About Kvend

What is Kvend?

Kvend is the simplest way to sell digital products online, period.

How does it work?

Just upload files - videos, images, e-books, documents, Flash animations, software, pretty much anything digital.  You set a price, and you Kvend it through our system. 

How do I get paid?

Purchases come to us and we send them to your Paypal account. 

How much does it cost?

Basic personal use is free to sign up and use, we take 5% of each transaction.  We have special rates and additional features and services for high-volume, business, or enterprise accounts.

What's the largest size I can upload?

This has not yet been determined but we are working to ensure it is as much as possible.  For the moment it is limited to 100 MB files.

What does the stuff look like to buyers?

HTML, Flash, and movies that you Kvend are shown in-browser.  Kvending Machines and advanced Kvends will be createable from multiple pieces of content.  For example, you can upload a video, PDF, and a webpage and call these steps 1 2 and 3, name the whole thing "how to X" and sell it for $9.95.

What else can I do once I submit a Kvend?

We are working on features to allow you to share your Kvends via your corporate website, personal website, FaceBook, MySpace, Orkut, etc.

Why would people pay for something they can get for free on the web?

They wouldn't.  Kvend is for selling exclusive information, digital products, and content that is inherently valuable and thus not free.  Some knowledge and information has value.  Perhaps a training course for your customers.  Perhaps blueprints and instructional videos on how to build something you invented.  Videos of a tournament that took some effort to shoot and edit.   Legal documents, music, anything that someone might download or view in-browser that has value. 

How can I learn more while waiting to actually use it?

Contact questions@Kvend.com and keep watching the site.

What about DRM (Digital Rights Management)?

"DRM" as an industry term refers to the complex layers of encryption and rights management integrated with the file itself.  It's purpose is to add heavy layers of strict controls over how users will use your content.  DRM has been weighed down over the years by high costs, usability issues, and having been cracked anyway by the Hackers at Large, rendering it mostly useless. 

So people could still pirate my product?

Yep.  But guess - what - they're going to do it even if it's DRM locked, since it's all been cracked.  We don't make it ridiculously easy for a buyer of your content to pirate it to the world, since nothing is going to stop even a moderately determined pirate from doing so, so we focus on making it SO easy to buy and sell that there is less incentive to pirate it.

Steam and iTunes have proven this business model by making games and music easy to buy.  While the content is protected, the delivery is fast and easy and there are few restrictions on how it is used.  The content is still cracked and distributed regularly on the major BitTorrent and Warez sites.  However, Steam is still selling millions of games through their system, and iTunes is selling millions of songs.  If it's easy to download a pirated game or song, and free, how are they selling so much?  Because Steam and iTunes has made it easy and reliable to buy and use, and to use without restriction.  I can log into Steam from anywhere and it just downloads my games to whatever PC I am on.

To explain further, it is often easier and less error-prone to pirate a game than it is to buy a copy from the store, because the store copy will install DRM software which have caused problems for a lot of gamers due to the extreme lengths the DRM developers do to try to control piracy.  StarForce, a popular game DRM system, was notorious for causing optical drive failures for many users.  SecuROM nearly tanked BioShock and Spore.  The pirated versions are often more reliable than the store copies, plus they're downloadable and they can be used without restriction.  That is how bad the state of DRM is these days.

People will pay if you make it easier to pay than to pirate, and when it's guaranteed that the product will be delivered reliably and can be used without too much restriction that might cause problems.

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