WeWork通过向225,000个社区征税来拼命地从Meetup.com榨取现金

Update: A few hours after I published this article, Meetup quietly added a note to the top of their announcement. They have not tweeted or done anything else to publicize this note, but some people noticed it and shared it with me.

更新：在我发布本文几小时后，Meetup悄悄在其公告的顶部添加了注释。 他们没有发布任何推文或做任何其他事情来宣传此笔记，但有些人注意到了该笔记并与我分享。

Here's what it says:

它说的是：

"UPDATE October 15, 2019 1:30 pm ET: This payment change is currently only a limited test for a small number of groups. Organizers of these select groups have the option to opt-out of this test. We will not be making any significant payment changes in the near term. We are committed to providing advance notice before any changes go into effect."

“ 更新时间：美国东部时间2019年10月15日，下午1:30：此付款更改仅是少数小组的一项有限测试。这些选定小组的组织者可以选择退出此测试。我们不会进行任何测试近期内将发生重大付款变化。我们致力于在任何变化生效之前提前发出通知。”

They have bowed to the backlash. Now that their "flash-fry the frog" approach has failed, they are now going to "boil the frog" and roll out these changes over time. Meetup has not tweeted or otherwise alerted organizers of this pull-back.

他们屈服于反弹。 现在他们的“炸青蛙”方法失败了，他们现在将“煮青蛙”并随着时间的推移推出这些更改。 Meetup尚未发布任何推文，也未以其他方式提醒组织者此撤退。

This is a victory for event organizers and participants. But it's a temporary one. Meetup has already shown their true colors. It's just a matter of time before they start pushing this new RSVP-based pricing on more of their communities.

这是活动组织者和参与者的胜利。 但这是暂时的。 Meetup已经展现出了自己的本色。 他们开始在更多社区中推广基于RSVP的新价格只是时间问题。

To be 100% clear: the freeCodeCamp.org community is still hard at work on an open source alternative to Meetup, and we are making steady progress.

要100％明确：freeCodeCamp.org社区仍在努力开发Meetup的开源替代方案，并且我们正在稳步发展 。

(End update.)

(结束更新。)

---

---

Last night Meetup.com quietly rolled out a new pricing structure.

昨晚，Meetup.com悄悄推出了新的定价结构。

Effective "October", Meetup is reducing the amount of money event organizers have to pay each month from $20 per month to $2 a month.

自10月起生效后，Meetup将活动组织者每月必须支付的金额从每月20美元减少到了每月2美元。

Wow - that sounds great. Group organizers don't have to pay as much? So why is everyone so mad?

哇-听起来不错。 团体组织者不必支付那么多钱吗？ 那为什么每个人都这么生气？

Well, Meetup is also adding a new $2 fee every time a person RSVPs for a meetup. Every. Single. Time.

好吧，Meetup还会增加一个新的$ 2费用，每当一个人RSVP进行一次聚会时。 每一个 单。 时间。

Let's do some quick math. Before, it cost a group of people $20 per month to use Meetup.com to organize their events.

让我们做一些快速数学运算。 以前，每个人每月花费20美元才能使用Meetup.com来组织活动。

With this new pricing, let's assume you have a medium-sized meetup group that meets once a week and has 30 RSVPs each time.

以此新的定价，我们假设您有一个中型的聚会小组，该小组每周开会一次，每次有30个RSVP。

The group's total collective Meetup.com fees will now go from $20 per month to:

该组织的Meetup.com集体总费用现在将从每月20美元降至：

($2 * 30 RSVPs * 4 events per month) = $240

Oh, wait - I forgot to add that Meetup.com will still charge group organizers $2 per month on top of this. So $242.

哦，等等-我忘了补充，Meetup.com仍将向组织者每月收取$ 2的费用。 因此$ 242 。

That's a 1,210% increase in cost.

成本增加了1,210％。

Here's some more math.

这里还有一些数学。

Felipe Hoffa created this visualization to show how Meetup's new RSVP-based pricing would affect freeCodeCamp and its dozens of meetup groups around the world:

费利佩·霍法(Felipe Hoffa)创建了此可视化效果，以展示Meetup基于RSVP的新定价如何影响freeCodeCamp及其在世界各地的数十个metup组：

We've had 8,600 RSVPs for freeCodeCamp events so far in 2019. That would translate to:

截止到2019年，我们已经有8,600个针对freeCodeCamp事件的RSVP。这将转换为：

(11,400 RSVPs * $2) = $22,800 in Meetup.com fees

Sorry, Meetup.com. Your software platform is not worth $22,800 per year to our nonprofit and its community of study groups.

抱歉，Meetup.com。 对于我们的非营利组织及其研究团体来说，您的软件平台每年价值不超过$ 22,800。

Up until now, most meetups have been completely free. Meetup has the option of charging people to attend, but very few meetups use this feature.

