

Ask HN: Would you use micropayments if done right? - GFischer

We're at the "customer validation" stage of our first startup attempt :) , so I wanted to ask you:<p>If someone implemented an easy way for users to pay for content or services (or in-game items), without requiring a credit card, would you consider it?<p>What must such a service have or offer in order for you to consider using it?<p>How do you believe it should work?<p>Would you accept a large % in fees in exchange for ease of use and removing the credit card barrier?<p>Our proposal is shockingly similar to BuySimple (and we arrived independently), though we have 700k less in funding :)
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callmeed
_> If someone ... would you consider it?_

Sure, but you'd have to convince me that it wouldn't turn away users who
haven't heard of the service. Also, you'd have to show some people that
they'll make more money than an ad-supported model.

Example: I'm working on some tutorials on integrating Rails apps with iOS
apps. I'm deciding between selling an eBook + code versus just blogging it. If
such a service allowed me to sell access at $3 per chapter/turoial, I'd
consider it.

All in all, you might take this angle and focus on a specific type of content
in order to get traction. Maybe coding/tech tutorials would be a good place to
start.

 _> What must such a service have or offer in order for you to consider using
it? _

Users + growth

 _> How do you believe it should work?_

That's your problem. Make it easy and people will use it. Show publishers that
they'll make more money and they'll get on board.

 _> Would you accept a large % in fees in exchange for ease of use and
removing the credit card barrier?_

Definitely not more than Apple's app store (30%). But something below that
would be nice, say 20-25%.

~~~
GFischer
Thanks for the reply. We have a tough road ahead indeed :)

It's encouraging that you would consider a 25% margin - we're finding this the
toughest point to tackle, right now we're looking at costs of about 50%.

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glimcat
There's a lot of money in micropayments and there are loads of problems with
existing solutions from the perspective of virtually everyone involved. The
compromise solution tends to be purchasing service-restricted credits in
larger increments.

It's a great problem to solve, but people have been trying to make incremental
improvements here for ages. What makes you different than all of them?

~~~
GFischer
We're currently testing several hypothesis and assumptions:

1) People want to pay for online content or services that deliver value for
them

(League of Legends creator said: "if it delivers a tremendous value to them
that's highly replayable, people will spend money")

2) There's a large segment of people that don't have international credit card
or paypal, yet are online and want to pay (or people that don't want to use a
credit card online), and have a cell phone.

3) Webmasters and game developers are willing to accept a large percentage cut
in exchange for much better conversion rates.

4) The service has to be as simple as possible (and I think BuySimple is doing
things right in that regard) and dead easy to try (we'd thought of the "free
sample" thing as well)

The hypothesized target segments are: \- online games with in-game stores \-
virtual communities that want to donate or help \- small independant websites
with small products (example: arts and crafts sites with small projects)

Think very small payments (5 cents of a dollar)

League of Legends interview:

[http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28313/Interview_League_Of...](http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28313/Interview_League_Of_Legends_Merrill_On_Succeeding_With_FreeToPlay_Core_Games.php)

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GFischer
This is the competition, BuySimple:

<https://www.buysimple.com/>

We're looking at the same implementation (a "Pay" button, Facebook Connect or
OpenId, and we even thought of free credit the first time around! Though our
backend money collection is probably very different and might be our
difference-maker).

I'm really excited to be part of a startup at last :) and I hope you guys can
help validate our idea (or make us pivot :) )

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adrianwaj
The solution is cryptocurrencies, imho. Everything else is a nasty workaround.

