Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content

Grok Headline matches for Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content

Game Gurus, Clicking Their Way To Fame
& Fortune (washingtonpost.com)

Game Gurus, Clicking Their Way To Fame
& Fortune (washingtonpost.com) 12/26/2004 10:43 AM
washingtonpost.com - Two years ago this week, over the lull of winter break, Rocco Repetski got bored the way high school juniors who happen to be math geniuses (and who happen to take interest in computer code) get bored. He wondered, why not design an online game?

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.

Tribute to Fortune Red, Disneyland's
fortune-telling pirate

Tribute to Fortune Red, Disneyland's
fortune-telling pirate 09/19/2004 06:17 AM
Cory Doctorow: Randall sez, "Showcasing the now-extinct shooter arcade that once graced the exit to Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, The Pirates Arcade page offers your chance to have Fortune Red, the fortne-telling pirate machine tell your fortune. Click on the "Fortune Red Has This To Say..." button, and one of the 20 possible fortunes will be delivered in a popup window. Most fortunes make reference to one Disneyland attraction or another, including the long-gone Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland." Link (Thanks, Randall!)

Fortune.com - Fortune 500 - The Money
Machines

Fortune.com - Fortune 500 - The Money
Machines 07/24/2004 04:53 AM
92% de los americanos prefieren acceso a un cajero automtico que a su email .. A history of the ATM Machine

fortune.com/fortune/fortune500/articles/0,15114,662142-1,00. html
track this site | 3 links

Free Content Still Sells

Free Content Still Sells 09/21/2004 06:37 AM
Books containing material available online for free, like the 9/11 Commission Report, are still managing to rack up good, and in some cases very impressive, sales. By Joanna Glasner.

Subscribe to Free Content

Subscribe to Free Content 01/07/2004 02:49 PM

In case you missed it among our other many cool re-design features this fall, I'd strongly recommended subscribing to the RSS feeds for Common Content (RSS here) and the Internet Archive (RSS here).

Put them in your favorite blog-/news-reader, and you've got a fresh batch of free culture waiting for you every morning.

Free Video Content for Your Sony PSP

Free Video Content for Your Sony PSP 03/24/2005 02:53 PM

You've got your shiny black beast home and charged and you've already watched Spider-Man 2 twice—what video is next for your PSP? You can convert some of your own content using the software tools we listed in our PSP Omegapost (yes, I regret that name now, too), but if you just want some short free clips, we're starting a list of places to get free content that's already formated for your baby. As always, if you have a suggestion, send it in and we'll be happy to add it.

• 29 Guide's Daily PSP Downloads [29HDNetwork]
• Sony Connect Official Page [Connect]

Profiting from free, online content

Profiting from free, online content 07/15/2004 06:50 PM
There isn't a compelling business argument today that would suggest that giving away our content is a good idea. (more) What tangible benefit does the New York Times get in return for being a world news library to us? It's neat to be revered by all as a repository of information, but without a visible associated profit, I can certainly understand why it could be rejected by higher-ups. In the interests of simplifying things, I'm going to make a gross generalization of this and call it: "How do I make money while giving everything away for free?": Advertising The scourge of optic nerves everywhere can still be useful when done tactfully. Loud, garish ads can send people into seizures, drive people to distraction, inspire thousands to write code to block them — all for the sake of making a...

Live bl0gging, but content free

Live bl0gging, but content free 06/05/2005 11:10 PM
I'm at a conference where an example of blogging is in order. This is it....

Yahoo links to free digital content

Yahoo links to free digital content 03/24/2005 10:10 AM

AOL Building Free Portal To Make Its
Content Pay (AdWeek.com)

AOL Building Free Portal To Make Its
Content Pay (AdWeek.com) 06/17/2005 04:35 PM
AdWeek.com - In its latest reinvention, AOL is opening up much of its content and services to the outside world in the hope of earning a bigger piece of the expanding online-advertising pie, a key goal for the Time Warner unit as its subscriber numbers continue to decline.

Webmasters Get Free Content and Earn
Cash Through the Kizash.com Syndication
Program

Webmasters Get Free Content and Earn
Cash Through the Kizash.com Syndication
Program 12/27/2004 04:35 AM
Kizash.com syndication system is an easy way for webmasters to add dynamic content to their site and create an additional revenue stream. [PRWEB Dec 27, 2004]

OJR article: Free Content Becoming Thing
of the Past for UK's Online Newspaper
Sites

OJR article: Free Content Becoming Thing
of the Past for UK's Online Newspaper
Sites 10/31/2003 04:04 PM
OJR article :: Free Content Becoming Thing of the Past for UK's Online Newspaper Sites .. Pay to Play in the U.K

ojr.org/ojr/business/1067472919.php
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The March Towards Micropayments

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

Micropayments Going Mainstream? Not Yet

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

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.

