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Comment by brianwawok | Hacker News Reader

To put in perspective, Shopify has a market cap of 41B. This is 0.00002 of that.

The average net worth of an American is 122k[0]. So this is like the average American donating $2.44 to a cause.

[0] https://www.fool.com/research/average-net-worth-americans

You do realize that market cap is not real money, right? That's like saying that an average American who earns 30K USD/year over 33 years will earn 1M USD and thus they should be considered a millionaire.

You do realize I compared market cap to networth? And networth is not money?

Most of an individuals networth is likely tied up in their primary residence and highly illiquid.

If you want, you can repeat my math comparing personal income to corporate income. The difference you will find out is not substantial.

Shopify's revenue last year was $4.6m last year, and that's before expenses, so I'd say it's quite a meaningful contribution. But regardless, a $1m donated to OSS is still $1m.

Shopify’s revenue in 2021 was $4.6b.

Welp, you can disregard my comment then lol

I'm guessing you wouldn't mind sharing receipts of your donations that certainly amount to much more than 0.002% of your net worth?

I’m not submitting a PR stunt on hacker news about it.

If you want to talk crap about a company that gives 0.002% of their "market cap" to FOSS development, at least be ready to show that you are doing better than that. Otherwise, your indignation sounds like nothing but a mere cheap attempt at virtue signalling, and FOSS devs can not use that to pay their bills.

What amazes me is they are giving money with no strings attached, and of course there will be some entitled prick who will try to find fault at that. I wish more companies did "PR stunts" like these...

Your comparison is still flawed. Market cap is the value of the company in the eyes of its investors, which in theory factors in current assets, current profits, and future expectation of profits. You compared that to the net worth of a single individual, which accounts for nothing but current assets.

That said, you weren't all that far off. Based on Shopify's revenue of $4.6 billion and an average household income of $67k, this is equivalent to a donation of $14.57.

I still argue that the presence of this kind of negativity in every thread about corporate donations is toxic. Corporations don't donate to FOSS nearly as often as they should, and there's no harm in giving them some credit on the rare occasions when it happens.

/u/ufuk has already pointed how this comparison is flawed, but even if it were not - now do the same comparison of how much other companies donate to OSS projects.

technically true, but does it have the same impact as a donation of $2.44?

Great question.

They have different impacts. That million allows shopify to get features it wants and aligns the project to it's goals. That $2.44 comes without those strings.

You can afford more developers with a million but you end up building something shopify supports which pulls existing resources away from current priorities.

It can boost or even kill a project.

If you read the post you will see this is a donation without strings as well.

I'm not sure the post cover this. The intent is without strings but the truth is it buys a bigger voice and platform.

Did you hear about the $2.44 I gave? No you didn't.. there was no press release or hn article.

There is a section in the post exactly about that. Let me quote here:

> What influence does this partnership give Shopify over Ruby Central? > This was an important consideration in Ruby Central moving forward the partnership. After discussion with Shopify and amongst the Ruby Central directors, the agreement was formulated as a donation without strings. Both parties have made it clear that usage of the donation is at the discretion of Ruby Central. As a good steward of the Ruby community, Ruby Central plans to disclose how the funds were used both for full transparency on the partnership as well as to highlight the work that was done.

So? $1M is $1M.

> So this is like the average American donating $2.44 to a cause.

You’re making this sound like a bad thing. It’s a kind gesture nonetheless.

You must be fun at parties

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