers and articles published. It will impact readers positively because of a larger quality reading offering.
The question is, “Will readers’ satisfaction increase significantly enough to attract many new readers and make Medium and its writers happier?”
For more ideas about Medium, read these:
Smillew is a Medium artiste. As such, he lies and begs for money on ko-fi (and for subscribers on Substack to save the planet).