到目前为止，大多数聚会都是完全免费的。 聚会有向参加者收费的选项，但是很少有聚会使用此功能。

A 2017 estimate put the total number of Meetup groups at 225,000.

根据2017年的估算 ，Meetup组的总数为225,000。

This pricing change will destroy thousands of communities on meetup.com - many of which have existed for more than a decade.

这种价格变化将破坏metup.com上的数千个社区-其中许多已经存在了十多年。

为什么Meetup.com如此大肆抢钱？ 由于WeWork的IPO崩溃。 (Why is Meetup.com making such a flagrant cash grab? Because of the WeWork IPO Debacle.)

WeWork bought Meetup.com in 2017 for an estimated $200 million.

WeWork在2017年以约2亿美元的价格收购了Meetup.com。

And if you haven't heard, WeWork is in a lot of trouble. Last month their big IPO imploded.

而且，如果您没有听到，WeWork将会遇到很多麻烦。 上个月，他们的大型IPO破裂。

WeWork CEO Adam Neumann resigned after taking $700 million out of the company and doing super sketchy things like buying buildings in his own name, then leasing the buildings to his company.

WeWork首席执行官亚当·纽曼(Adam Neumann) 从公司撤出7亿美元并进行一些超粗略的事情后辞职，例如以自己的名义购买建筑物，然后将建筑物出租给他的公司。

WeWork could run out of cash by November. So they are desperate to get cash any way they can. Which explains Meetup.com's sudden, dramatic price change.

WeWork 到11月可能会用光现金 。 因此，他们迫切希望以任何方式获取现金。 这就解释了Meetup.com突然的价格急剧变化。

So how has Meetup.com been handling this PR crisis? Well, they replied to some people using the same exact canned response. Then they just stopped responding. And now they're tweeting motivational quotes.

那么，Meetup.com如何处理这场公关危机？ 好吧，他们回复了一些使用完全相同的罐头回应的人。 然后他们只是停止响应。 现在，他们在推特上发布励志名言。

Meetup doesn't care.

聚会没关系。

They have crunched the numbers.

他们计算了数字。

They know that a certain percentage of hobby groups and fitness groups - and maybe even a few big business or tech groups - will shrug and say "I guess people will just have to pay a fee now."

他们知道，一定比例的业余爱好和健身团体-甚至可能还有一些大型企业或科技团体-都会耸耸肩说：“我想人们现在只需要付费即可。”

If even 10% of Meetup.com groups stay on their platform, they will end up making significantly more money than they are now.

如果即使有10％的Meetup.com小组留在他们的平台上，他们最终将比现在赚更多的钱。

At this point, Meetup.com doesn't care about sustainability. Its parent company, WeWork, could go into bankruptcy proceedings any day now.

此时，Meetup.com不在乎可持续性。 它的母公司WeWork现在可以在任何一天进入破产程序。

This should just be yet another parable of corporate greed ruining a platform.

这应该仅仅是公司贪婪破坏平台的另一个寓言。

But this is more tragic. Much, much more tragic.

但这更加悲惨。 悲惨得多。

Because there are thousands of group leaders who have built up their communities on Meetup.com.

因为有成千上万的组长在Meetup.com上建立了社区。

This isn't a slow-motion dying off, like with Tumblr or Geocities. This is all happening suddenly, and out of the blue.

这并不是慢动作的消失，就像Tumblr或Geocities一样。 这一切都是突然发生的，是出乎意料的。

Meetup is a huge platform. And its owners - out in the cold - have decided to set Meetup.com on fire so they themselves can stay warm a little bit longer.

聚会是一个巨大的平台。 而且其所有者-处于寒冷之中-决定将Meetup.com放火烧毁，以便他们自己可以保持温暖一点。

小组有什么选择？ (What options do groups have?)

The sad truth is there aren't many good alternatives for Meetup.com refugees.

可悲的事实是，Meetup.com难民没有很多好的选择。

If you create a group on Meetup.com, you will automatically get some amount of exposure - both from Google search and from Meetup's own internal recommendation engine.

如果您在Meetup.com上创建群组，那么您会自动从Google搜索和Meetup自己的内部推荐引擎中获得一定的曝光率。

Meetup has "network effects". As it becomes bigger, it becomes more useful. And more entrenched. Not unlike Facebook, Google, Amazon, or any other platform company.

聚会有“网络效应”。 随着它变大，它变得越来越有用。 并且更加根深蒂固。 与Facebook，Google，Amazon或任何其他平台公司一样。

Meetup.com benefits from network effects. Heck, they trademarked the common English expression "meetup" so nobody else can even use it.

Meetup.com受益于网络效应。 哎呀，他们将通用英语表达“ meetup”注册为商标，因此没有人可以使用它。

I've spent the past 2 years looking for a good alternative for the dozens of freeCodeCamp study groups that are hosted on Meetup.com.

