“Important announcement: the platform will cease its activity on April 4.” On Twitter, uTip formalized the end of its operation on Monday. The French platform offers since 2012 to organize financial support for content creators or artists. Every month, three million people used uTip to pay for a subscription or donate to one of the site’s 50,000 creators.
This announcement confirms the placement in simplified liquidation of the company, on March 23. The cessation of activities of the company was motivated by the withdrawal of the financial partner of uTip. “Our payment provider, Mangopay, has decided to terminate our contract,” the platform said. But without this intermediary, it is no longer possible to collect the amounts sent to the creators.
This conflict between uTip and Mangopay has been reported for several weeks by Stanislas Mako, the head of the platform, to our colleagues at Frandroid. At the center of the conflict, the presence of a creator of adult content. Mangopay prohibits the financing of this type of activity within its terms of use. This led to the breach of contract between the two actors.
Donations available for withdrawal
Thus, Mangopay blocked the uTip account, explains Frandroid. In other words, donations and support were once secured by the company with no possibility of accessing them. Today, uTip assured that “creator balances will remain available for withdrawal.”
The closure of uTip means that creators will have to go through another platform to organize public support for their activity. This is particularly the case of the journalist specializing in video game news, Gautoz (Gautier Andres), or Ostpolitik, who offers a morning newscast. They both do most of their work on the Twitch streaming platform.
In its termination announcement, uTip clarified that monthly subscriptions cannot be transferred to another solution. Therefore, creators will need to redirect their support to Patreon or KissKissBankBank. A movement that will not fail to generate a loss of subscribers through.
uTip also mentions Tipeee among the platforms capable of taking over. However, Tipeee’s setbacks, following controversial statements by its founder, had greatly benefited the platform. Many creators had left Tipeee in favor of uTip after an episode of “Complément d’Enquête” dedicated to false information, aired on France 2.
Source: BFM TV
