Why MicroPayments Won’t Save the Newspapers
Clay Shirky gives a short lesson in the dos and don’ts of MicroPayments:
Such systems solve no problem the user has, and offer no service we want. As a result, conversations about small payments take place entirely among content providers, never involving us, the people who will ostensibly be funding these transactions. The conversation about small payments is also not a normal part of the conversation among publishers. Instead, the word ‘micropayment’ is a trope for desperation, entering the vernacular of a given media market only after threats to older models become visibly dire (as with the failed attempts to adopt small payments for webzines in the late ’90s, or for solo content like web comics and blogs earlier in this decade.)
The invocation of micropayments involves a displaced fantasy that the publishers of digital content can re-assert control over we unruly users in a media environment with low barriers to entry for competition.
It’s worth noting that his issues are distinct from virtual goods, and payments for objects in closed environments. But the idea that paying a little bit here and there fixes problems is just a fantasy.
It may be that the term itself just causes confusion and does more harm than good.
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