在过去的两年中，我一直在为Meetup.com上的数十个freeCodeCamp研究组寻找好的替代方案。

There are only two platforms that can give your group and your events comparable exposure: Facebook and Eventbrite.

只有两个平台可以使您的团队和活动具有可比的曝光率：Facebook和Eventbrite。

Facebook has a "Groups" functionality that allows you to create events and allows people in your group to RSVP for them. It's free. And most people already have a Facebook account, even though fewer people use Facebook these days.

Facebook具有“群组”功能，可让您创建事件，并允许群组中的人为其进行回复。 免费。 尽管如今使用Facebook的人数减少了，但大多数人已经拥有一个Facebook帐户。

The problem with Facebook is it's hard to actually reach people - even inside your own Facebook group. You could have thousands of people in your Facebook group and only a few hundred of them will see your event when you post it.

Facebook的问题在于，即使是在您自己的Facebook小组内部，也很难真正接触到人们。 您的Facebook群组中可能有成千上万的人，只有数百人会在发布活动时看到您的活动。

You can of course pay Facebook to advertise your event. That's probably way cheaper than using Meetup.

您当然可以向Facebook付费以宣传您的活动。 这可能比使用Meetup便宜。

Eventbrite is good, and is free for free events. It is less useful for groups with regular events.

Eventbrite很好，免费提供免费活动。 对于有定期事​​件的团体来说，它的用处不大。

And there are several functional clones of meetup.com as well - some of which are open source.

而且还有metup.com的几个功能克隆-其中一些是开源的。

But none of these have much critical mass. Most of them are littered with groups created by people who were just tinkering, and events rarely get RSVPs - let alone actually happen.

但是这些都没有足够的临界质量。 他们中的大多数人到处都是由只是在修补的人创建的小组，事件很少获得RSVP，更不用说实际发生了。

The fundamental problem with these platforms is they aren't associated with any specific organization. They don't have a specific stakeholder raising awareness of the events.

这些平台的根本问题是它们与任何特定组织都不相关。 他们没有特定的利益相关者来提高对事件的认识。

These are big, general social network-like tools where anyone can create any type of event and make it public to everyone.

这些是类似于大型社交网络的大型工具，任何人都可以创建任何类型的事件并将其公开给所有人。

The good news is I've spent the past two years thinking about this problem. And there's a way we can get organizations onboard to bring their own networks.

好消息是，过去两年来我一直在考虑这个问题。 并且有一种方法可以使组织加入他们自己的网络。

更好的前进之路：自托管章节 (A Better Way Forward: Self-Hosted Chapters)

The solution is to let every organization host their own "Meetup.com in a box."

解决方案是让每个组织在一个盒子中托管自己的“ Meetup.com”。

They can house this on their own servers. They can host this on their own website. And they can steer their own existing community to their own chapters' events.

他们可以将其放置在自己的服务器上。 他们可以将其托管在自己的网站上。 他们可以引导自己现有的社区参加自己的分会活动。

This will give each organization full ownership and full control over their data. It will also let them configure the tool however best suits their chapters.

这将使每个组织拥有完全的所有权并完全控制其数据。 它还可以让他们配置工具，但最适合他们的章节。

Organizations will no longer need to rely on a Meetup's big centralized directory of disparate groups and events. Instead, they can focus on growing their own audiences, boosting their own local SEO, and building their own event mailing lists.

组织将不再需要依靠Meetup上分散的不同组和事件的大型集中目录。 相反，他们可以专注于增加自己的受众群体，提高自己的本地SEO以及建立自己的事件邮件列表。

freeCodeCamp is a donor-supported nonprofit. For the past 5 years, dozens of our local chapters have paid Meetup the $20 per month fee - totaling $10,000s of volunteers' money.

freeCodeCamp是捐助者支持的非营利组织。 在过去5年中，我们数十个本地分支机构已向Meetup支付了每月20美元的费用-总计10,000美元的志愿者资金。

We have a Meetup problem. And we are building a solution for it. It's called Chapter.

我们遇到一个聚会问题。 我们正在为此解决方案。 这就是章 。

Your organization will be able to use this solution, too. For free.

您的组织也将能够使用此解决方案。 免费。

We started working on this last night in response to Meetup.com's announcement. And we're working as fast as we can to get this tool ready for you.

昨晚我们开始对此进行工作，以响应Meetup.com的公告。 而且我们正在竭尽全力为您准备好该工具。

You can read more about this on the GitHub repository.

您可以在GitHub存储库上了解更多有关此内容的信息 。

If you are an event organizer, or a nonprofit with a lot of chapters, know this: help is on the way.

如果您是活动的组织者，或者是拥有很多章节的非营利组织，请知道这一点： 即将来临的帮助。

This will be much better suited to your needs than Meetup was previously. And it will be free and fully under your own control.

与Meetup之前相比，这将更适合您的需求。 它是免费的，完全由您自己控制。

翻译自: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-wework-meetup-debacle-and-a-new-chapter/