Micropayment Company Adjust Business Model Away From The Internet
from the the-only-way-to-go... dept
We've discussed multiple times why micropayments are overhyped for content online. Despite being told repeatedly by companies in the space that this time will be different, it looks like one such company (Peppercoin - which has been one of the loudest defenders of the "age of micropayments") is already discovering they need to adjust their business model. The cool thing about the way Peppercoin works is that it basically aggregates a bunch of purchases and creates a "representative sample" to lower the transaction fee paid to the credit card provider. The problem with using Peppercoin for internet content is the fact that most people don't want to pay for content -- especially when there are other options and the mental transaction costs are high. However, that doesn't change the fact that Peppercoin reduces credit card fees -- which is useful if only applied to a market where people already are willing to pay for things. So, that appears to be where Peppercoin is headed: away from internet transactions (though, they still claim that this will be a big space) and towards real world situations where tiny transactions rule, such as arcades.
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Micropayments
An example of the former is a good song, a great photo, an indepth article on a sought after subject or any ther rich content that appeals to the user who is willing to pay for it (and not be subjected to annoying pop up ads, etc.).
An example of content not worth paying for is the repeated comments and articles by authors who berate micro payments because they feel everything should be free (and fail to see that most of us are willing to pay for good content if offered at reasonable costs)!
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