So, here we are, more than one year after starting our mission into the unknown (kind of). And what’s happened over the last year? Quite a lot!

Why do we do this?

We love the internet, we love creators, and we think there’s a flaw in the internets tubes so we wanted to create some glue. We’ve now tried our first glue formula for more than a year and here are some key findings:

People want to pay!

People want to pay!

The “Everybody thinks that everything on the internet should be free; no one wants to pay” mantra constantly voiced from various lobbying groups and other organizations as an argument for forcing you to pay is wrong. Now we know you want to support great stuff out there. Flattr proves that voluntary payments work!

So, if that’s not the problem, then what is the real problem?

Apparently people don’t realize that what they do has value, sad but seems to be true. So the real issue is, enabling you to pay for ANY content, giving to all and any people creating awesome stuff. You, the giver, has to be empowered!

For this we’re loading our guns with 2 cannon balls!

1. Revshare partner integration

Integrate Flattr with your content service and we’ll gladly share the fee from our service! Our API will be extended to enable flattring of ALL content from any user on a partner site. This is being tested right now and will be rolled out in May. Come join us with your service!

2. Reverse service integration

If certain web services and sites still don’t get that you want to pay, we have to enable it anyway! From 1st of May anyone can receive flattrs, even accounts without means (no more inactive buttons around the web).

And here is the grand plan: Everyone uses Twitter (It’s almost impossible not to find people onTwitter). So from 1st of May it will be possible to flattr them via flattr.com. And yes, that means any Twitter account (even those without a flattr account). This will be the first of a long series of services we will enable you to flattr. You asked for it, you’re going to get it!

Extra ball: Localization

By popular demand, and thanks to the community (hooray!) Flattr now speaks three more languages, German, French and Swedish. And more will come; any language you translate for us, we’ll add! You rock! \o/

Don’t forget, as awesome as all of this sounds, it’s not us, it’s you – You’re the ones who are demonstrating that you want to pay for things even when you don’t have to, and that is truly epic.