Micro-payments rear their ugly head yet again…
on October 8, 2009 at 7:14 pmOnce again the idea of Micropayments is being floated around, this time with a system called iCents. Take a look at their website and you will see the idea is pretty well thought out, the major problem I have always felt hindered micropayments of the past was it was tied to the micropayment system, ie you had to buy xx amount of “coins” from the company and then use those “coins” to buy content. Adding that extra step gives the consumer a chance to get second thoughts and say “Hey, I don’t really NEED to read this comic.” or “It is not really worth the time it takes to fill out this damn form.” any time you add another hoop to go through to get to your content you lose a certain percentage of your readers. It’s a simple fact that people are lazy and have a short attention span. (Ok, that might be a bit harsh but you get the idea)
Now before you start throwing all the instances where micropayment type systems have worked, let me tell you that I am not against the idea of micropayments. But I have yet to see one executed well. Will iCents be any different? Well I think it has one advantage over at least the last micropayment system I know of (BitPass) it accepts all forms of payment, as in Paypal, Google checkout, Amazon payments, Apple, credit card, organ selling… ok not organ selling but you get the idea. So if any micropayment system has a chance of succeeding it is this one. If it fails I can’t imagine that any other system will succeed.
Hi Keith,
My name is Marc Glasberg, CEO of iCents.net.
I would like to point out that iCents.net is not a payment system, since there is no such thing as an iCents account. iCents is a payment platform that lets users pay with the payment systems they already use.
In other words, iCents makes regular payment systems (such as PayPal) work for micropayments and micro-subscriptions.
There is no need to buy xx amount of “coins” from iCents and then use those “coins” to buy content, and there is no need to fill out any forms. All you have to do is sign in to your payment system, for example PayPal. And if you are using your home computer, you only have to sign in to your payment system once, since iCents will keep you signed in between browser sessions even if you erase cookies!
What iCents.net does which is very different from all micropayment companies in the past, is that iCents main goal is to reduce mental transaction costs (the “psychological effect”). iCents is supposed to work even when we are lazy with short attention spans.
To finish, I would like to point out two interesting pages to you:
1) First, there are reasons why some micropayment systems in iTunes and games work, and it’s not only because of the micropayment system itself, but also due to website strategy. I invite you to have a look at this article, where I discuss what a website must do to be able to sell content. I call it “The New Case for Micropayments 2009″:
http://www.icents.net/en/website/TheNewCaseForMicropayments2009.html
2) And second, iCents has just released the fake “New York Times” demo. It shows how a news website could look like if we set out to invent it today, with the goal of make money. I would like to know if you think this design could be adapted to comics:
http://www.icents.net/demo/news/news.html
Cheers,
Marc.
Hi Keith,
My name is Marc Glasberg, CEO of iCents.net.
I would like to point out that iCents.net is not a payment system, since there is no such thing as an iCents account. iCents is a payment platform that lets users pay with the payment systems they already use.
In other words, iCents makes regular payment systems (such as PayPal) work for micropayments and micro-subscriptions.
There is no need to buy xx amount of “coins” from iCents and then use those “coins” to buy content, and there is no need to fill out any forms. All you have to do is sign in to your payment system, for example PayPal. And if you are using your home computer, you only have to sign in to your payment system once, since iCents will keep you signed in between browser sessions even if you erase cookies!
What iCents.net does which is very different from all micropayment companies in the past, is that iCents main goal is to reduce mental transaction costs (the “psychological effect”). iCents is supposed to work even when we are lazy with short attention spans.
Hi Marc,
I am intrigued by the idea of iCents, you seem to have removed one of the major barriers to creating an effective micropayment system (or platform). I am interested to see what sort of progress you make in implementing this, from what I have seen so far on your site the ease of use looks very good.
I think this might actually be the first good test to see folks are actually willing to pay for content rather than always getting it free.