In a post back in July we asked, “Is Flattr the new Facebook Like, but this time with real money?”. With 342 comments, that post got a LOT of discussion going. And it’s even being used by the controversial Wikileaks whistle-blowing site.

Now they are releasing data which suggests the service is starting to pick up at a clip.

Flattr started testing with alpha users back in February, but went public in August.

Now, two months after going public, it says it has garnered over 46,056 registered users with over €114,057 ($158,438) of “flattrs” passing through the system. It now also has Twitter and Facebook integration which should really start to get the platform motoring.

How does it work? Micropayments tend not to work but with a Flattr account you set up how much you want to go out of your account a month, from €2 to anything, then “reward” content owners that have the Digg-like Flattr button, with the cash split equally among the holders of the content that you “flatterd”. Since to get money you need an account (minimum €2 remember) and to offer it as a button on your site, Flattr encourages participation. If you do flattr nothing in a month your budget goes to charity.

Flattr can be used as a compliment to donations or advertising or even for getting small donations for open source software. Third-party applications are now starting to spring up around Flattr including ImFlattrd (social network) and a Firefox add-on (to flattr any content).