This is the latest in a series of posts explaining the decisions we make that affect our users, as well as the results of those decisions (positive or negative).

Dribbble’s mission is to help professional designers earn a living doing work they take pride in, and the Dribbble team is responsible for managing the business in a way that ensures it can continue fulfilling that mission in perpetuity.

By aligning our business model with our company mission, we can narrow our focus to helping designers generate and convert leads (which is, ultimately, the reason they’re here). Over the past fifteen years, designers have generated millions of leads — billions of dollars of opportunity — through Dribbble. Until recently, however, we didn’t share in the revenue generated from these leads, resulting in misaligned incentives between us and designers. A marketplace business model, on the other hand, plays to our strengths, is fair to all stakeholders, and positions us for long-term, sustainable growth.

We began reorienting the business last September when we introduced basic transactional features for clients to request work and make payments, and for designers to deliver work and receive payouts. In the months since that foundational work, the user experience for both designers and their clients has improved rapidly. Just last month, for example, we released Milestones, Service Search, and Video Calls, and more.

Since Week 36 of last year, the total value of transactions processed through our marketplace (GMV) has grown by an average of 15% week-over-week (without any paid marketing). As transaction activity has increased, we’ve been able to commit more resources (including engineering, moderation, and customer support), accelerating growth and generating more revenue for our designers and, in turn, for Dribbble:

“Orders” refers to the number of projects funded through the platform.

“Designers” refers to the number of distinct users who have received at least one Order.

On the one hand, this early traction has exceeded our expectations and validated the decision to undertake a business model transformation after fifteen years of operation. On the other hand, it only represents a fraction of the transaction activity that’s actually occurring between our users because some take payments off-platform (also known as “disintermediation” or “circumvention”).

The near-term impact of disintermediation is, of course, less revenue for Dribbble. The long-term impact of disintermediation, however, is less revenue for both Dribbble and our designers because disintermediation diminishes the user experience and suppresses high-intent website traffic:

When transacting off-platform, clients and designers are exposed to risks such as scams, fraudulent activities, intellectual property claims, and other disputes. Additionally, designers may contend with late payment or nonpayment, while clients may receive incomplete or substandard work and miss deadlines. As more users transact through the platform, search relevance improves, which in turn increases lead generation and conversion for designers. For example, when a client performs a search and transacts with a designer who appeared in their search results, it’s a very strong signal to the ranking algorithm that the designer is relevant to that query. However, when a designer appears in search results for a particular query but doesn’t convert (or converts off-platform), it’s a signal to the ranking algorithm that they’re not relevant. Circumvention of our transaction fees means Dribbble has fewer resources to develop new features that help designers generate and convert leads. It also destroys the unit economics of paid marketing, forcing us to rely entirely on non-paid channels such as Organic Search (Google searches like “hire top designers”) and Direct (users typing our URL into their browser).

Today, we’re instituting a new policy that requires clients and designers who meet on Dribbble to keep payments on Dribbble.

Clients and designers may not request contact details from each other, or display or share their own contact details, with regards to a work opportunity, until the client has made payment through the platform. Dribbble applies a Platform Fee of 2-5% to the client’s payment (depending on transaction size) and 0-3.5% to the designer’s payout (depending on whether or not they subscribe to Pro).

By making payments on Dribbble, clients:

Avoid scams and incomplete or unsatisfactory work (we don’t release funds until the work is complete). Protect against intellectual property claims (they receive full copyright ownership under our Terms). Can rate and review the designers they work with.

By accepting payments on Dribbble, designers:

Avoid scams and late payment or nonpayment (client funds the project in advance). Rank higher in search results (more completed projects means more leads). Can avoid transaction fees by subscribing to Pro.

Also, when clients and designers transact on Dribbble, our team is able to resolve any issues that arise during the course of the project because we can refund the client’s payment or release it to the designer, as the situation requires. We can only provide this safety net for clients or designers if they communicate and transact through the platform.

There are also consequences to violating this policy, including permanent suspension of users’ accounts. Many designers rely on Dribbble for client work, and we don’t want to interrupt that, but we’ll be forced to if a user’s behavior jeopardizes the integrity, safety, or future of our platform.

To summarize, following today’s update to our Terms, on Dribbble it is:

Free to upload design work. Free to browse design work. Free for designers to offer Services and receive Project Requests. Free for clients to search for designers and design services, and send Project Requests. Not permitted for clients and designers to meet on Dribbble but transact elsewhere.

See our Terms of Service and FAQ for more detail on the new policy and its implementation.

Over the past six months, we’ve added a slew of new features which have radically increased the number of clients placing searches and interacting with search results.

Concurrently, we’ve developed multiple new advertising products that piggyback on this search UX/UI work to help designers generate more leads, including:

Promoted Designers, which allows Designer Advertisers to secure a fixed ranking for their profiles in Designer Search for relevant (or null) search queries.

Display Ads, which allows Designer Advertisers to integrate ads within Shot Search that match the look and feel of organic search results.

Promoted Services, which allows Designer Advertisers to secure a fixed ranking for their Services in Services Search for relevant (or null) search queries.

Of course, advertisers — whether global brands like Adobe and Wix or individual Designer Advertisers — expect their campaigns to send traffic to any destination, internal or external, they choose.

For this reason, Designer Advertisers can display their contact details (phone number, email address, website) as well as their appointment scheduling link (for example, Calendly) on their profile and Shot pages, and communicate with clients off-platform before the client has made payment.

While Designer Advertisers can also accept client payments off-platform, we waive Platform Fees for both parties if they stay on Dribbble (by converting leads on Dribbble, Designer Advertisers receive a search ranking bonus that persists even after their advertising campaign ends).

Additionally, for the duration of their campaigns, Designer Advertisers:

Can reply directly to Project Requests from their email inbox or CRM. Partner with dedicated account managers who set up and optimize their campaigns. Receive additional leads which have been screened and qualified by our team.

I speak with designers every week, and their number one request, by far, is more client work.

The primary objective of everything we do — every new feature, policy, and campaign — is to maximize the number of users searching, interacting, and transacting through the platform. That is, we’re focused on bringing our designers more client work.

By prohibiting disintermediation, we’ll increase the number of Project Requests received by designers and the conversion of those requests, enabling us to commit more resources toward improving the user experience, generating high-intent website traffic, and providing exceptional support to both clients and designers.

In other words, keeping payments on Dribbble increases revenue for designers and Dribbble alike.

Dribbble has had many special days over the past decade and a half. Today is another special day because it positions us to deliver on our company mission more fully than ever before – for the long haul.

That said, I realize there are designers – including some who have been with us since the beginning – who may be ambivalent about this reinvention. For those here to share their work with peers, seek inspiration from others, or talk shop, much of what we have planned will improve their user experience, even if they aren’t looking for clients.

To the designers who do rely on Dribbble for client work, you have our full and undivided attention. Every member of our team is focused on your professional success. In the coming months, we’ll pull every lever — product features, partnerships, marketing campaigns, and much more — to help you generate and convert more leads.

It’s a privilege to be on this journey with you, and we’re grateful for your partnership.