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Is Attention the alternative to Micropayments?What about Amazon?

admin · October 16, 2007 · Leave a Comment

Several attempts at micropayment systems with cute names like bitPass have come and passed without gaining traction. The problem is Ads – I can pay a site less than a few cents by simply visiting their page – in other words, my attention is now converted into dollars (paid for by the advertiser). In this context, it is interesting to see Amazon launch their payment solution with web services interfaces.

The Amazon FPS has some unique new capabilities including ability to deal with very small transactions. Another interesting feature is support for setting up rules. Here is what Amazon says about the FPS (Flexible Payment System)

Micro-Payments Support: With Amazon FPS you can track and aggregate micro-payments (e.g. payments less than $0.50 or even $0.01) into a single payment transaction and can charge the customer before (prepaid) or after (postpaid) the service is provided. This features lets you minimize transaction processing costs and avoid having to build complex ledger functionality into your applications.

Inexpensive: Amazon FPS passes on to you the benefits of lower processing costs on bank account debits and Amazon Payments balance transfers. FPS charges less when the actual cost to process a payment is lower, rather than charging the same fixed fee for all payment methods. There is no up-front investment or monthly payment for running an application using the service. In addition, you can build and test an application for free using the Amazon FPS sandbox.

We may not be willing to pay for things like access to web content (NYTimes just shut down its TimesSelect paid portal and made the content free) but there are transactions that cannot be supported by ads. For example, if I wanted to provide a service that automatically provided you an update on the weather in Menlo Park – today there is no way for me to charge you 1c (or a fraction) for each update. Users could be paid for uploading pictures to certain sites; For reporting bugs; Even participating in polls; etc.

I think there is a lot of potential here. I will follow the Amazon FPS and keep you posted. Let me know your comments and feedback.

My Blog awarded Time award

admin · December 18, 2006 · Leave a Comment

I am honored to receive this year’s Time Person of the Year. Okay, so I have to share it with 300 million other internet users, but that’s just details!

I was quite suprised to see the extent of my contributions to the Web2.0. My contributions, mentioned on page 1,304,507 of the award declaration include:
– Blogger Blog
– LinkedIn profile
– FlickR pictures
– Amazon reviews
– eBay listings
– Prosper loans
– Comments on blogs, YouTube, CNET Reviews
– Zoho shared spreadsheets and projects
– Corportate Wiki at work

This may be a good time for you to inventory your contributions.

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