4 ms·

Ask HN: Would you use micropayments if done right?

• GFischer 15y ago
  This is the competition, BuySimple: https://www.buysimple.com/ https://www.buysimple.com/ We're looking at the same implementation (a "Pay" button, Facebook Connect or OpenId, and we even thought of free credit the first time around! Though our backend money collection is probably very different and might be our difference-maker). I'm really excited to be part of a startup at last :) and I hope you guys can help validate our idea (or make us pivot :) )
• glimcat 15y ago
  There's a lot of money in micropayments and there are loads of problems with existing solutions from the perspective of virtually everyone involved. The compromise solution tends to be purchasing service-restricted credits in larger increments. It's a great problem to solve, but people have been trying to make incremental improvements here for ages. What makes you different than all of them?
  • GFischer 15y ago
    We're currently testing several hypothesis and assumptions: 1) People want to pay for online content or services that deliver value for them (League of Legends creator said: "if it delivers a tremendous value to them that's highly replayable, people will spend money") 2) There's a large segment of people that don't have international credit card or paypal, yet are online and want to pay (or people that don't want to use a credit card online), and have a cell phone. 3) Webmasters and game developers are willing to accept a large percentage cut in exchange for much better conversion rates. 4) The service has to be as simple as possible (and I think BuySimple is doing things right in that regard) and dead easy to try (we'd thought of the "free sample" thing as well) The hypothesized target segments are: - online games with in-game stores - virtual communities that want to donate or help - small independant websites with small products (example: arts and crafts sites with small projects) Think very small payments (5 cents of a dollar) League of Legends interview: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28313/Interview_League_Of_Legends_Merrill_On_Succeeding_With_FreeToPlay_Core_Games.php http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/28313/Interview_League_Of...
• adrianwaj 15y ago
  The solution is cryptocurrencies, imho. Everything else is a nasty workaround.
• callmeed 15y ago
  > If someone ... would you consider it? Sure, but you'd have to convince me that it wouldn't turn away users who haven't heard of the service. Also, you'd have to show some people that they'll make more money than an ad-supported model. Example: I'm working on some tutorials on integrating Rails apps with iOS apps. I'm deciding between selling an eBook + code versus just blogging it. If such a service allowed me to sell access at $3 per chapter/turoial, I'd consider it. All in all, you might take this angle and focus on a specific type of content in order to get traction. Maybe coding/tech tutorials would be a good place to start. > What must such a service have or offer in order for you to consider using it? Users + growth > How do you believe it should work? That's your problem. Make it easy and people will use it. Show publishers that they'll make more money and they'll get on board. > Would you accept a large % in fees in exchange for ease of use and removing the credit card barrier? Definitely not more than Apple's app store (30%). But something below that would be nice, say 20-25%.
  • GFischer 15y ago
    Thanks for the reply. We have a tough road ahead indeed :) It's encouraging that you would consider a 25% margin - we're finding this the toughest point to tackle, right now we're looking at costs of about 50%.