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.

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...

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...

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 ...

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)

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."

PayPal Slashes Micropayments Fees

PayPal Slashes Micropayments Fees 12/09/2003 07:18 AM
SiliconValley.Internet.com Dec 9 2003 6:37AM ET

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

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

Hot Banana Wins 2005 e-Content Award -
Best Content Management System - CMS

Hot Banana Wins 2005 e-Content Award -
Best Content Management System - CMS 04/08/2005 04:55 AM
Hot Banana Software Inc., a leading North American Web Content Management Suite (CMS) company, announced today that it has won the 2005 e-Content award for the best Content Management System. The Canadian e-Content Awards are sponsored by the e-Content Institute and were created to recognize and honor e-content products and services used by Canadian organizations and individuals. [PRWEB Apr 8, 2005]

The Difference Between Online Content
And Broadcast Content

The Difference Between Online Content
And Broadcast Content 02/10/2004 02:46 PM
Major League Baseball made news last year for claim ing to own all in-progress game data - saying they were going to go after websites that reported what was happening at a game in real-time. It didn't matter that the law is pretty clear that you can't copyright facts - MLB believes that just presenting the data is a "rebroadcast" of the game. That said, I guess it's no surprise to hear that they now believe that web audio and video broadcasts of games should work the same way as television broadcasts with a content provider paying a huge upfront fee for the rights to the games, and then telling them they can make it back in ad revenue and subscription fees. Of course, the various internet sites they've approached with this plan have been laughing them out the door, and pointing out that they're not television stations, and they just want to provide something useful to their users - but aren't going to lose money to do so. While MLB has been at the forefront of offering streaming video and audio, it appears they still look on this as a broadcast medium, and not the interactive medium it actually is. They're doing their best to squeeze more money out of existing fans, rather than attract new fans, which is dangerous for the future of the sport. Not only do you anger your biggest fans, you also make it less likely that you're going to pick up new fans.

Usenet Content Up For Grabs On Content
Hungry Web

Usenet Content Up For Grabs On Content
Hungry Web 12/19/2004 03:08 PM
The age old question of copyright and Usenet comes up again.

Fortune Osho 0.1

Fortune Osho 0.1 05/01/2004 10:35 AM
Quotes from the spiritual guru Osho.

Building a Fortune

Building a Fortune 09/02/2004 12:06 PM
Fortune Brands' CEO talks about the company's history, expansion, and innovation.

Making a Fortune

Making a Fortune 04/23/2004 04:17 PM
Red-hot Fortune Brands has a breakout quarter.

Fortune Osho 1.1

Fortune Osho 1.1 07/12/2004 07:30 PM
Quotes from the spiritual guru Osho.

Fortune on bl0gs and biz

Fortune on bl0gs and biz 01/03/2005 12:14 PM
Xeni Jardin: The impact of blogs on business is the subject of Fortune magazine's current cover story. BoingBoing is one of many "freewheeling blogs" mentioned, but the real reason to read it is this gem of a quote. Snip:

"If you fudge or lie on a blog, you are biting the karmic weenie," says Steve Hayden, vice chairman of advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather, which creates blogs for clients. "The negative reaction will be so great that, whatever your intention was, it will be overwhelmed and crushed like a bug. You're fighting with very powerful forces because it's real people's opinions."

Words to live by. Must. Respect. Karmic. Weenie. Snarks aside, David Kirkpatrick and Daniel Roth produced a really solid, thoughtful piece here, and it's well worth a read. Link to full text of article, for which (as Joi and others have pointed out) Fortune let go of their "paid registration only" policy.

A Fortune For This Cookie

A Fortune For This Cookie 04/30/2004 04:23 PM
P.F. Chang's has one delectable menu, but is its stock price as palatable?

Fortune searching

Fortune searching 02/11/2004 06:13 AM
CNET Asia Feb 11 2004 9:53AM GMT

fortune-mod-reddwarf 0.2

fortune-mod-reddwarf 0.2 05/18/2004 06:10 PM
Fortunes from the Red Dwarf series.

An Inexpensive Fortune?

An Inexpensive Fortune? 09/03/2004 10:01 AM
Fortune Brands' CEO Norman Wesley says Fortune is undervalued.

Other News: Fortune 500

Other News: Fortune 500 04/06/2005 12:19 PM
Microsoft is Number 12 in revenue, while Apple is behind Sun Microsystem but ahead of Gateway.
Grok Description matches for Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content
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Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content

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