The End of the Referral Program
Is it coming soon?
To be honest, I have mixed feelings about Medium’s referral program. The promotional footers in every story get old quickly. And yes, I’m to blame too, of course. I also promote my referral link. It’s good money if you get some.
But is it good for the platform, for the quality of writing, and for the readers that are NOT writers?
Good news then?
I was surprised when I read an outstanding piece by DC Palter called “Medium Raises Another $31M” in which DC hints at the possibility of Medium ending the referral program.
The article is mainly about the acquisitions of Projector and Knowable and the money that went into that. Instead of paying us, writers more, for example.
In the end, however, DC writes:
Best guess, and this is pure speculation based on my experience working with startups, is Medium is doing well enough to keep going without big changes to the payments. However, the new subscriber bounty will probably be dropped soon (end of year?) and we won’t see costly bonuses again until the company needs to raise its next round of funding in another 12–18 months.
Why
This guess makes a lot of sense to me. Assuming Medium needed funding, a great…
