

Ask YC: Could web properties become ad-free and sustain using micropayments? - rokhayakebe

Most web startups and blogs depend on Advertising to make money. A web property with 1M visitors per month could probably fetch about 25k a month in advertising (not sure at all just assuming). That is 2.5 cents per visitor.<p>Could that cost be simply offset to the end user. I think most readers would not mind paying 2.5 cents to 25 cents to use a web service or to read their blog.<p>If I was to pay 25 cents/month for each of the  50 sites I visit regularly, that would not hurt much and they would probably have more money than by running ads.<p>Could web properties become ad-free and sustain using micropayments?
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poppysan
This all depends on a unified payment system or network for micro-
transactions. I can envision a majority accepted standard, such as paypal is
for regular transactions, then a user can deposit, say, $5.00 and apply it to
his favorite sites via a subscription to their content.

This payment gateway could be an interesting start-up. Like the paypal button,
a site could have a subscribe button on their site which automatically adds
the content to the users subscription list/ completes the sale.

Then you could have a browser plug-in or stand alone app that aggregates and
categorizes the content for the subscriber. This may result in a traffic
decrease, but when ad-support doesn't matter, neither does hits. It would then
be quantified by total subscribers.

Stop me if its been done already...

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rokhayakebe
I think the browser plugin would be a beautiful implementation. There is a YC
startup that is currently doing a nice job at handling micropayments, and I
think their model could be replicated for this startup.

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poppysan
Tipjoy? Or is there another one?

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rms
It's a big challenge when the micropayments are denominated in USD. The
problem has gone so long without being cracked that I will be really surprised
if someone manages to successfully implement it. Maybe in 30 years we get a
reputational economy.

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noodle
the cognitive jump between "free" and "not free" is surprisingly large.

could it happen? sure. it would be a challenge, though.

