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Underground > Laboratory >

Micropayments

11:39 / 21.01.02

Micropayments. Virtual tipping. An easy way to give a few pence to something you appreciate. The idea is that it is so little that you wouldn't mind parting with the cause, and the potential audience is so large that the final sum could be fairly respectable.
I have never really seen it work though. I have seen sites with paypal buttons, but the commissions and minimum costs cripple the potential tip.
Then today I read an article in The Times. Apparently 390 million is spent each year within the EU on digital add-ons for mobile phones mainly ring tones and graphics.
Doesn't this seem like a good direction for web micropayments. Instead of handing over credit details, or making advanced payments we could send a text at a preset price and have the cost charged to a phone. Now I know this system already exists, but why isn't it more widespread? Doesn't that seem like a gap in the market? A system as widespread as paypal but accepting mobile phone payment. Mobile phone charges work, web subscription/payment services do not. The future seems to be to combine the two.

Comments?

12:22 / 21.01.02

I think Samsung recently came out with a Web Video Phone, which would make that system work very easily. Browse on the phone, pay with the phone.

The Return Of Rothkoid

14:13 / 21.01.02

Isn't that a bluetooth kinda thing? I remember there being an advert in cinemas, a while ago (I think it was in cinemas) for IBM - essentially, it involved someone trying to buy a drink, and having no change, and then trying to get money out of a fountain to pay for it, while a woman with a mobile merely walks up, punches some buttons on her phone, collects the drink and walks off.

Sounds like Bluetooth, anyway - I'm pretty sure that as soon as it's widespread, things like Paypal will take it on-board as a payment option...

04:43 / 23.01.02

Yeah, I remember that advert as well. What is up with bluetooth anyway? Has the hi-tech collapse delayed it. It was supposed to be here by now. A bluetooth PDA/phone payment gadget is the future. As popular as a credit card but without the need to pass through a reader, just key in the phone number. It could give e-commerce a major boost. Should we start buying shares?

[ 23-01-2002: Message edited by: Buk ]

10:29 / 23.01.02

Habbo hotel already allows people to buy things on the web by sending a text message which they get a cut of. Even better - the things you buy are completely virtual.

12:45 / 25.01.02

how long before we have habbo grandtheft auto...

Scott Mccloud has interesting things to say about micropayments at his website

14:09 / 25.01.02

...what I'm curious about is how micropayments or better yet pay-per-use schemes yield compared to paying outright for access to a form of media, etc. I'm sure in big industry, it'll be much more lucrative. Also solves some of the piracy issues by really showing people what they're paying for...access, not the sense of ownership.

18:02 / 25.01.02

I'm telling ya phone micropayments are gonna kick of a mini webrevival. You should all be learning WML and buying shares.