* * * * *
                                        
                                    Um … yea
                                        
> The Short Answer for Why Micropayments Fail
> 
> Users hate them. 
> 
> The Long Answer for Why Micropayments Fail
> 
> Why does it matter that users hate micropayments? Because users are the
> ones with the money, and micropayments do not take user preferences into
> account.
> 
> In particular, users want predictable and simple pricing. Micropayments,
> meanwhile, waste the users' mental effort in order to conserve cheap
> resources, by creating many tiny, unpredictable transactions. Micropayments
> thus create in the mind of the user both anxiety and confusion,
> characteristics that users have not heretofore been known to actively seek
> out.
> 

The Case Against Micropayments [1]

I personally have been waiting for micropayments to come along. I'm thinking
Hey, great! Charge a small bit, help defray costs or even make a buck or two.
But this article has me rethinking the entire scope of micropayments or how
websites should make money.

[1] http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2000/12/19/micropayments.html

Email author at sean@conman.org

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