3 ms·

I generally agree with the reasons why we have arrived at what we have now but I'd like to point out that the alternatives do not seem _better_ necessarily, or

by d1zzy 8y ago

I generally agree with the reasons why we have arrived at what we have now but I'd like to point out that the alternatives do not seem _better_ necessarily, or at least not clearly so for most people. Current business model: provide "free" online services that are payed for by providing targeted advertising which relies on collection of data about users and building interest models. Advantage: almost 0 barrier of entry for users (all they need is a compatible browser and good enough network). We can probably conclude that most people like such an advantage. The main disadvantage is all the data collection/aggregation, it's unclear how the large population feels about this (in our tech bubble it's easy to think everyone feels strongly against it). Alternative proposal: pay some subscription somewhere to get access to the online services. Advantage: no need for ads and behavior tracking. Disadvantage: much larger barrier of entry. Now you need a credit card or some other online payment mechanism, your real name/address/zip code will be associated with the payment mechanism, somewhere there are systems/computers that will have enough information to associate your real identity with all the online services you have used (there are technical means to anonymize this association but I don't see political will to force involved companies to do such things, think what will happen in such a situation with something like a Equifax data breach). The larger access barrier for the alternative isn't just "convenience", think about younger people or people from all over the world in different economic and political contexts where having access to some sort of electronic payment is hard or impossible when right now all they need is a browser and Internet (the latter could of course also be an issue for many people but I'd argue is a much lower entry barrier than having access to a universally recognized online payment mechanism).

michaelchisari 8y ago
Once we can crack the micropayment nut, it opens a whole new world of ad-free low-cost subscriptions. I'd much rather pay $0.50 a month for a social network that has no interest in my data than deal with ads or data tracking. But that needs to be both effortless for me as a user, and require very little in the way of processing fees. Both of which are not possibilities right now. Cheap is better than free has always been my motto. Cheap is sustainable, does not require dark patterns for monetization and is transparent to the user. But in order to get there, we need a way to pay small amounts of money to apps, creators and each other. And do it in a way that doesn't immediately become a lightning rod for economic manipulation and money laundering.
- Mirioron 8y ago
  >Once we can crack the micropayment nut, it opens a whole new world of ad-free low-cost subscriptions. Online payments are hard to do because of lots of legislation around money. This means that it's going to be annoying. There are also many people that can't pay online, because they simply don't have access to these payment methods. You could argue that we will eventually digitize our money and that would solve the problem, but I doubt that that's going to happen any time soon. People would be too afraid that Visa and MasterCard would basically control their life. The way you might make it work is if you did what Steam does - you can put money onto the platform that you can then spend later. If you had an entire ecosystem built around that then it might be possible that people would do micro payments to content providers. >I'd much rather pay $0.50 a month for a social network that has no interest in my data than deal with ads or data tracking. I wonder if it could cost that little. I guess it could.
Mirioron 8y ago
>Now you need a credit card or some other online payment mechanism, your real name/address/zip code will be associated with the payment mechanism Do credit card companies also sell your data?

by d1zzy 8y ago

michaelchisari 8y ago

Once we can crack the micropayment nut, it opens a whole new world of ad-free low-cost subscriptions. I'd much rather pay $0.50 a month for a social network that has no interest in my data than deal with ads or data tracking. But that needs to be both effortless for me as a user, and require very little in the way of processing fees. Both of which are not possibilities right now. Cheap is better than free has always been my motto. Cheap is sustainable, does not require dark patterns for monetization and is transparent to the user. But in order to get there, we need a way to pay small amounts of money to apps, creators and each other. And do it in a way that doesn't immediately become a lightning rod for economic manipulation and money laundering.

Mirioron 8y ago
>Once we can crack the micropayment nut, it opens a whole new world of ad-free low-cost subscriptions. Online payments are hard to do because of lots of legislation around money. This means that it's going to be annoying. There are also many people that can't pay online, because they simply don't have access to these payment methods. You could argue that we will eventually digitize our money and that would solve the problem, but I doubt that that's going to happen any time soon. People would be too afraid that Visa and MasterCard would basically control their life. The way you might make it work is if you did what Steam does - you can put money onto the platform that you can then spend later. If you had an entire ecosystem built around that then it might be possible that people would do micro payments to content providers. >I'd much rather pay $0.50 a month for a social network that has no interest in my data than deal with ads or data tracking. I wonder if it could cost that little. I guess it could.

Mirioron 8y ago

>Now you need a credit card or some other online payment mechanism, your real name/address/zip code will be associated with the payment mechanism Do credit card companies also sell your data?