GitHub introduces Sponsors to help open source developers get financial backing

Microsoft-owned code repository platform, GitHub, announced earlier today that it is offering its GitHub Sponsors service to developers in India. Starting today, Indian developers on GitHub can sign up for Sponsors to receive financial backing for their independent developer projects.

The company announced earlier today that Indian developers will no longer be waitlisted for signing up on Sponsors. The GitHub Sponsors Explore platform offers a browser view for all projects on the platform, using which interested parties can discover new developer projects that suit their needs.

GitHub allows individuals and organizations to sponsor developer projects by individual developers, as well as organizations. The company says in its detailed developer fact sheet that sponsorships made from personal or individual accounts are not levied any platform fee, while there is a 10% charge for organization sponsorships to developers.

As for which users are eligible to receive sponsorships, GitHub says, “Anyone who contributes to an open source project and lives in a supported region is eligible to become a sponsored developer. Contributions include but are not limited to bug reports, issue triage, code, documentation, leadership, business development, project management, mentorship, and design.”

Therefore, any eligible Indian developer on the platform can now set up a sponsored profile, add their bank account details, and receive financial backing for their work from users around the world.

During the announcement, GitHub said that Indian developers make for the second largest demographic on its platform – with over 8 million developers hailing from this region. In the past one year, Indian developers made over 200 million contributions across over 10 million projects around the world. As of November 2021, GitHub had 73 million developers on its platform, which it expects will grow to over 100 million in the next three years.

GitHub makes for a key platform for developers around the world, in terms of getting a global audience for publishing their work. SlashData’s Developer Nation report from Q3 2021 stated that as of September last year, there were a total of 26.8 million active developers around the world.

JavaScript remained the most popular programming language by a wide margin, while robotics, computer vision and web3 development remained some of the most active interest areas for developers.