PayPal Slashes Micropayments Fees

Grok Headline matches for PayPal Slashes Micropayments Fees

Aust comms body slashes carrier licence
fees

Aust comms body slashes carrier licence
fees 06/29/2004 12:37 AM
ZDNet Australia Jun 29 2004 4:33AM GMT

Micropayments Going Mainstream? Not Yet.

Micropayments Going Mainstream? Not Yet. 01/11/2004 04:53 PM
DotEdu writes "Today's NY Times has an interesting article on two new micropayment companies, BitPass and Peppercoin, and the venerable PayPal. More ...

return of the micropayments...

return of the micropayments... 03/11/2003 02:00 PM
several years ago "micropayment" was the buzzword and then seemed to fade into oblivion as so many cool tech ideas...

The March Towards Micropayments

The March Towards Micropayments 06/28/2004 11:16 PM

The Next Attempt At Micropayments

The Next Attempt At Micropayments 11/17/2003 03:08 PM
Stop me if you've heard this one before... Suddenly, new micropayment technologies are hot, and everyone is talking about the billions of dollars that could be made by selling content for just a little bit of money. All of these estimates use silly math. They talk about how a large number of little transactions adds up to a large number. That may be true, but it makes a huge, unstated, assumption: that there will be a large number of transactions. Notice that the article linked here never looks at things from the consumer side to see if people actually want to be nickeled and dimed for every piece of content they find online. There may be some places where micropayment fees will work - but it's going to be difficult to make significant money that way. First off, people pay money to get online because they want to access content. If everything is going behind a paid wall, suddenly they feel like they're getting double-billed. Why do they need to pay to get online if there's nothing there? Furthermore, each bit of "paid content" competes with free content. Admittedly, if the blocked off content is very very good or comes with some other advantages, some people will pay for it. However, the vast majority of folks will hunt out a "good enough" substitute that they can find for free. Also, the article completely ignores the important comparison that content providers need to make if they're going to block off content. It talks about the potential to make money off of micropayments, but that's a useless number by itself. The important point is whether or not they can make more from micropayments than they could from offering free content supported by some other business model? I can see plenty of content providers jumping on this bandwagon because they haven't been able to figure out how to properly create an online site that makes money - but they may discover that it doesn't do them very much good. There is some content for which micropayments will work - but it's a very limited set - and most content providers aren't going to think this out before throwing up a paid wall.

Debating Micropayments

Debating Micropayments 06/09/2004 02:03 PM
Clay Shirky got a lot of attention last year for his essay on why micropayments don't work - focusing mainly on the addition of "mental transaction costs" as an additional cost above and beyond the monetary micropayment cost. Not everyone has agreed (especially those involved with micropayment companies). Vin Crosbie has now chimed in to explain why Shirky is wrong about micropayments by saying that the mental transactions of micropayments don't always need to stop the transaction. As an example, he points out that people pay for water, telephone calls and electricity in micropayment fashion and never seem too bothered by it. This is true - but what's missing is that in all three cases these are both necessities and there are (or, in the case of telephone, were) no other options for providers. When there's no competition, you can charge and people will accept it - especially if it's a basic necessity. However, when competition does come about, the pricing starts to drop, and the idea of additional fees-per-transaction start to go away. Witness what is happening with the telephone industry. With the rise of VoIP systems, almost all telecom companies in the US are now offering some sort of flat-rate deal where there are no micropayments for each transaction. In the case of undifferentiated content, where there are plenty of other content providers online (with the possible exception of very specialized content), it will be very difficult to charge any form of micropayment.

Micropayments Going Mainstream? Not Yet

Micropayments Going Mainstream? Not Yet 01/11/2004 09:24 PM
Slashdot Jan 11 2004 8:16PM ET

Successful micropayments?

Successful micropayments? 11/10/2003 11:34 PM
Maybe micropayments can be successful. BitPass seems to have at least a decent collection of merchants. I posted about Peppercoin...

Have Micropayments Arrived For Real?

