A somewhat off-topic rant, because the site is down, but hear me out:
What I wouldn't give for a decent micropayments platform. One that would allow me to pay $0.50 a month for an ad-free social network. Facebook currently averages around $0.25 a month in ad revenue per user, so it'd double that income. Let me pay $0.25 a month to subscribe to a blog. Let me pay $1.50 a month to subscribe to the New York Times. Let me tip $0.10 for an article I like, or pay $0.75 for lifetime access to a forum.
We've heard a lot about how "if you're not paying, then you are the product." Well, give me the option to pay, and never have to see an ad, or have my data mined and sold to advertisers. I would pay gladly.
I looked into different ways to do this, and the tech would not be hard. It's really more of a business and legal issue than anything.
But I really think it would change the web, and for the better. Sometimes, really cheap is better than free. As in beer, anyways.
It seems like one of the prerequisites for a workable micropayment system is an overhaul of interbank payment processing system or establishment of a new one. I have absolutely no knowledge of the current system but I'd be shocked if the same system that manages $100k+ transactions and the risks associated with that can cost effectively process transactions in the <10c range.
There was a comment on the same level as this one referring to flattr.com which seems to be one attempt at a micropayment system. Does anyone have experience with this service or failing that an idea why that comment got absolutely buried under downvotes?
I have an idea on how to handle it in bulk payments, as opposed to individualized transactions. But really, this is not the kind of space where a startup could compete. You'd need someone with the legal and financial backing the size of Google to make it happen.
Flattr does exactly that (bulk payments). It's just not well adapted for payments since you don't pay a fixed amount to each website but a fraction of a certain fixed amount divided by all the buttons you've clicked on that month.
You also have the problem of perception: The "mental cost" of having to pay facebook every month 50c is far greater than the financial cost (in this case, the 50c).
I think this was one of the problems flattr.com tried to solve but not successfully. Have a centralised "bank" (eg. flattr) that would collect everyones 50c and then distribute them accordingly. The user purchases credits from the bank and the bank gives money to the providers in a way that keeps the "mental cost" at zero (or minus zero, if you actually feel happy at the end of the month).
I think the problem is that, no matter how small the payment, it's some nonzero amount of friction for growth. Not only are you putting a paywall up between nonusers and content, you're asking me as a user to put my stuff behind your paywall.
I think ad-supported just works better with the 'link-economy' and architecture of the web.
Funny you picked $0.50. At Facebook's current revenues, that's about how much each person would have to pay for month for them to be making as much as they're making now, if you took away all the other cash streams.
I doubt you'd manage to get even 0.01% to pay for social networking. It would likely be more trouble than it's worth, compared to being advertising supported.
The only thing keeping people from paying $0.50 to remove ads and data mining is a system frictionless enough to let people do it easily. The cost is not in any way prohibitive. Make it a single click, and a barely noticeable $0.50 monthly charge and I think a lot of people would sign up.
What I wouldn't give for a decent micropayments platform. One that would allow me to pay $0.50 a month for an ad-free social network. Facebook currently averages around $0.25 a month in ad revenue per user, so it'd double that income. Let me pay $0.25 a month to subscribe to a blog. Let me pay $1.50 a month to subscribe to the New York Times. Let me tip $0.10 for an article I like, or pay $0.75 for lifetime access to a forum.
We've heard a lot about how "if you're not paying, then you are the product." Well, give me the option to pay, and never have to see an ad, or have my data mined and sold to advertisers. I would pay gladly.
I looked into different ways to do this, and the tech would not be hard. It's really more of a business and legal issue than anything.
But I really think it would change the web, and for the better. Sometimes, really cheap is better than free. As in beer, anyways.