4 ms·

> A major reason paying for content doesn't work very well yet is that it's not practical to charge small amounts. The cost and hassle of electronic transaction

> A major reason paying for content doesn't work very well yet is that it's not practical to charge small amounts. The cost and hassle of electronic transactions makes it impractical to charge less than a fairly high subscription rate. > But within a year the mechanisms will be in place that allow content providers to charge just a cent or a few cents for information. If you decide to visit a page that costs a nickel, you won't be writing a check or getting a bill in the mail for a nickel. You'll just click on what you want, knowing you'll be charged a nickel on an aggregated basis. > This technology will liberate publishers to charge small amounts of money, in the hope of attracting wide audiences. > Those who succeed will propel the Internet forward as a marketplace of ideas, experiences, and products-a marketplace of content. I wonder what happened to the future of 1996..

sverige 8y ago
> I wonder what happened to the future of 1996.. The need for surveillance and the potential for social control that it offers.
CM30 8y ago
I think search engines and social media happened. Basically, unless your work is distributed for free, your audience won't find it, since Google doesn't rank content well if it's got a mandatory paywall and people won't share stuff on social media if there's a good chance most others won't be able to read/consume it. It's also possibly because the internet and content is in the midst of an endless race to the bottom. People are giving away their work for free, so people have come to expect that as the norm and are less incentivised to pay for anything further down the line (because if they do, their free competitors will eat their lunch). It's a lot like what's happening in the smartphone app market, where due to all the ad supported/free/99 cent apps available, anyone trying to sell an app for more than a few dollars is going to lose most of their audience.
- vinod1073 8y ago
  +1
qbrass 8y ago
PayPal and credit card companies made paying online easier than the various micro-payment companies could, but weren't interested in the same business model.
- tannhaeuser 8y ago
  There's still the model of sending content via MMS to smart phones (or even dumb phones) with carrier billing. Yes the one that has been used for selling custom ringtones in the 1990s. With Android's stagefreight bug a couple years ago Google managed to put it out of consideration such that people must go to app stores instead. But carrier billing has always been the obvious native payment method on the mobile web where telcos already have your details and a customer relationship.
amelius 8y ago
Check out blendle.com for instance.

sverige 8y ago

> I wonder what happened to the future of 1996.. The need for surveillance and the potential for social control that it offers.

CM30 8y ago

I think search engines and social media happened. Basically, unless your work is distributed for free, your audience won't find it, since Google doesn't rank content well if it's got a mandatory paywall and people won't share stuff on social media if there's a good chance most others won't be able to read/consume it. It's also possibly because the internet and content is in the midst of an endless race to the bottom. People are giving away their work for free, so people have come to expect that as the norm and are less incentivised to pay for anything further down the line (because if they do, their free competitors will eat their lunch). It's a lot like what's happening in the smartphone app market, where due to all the ad supported/free/99 cent apps available, anyone trying to sell an app for more than a few dollars is going to lose most of their audience.

vinod1073 8y ago
+1

qbrass 8y ago

PayPal and credit card companies made paying online easier than the various micro-payment companies could, but weren't interested in the same business model.

tannhaeuser 8y ago
There's still the model of sending content via MMS to smart phones (or even dumb phones) with carrier billing. Yes the one that has been used for selling custom ringtones in the 1990s. With Android's stagefreight bug a couple years ago Google managed to put it out of consideration such that people must go to app stores instead. But carrier billing has always been the obvious native payment method on the mobile web where telcos already have your details and a customer relationship.

amelius 8y ago

Check out blendle.com for instance.