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Clay Shirky wrote about micropayments and free content a while back: http://shirky.com/writings/fame_vs_fortune.html http://shirky.com/writings/fame_vs_fortune.
by jonasvp 18y ago
Clay Shirky wrote about micropayments and free content a while back: http://shirky.com/writings/fame_vs_fortune.html http://shirky.com/writings/fame_vs_fortune.html
Basically, he's saying that micropayments will not work because they introduce a transaction cost into the act of reading: you not only have to decide if you want to read (or skim) the article in question, you have to decide if it's worth x cents as well.
And that transaction cost kills the transaction before it happens, never mind the x cents that would have been transferred.
- iron_ball 18y agoYep... it's called the "penny gap," and it's what micropayment proselytes fail to account for. I've noticed something similar on the New York transit system -- when I have a prepaid MetroCard with limited rides, I think twice before taking any individual trip, but when I buy the unlimited-use monthly card, I feel much more free to consume the service even if the total price per month ends up roughly the same. Yearly subscriptions to sites seem much better. I'd pay a subscription to the Times, though this certainly puts me in the minority. Heck, I'd pay a subscription to Hacker News, too.
- access_denied 18y agoBut if that minority is big enough to sustain a business that delivers journalism of a certain quality? Oh, they had to move offices to another building, where the rent is less expensive...