Have Micropayments Arrived For Real? 11/02/2003 06:32 PM
Maybe this time, as the Net matures, it's genuinely worth a try. By Dan Gillmor (San Jose Mercury News via MyAppleMenu)

Internet & micropayments market to grow
23%

Internet & micropayments market to grow
23% 08/13/2004 05:12 AM
inSourced Aug 13 2004 9:43AM GMT

MicroPayments and Credit Cards - Game On

MicroPayments and Credit Cards - Game On 06/29/2004 07:09 PM
"...because of a patent-pending method of lumping together individual transactions into one transaction to reduce the cost to the merchant."

Google Wallet More About Micropayments
For Content?

Google Wallet More About Micropayments
For Content? 06/22/2005 02:17 AM
There's been a ton of buzz over the idea that Google was working on a PayPal competitor, and it appears that Eric Schmidt and "the powers that be" at Google finally thought it was worth speaking to the press on the matter. In discussing the Google Wallet concept, we did note that it came days after rumors of a Google iTunes-like offering as well, and that actually might tie into what Google is working on. Earlier today, there was increasing speculation that Google was more interested in a system to deliver micropayments for content than direct person-to-person financial transactions -- and that seems to be more along the lines of what Google is admitting to. While not clearly laid out, Schmidt did say that the solution they were working on wasn't really a PayPal competitor, but more of an extension of existing programs. Many people have been saying that it's likely an extension of the payment system they use for handling their paid search ad program, but extending it out to other types of content. This would also fit with Google's new video storage offering, which promised to allow people to charge for the content that people downloaded. While less surprising, this is still a bit disappointing. Micropayments seem to go in and out of fashion every few years, but never actually seem to catch on, mainly because not only do they add a monetary expense, but they have a mental transaction cost in making people stop and think about whether or not it's worth purchasing. That cost is much more expensive than most people think. Also, any micropayment-based system always leaves itself open to competitors who realize that it's going to be much more effective to give the content away, and make money elsewhere.

Digital content spurs micropayments
resurgence

Digital content spurs micropayments
resurgence 09/07/2004 06:38 AM
A growing appetite for digital content helps companies that enable small-ticket online transactions.

Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free
Content

Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free
Content 01/07/2004 02:53 PM
Micropayments, small digital payments of between a quarter and a fraction of a penny, made (yet another) appearance this summer with Scott McCloud's online comic, The Right Number, accompanied by predictions of a rosy future for micropayments. To read The Right Number, you have to sign up for the BitPass micropayment system; once you have an account, the comic itself costs 25 cents.

BitPass will fail, as FirstVirtual, Cybercoin, Millicent, Digicash, Internet Dollar, Pay2See, and many others have in the decade since Digital Silk Road, the paper that helped launch interest in micropayments. These systems didn't fail because of poor implementation; they failed because the trend towards freely offered content is an epochal change, to which micropayments are a pointless response.

The failure of BitPass is not terribly interesting in itself. What is interesting is the way the failure of micropayments, both past and future, illustrates the depth and importance of putting publishing tools in the hands of individuals. In the face of a force this large, user-pays schemes can't simply be restored through minor tinkering with payment systems, because they don't address the cause of that change -- a huge increase the power and reach of the individual. - More at http://www.shirky.com/writings/fame_vs_fortune.html

A penny for your bits: micropayments to
make a comeback?

A penny for your bits: micropayments to
make a comeback? 11/18/2003 05:33 PM
Considered to be holy grail of paid web content, micropayments may be finally ready for prime time

Google slashes IPO value

Google slashes IPO value 08/18/2004 06:58 AM
The Register Aug 18 2004 11:38AM GMT

Google slashes IPO

Google slashes IPO 08/18/2004 08:52 AM
USA Today Aug 18 2004 1:09PM GMT

Scripts and Slashes

Scripts and Slashes 10/28/2003 11:08 PM

In an earlier blog entry, I mentioned how Safari was having to emulate a quirk in Mozilla in order to make a particular Web site work. When Mozilla encounters a <script/> element with an XML-style self-closing /, it actually closes the tag, even in HTML pages. This is - I believe - incorrect behavior, since in HTML the / is invalid and should simply be discarded, leaving you with an open tag instead.

If you try this in WinIE and Safari 1.0, you'll see that they behave identically. They both ignore the / and leave the script open. Both Mozilla and Opera, however, honor the / and close up the script tag.

