I like free content very much. Still... maybe we already have micropayments, but they aren't evenly distributed yet.
The current generation of gaming consoles does something close to micropayments and scrip at the same time, through their online shopping points. They solve the transaction cost problem by making you buy $20 worth of points at a time (I bought 15 Nintendo points for World of Goo, and then blew the change on an impulse buy - a copy of Opera). Points also solve the resistance problem, by having a captive audience of users who want what they offer.
The next step might be to allow game review sites to accept Nintendo/Sony/XBox points for access to content, demos, trailers, etc. At the same time, that would tie them more closely to the console manufacturers. More mainstream channels could follow as they see fit.
> They solve the transaction cost problem by making you buy $20 worth of points at a time...
The transaction fees on a one time purchase of $20 is cheaper than on 15+5 or $1 20 times or even $0.05 400 times. The problem then is if the users would pay that much in advance, or if you can wait until that much as accumulated until you charge them for it. Then again there are services like tipjoy that manage that for you.
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I like free content very much. Still... maybe we already have micropayments, but they aren't evenly distributed yet.
The current generation of gaming consoles does something close to micropayments and scrip at the same time, through their online shopping points. They solve the transaction cost problem by making you buy $20 worth of points at a time (I bought 15 Nintendo points for World of Goo, and then blew the change on an impulse buy - a copy of Opera). Points also solve the resistance problem, by having a captive audience of users who want what they offer.
The next step might be to allow game review sites to accept Nintendo/Sony/XBox points for access to content, demos, trailers, etc. At the same time, that would tie them more closely to the console manufacturers. More mainstream channels could follow as they see fit.
> They solve the transaction cost problem by making you buy $20 worth of points at a time...
The transaction fees on a one time purchase of $20 is cheaper than on 15+5 or $1 20 times or even $0.05 400 times. The problem then is if the users would pay that much in advance, or if you can wait until that much as accumulated until you charge them for it. Then again there are services like tipjoy that manage that for you.
Thats the way that I see it. You get charged at the end of the month or whatever.
PayPal does this, and allows for easy micropayments, and to my knowledge nobody is making much off of it.