[eddiezane]

Not sure if you mean `build` or `bill`.

Build: Yup, this is a self service approach where vendors can resubmit images whenever and we can quickly approve.

Bill: Can't confirm any details yet but made sure to note down the request.

[drchiu]

I meant “bill,” but thanks for both answers!

[WordSkill]

@eddiezane, recurrent billing/subscriptions would turbocharge the use of your marketplace for paid images. It would allow vendors to charge a lower upfront amount, which would lower the barrier to experimentation. Users could dive in and, if they like the software, keep the droplet + subscription going indefinitely.

A very DigitalOcean twist would be if you allowed the subscriptions, like the droplets, to be billed per hour.

For instance, a user could deploy a $5 droplet to test a $2 per month image. If the user terminates the image within one hour, the total cost would be 7c for the droplet and 3c for the paid image, totaling 10c. If DO takes a 30% cut, the vendor receives 2c (woo-hoo!). It would be, essentially, a free trial, but with the benefit of establishing the precedent, in the user's mind, of paying for good, supported, server software.

If, however, the user wants to continue using that image, they will pay $5 every month for the droplet and $2 for the image, of which the vendor receives $1.40 every month.

Another very DigitalOcean twist would be if the vendor had the option to charge a percentage of the droplet price, allowing them to charge less to users of the cheapest droplets but more to users of large droplets who are, presumably, deriving more value from their use of the image, and would be more likely to require support from the vendor.

For example, the vendor could set his price at 20% of the droplet cost, meaning that a $5 droplet would cost an additional $1 per month or 1.5c per hour (of which the vendor would receive one cent).

The vendor would make the money necessary for a viable business on larger droplets. For example, on an $80 (16GB) droplet, the image cost would be $16 per month, of which the vendor would receive $11.20.

An image with a hundred or so large users and a few thousand small users would become a viable business that the vendor could energetically promote outside DO, pulling more users into the DO platform.

My hope is that DigitalOcean will approach this marketplace with imagination, not make too many presumptions about how it should evolve and allow actual demand to shape it. While it is good to showcase the images that are going to be useful to a huge number of users, such as the generic WordPress image, your marketplace could truly soar by allowing a vast hinterland of lesser-used images, that, cumulatively, would result in far more usage. Let a million forks bloom. It would differentiate you from all the other hosts who offer one-click generic WordPress.

For example, imagine if thousands of WordPress plugin and theme creators decided that pointing towards their DO Marketplace image was the easiest way to get their customers up-and-running, and the most effective way to continue getting paid for their work. At a stroke, DO would be harvesting a 30% cut of the massive paid WordPress market AND attracting a vast number of new users to your platform.

Not just WordPress, of course, this applies to all forms of server software. DO is in a unique position here to create something akin to the explosion in mobile software development that the App Store sparked in 2008. It would allow thousands of independent developers to create thriving businesses that deliver real value to millions of users, while truly differentiating DigitalOcean.