With my "fix" for this bug, the latest Safari will now honor the / as well. I wonder if this behavior was deliberate on the part of Mozilla and Opera or just some accidental fallout from their XML implementations... whatever the case, we're all stuck with it now, since Web sites are (amazingly) writing to it.

EDS slashes dividend

EDS slashes dividend 07/28/2004 04:12 AM
Shareholders rethink holiday plans

Iomega slashes workforce by 25%

Iomega slashes workforce by 25% 09/24/2004 07:49 AM
Storage solutions provider Iomega is laying off 145 staff, representing one quarter of its workforce, reports The Register...

Google slashes float

Google slashes float 08/18/2004 08:24 PM
Telegraph Aug 19 2004 0:36AM GMT

ABN Amro slashes IT workforce

ABN Amro slashes IT workforce 12/22/2004 01:11 AM
One in four techies to lose jobs

Google Slashes IPO price

Google Slashes IPO price 08/18/2004 08:54 AM

Intel slashes forecasts

Intel slashes forecasts 09/02/2004 05:24 PM
CNN Sep 2 2004 9:27PM GMT

Google Slashes IPO Range

Google Slashes IPO Range 08/18/2004 10:01 PM
iMedia Connection Aug 19 2004 2:22AM GMT

AMD slashes Opteron prices

AMD slashes Opteron prices 05/07/2004 06:18 AM
The Register May 7 2004 10:41AM GMT

AT&T slashes Net-phoning prices

AT&T slashes Net-phoning prices 06/15/2004 09:16 PM
CallVantage is now $5 a month cheaper--a mere two months after the service was introduced.

Dell UK slashes Dimension to just
£53,000

Dell UK slashes Dimension to just
£53,000 06/21/2004 10:45 AM
A 'build-your-own' online bargain

MS slashes prices on peripherals

MS slashes prices on peripherals 08/11/2004 08:12 AM
TechTree Aug 11 2004 12:20PM GMT

AMD slashes Opteron prices by up to 40%.

AMD slashes Opteron prices by up to 40%. 10/28/2003 11:06 PM
The Register: AMD slashes Opteron prices by up to 40%. Except for the one I bought, so I don't have to curse them.

Moody's slashes EDS debt to junk

Moody's slashes EDS debt to junk 07/15/2004 08:13 PM
CNET Jul 16 2004 0:30AM GMT

Oracle slashes PeopleSoft offer

Oracle slashes PeopleSoft offer 05/17/2004 04:18 AM
20 per cent off...

Intel Slashes Chip Prices

Intel Slashes Chip Prices 08/27/2004 01:52 PM

This makes me a very happy man. I was pricing Intel chips yesterday and the store manager who I am good friends with mentioned the price drop and told me to come back later in the week and they would have a new batch of chips and the reduced pricing. This will allow me to get a little more bang for the buck when I build my new video editing system.
[Designtechnica< /a>]

Google Slashes IPO Price Range

Google Slashes IPO Price Range 08/18/2004 04:39 AM
AP via ABCNEWS.com Aug 18 2004 9:33AM GMT

Vivendi Slashes Loss in First Quarter
(AP)

Vivendi Slashes Loss in First Quarter
(AP) 05/27/2004 09:14 AM
AP - Vivendi Universal slashed its loss in the first quarter compared with a year ago, largely due to improved earnings from its music, entertainment and mobile phone operations.

Amstrad slashes em@iler prices

Amstrad slashes em@iler prices 01/05/2004 08:39 AM
Mass market play

Vonage slashes price of Net telephony
kit

Vonage slashes price of Net telephony
kit 06/02/2004 06:12 PM

Trafford slashes call costs

Trafford slashes call costs 06/08/2004 08:53 AM
Manchester Online Jun 8 2004 1:28PM GMT

Intel slashes sales forecasts

Intel slashes sales forecasts 09/02/2004 05:24 PM
CNN Sep 2 2004 9:26PM GMT
Grok Description matches for PayPal Slashes Micropayments Fees
GrokA matches for PayPal Slashes Micropayments Fees

PayPal Slashes Micropayments Fees

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