Alternative payment system... am I reinventing the wheel?

Micropayments, Macropayments, Subscriptions, etc.

Moderator: Moderators

Locked
SpittingTrashcan
Forum Member
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: USA

Post by SpittingTrashcan »

Good forum readers,

I was thinking late last night, and considered a different model for web economics.

The problem: whereas other broadcasting methods become more cost-efficient as content becomes more popular, web information distribution becomes far more costly as popularity increases. But we all know that, don't we?

The current solution: Web sites must be economically self-sufficient. That is, they must sell something. Hence, ad banners, merchandising, outright begging etcetera. [Author's comment: Bleah.]

The possible solution: User pays a flat rate of $X a month to access the web. User's page hits are registered in a log, and at the end of the month the $X is distributed proportionally by hits. It's sort of like micropayments, but the flat rate encourages people to get all the browse out of their money, increasing overall page hits and making page popularity a much greater factor.

Comments and criticism are always appreciated.
Rocket from the receptacle!
-SpittingTrashcan
glych
Frequent Poster
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Jun 25, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: So' Cal, USA
Contact:

Post by glych »

hhmm.... i think the same problem creators have now with paypal and amazon would be similar to that problem....it's like communism, it's a great idea in theory but could never work effectively because of human nature...and we're a greedy species by nature....

the problem would be that for every X ammount that the creator should get for their hits would be reduced by Y, or the distributors 'fee'....so istead of X ammount getting the the creator, it'd be X-Y... At first Y might only be something small like 5%, but what's to prevent the distributor to not take more like 15% or even 30% (in the way of some if not most pay-pal transactions)...

If anyone sees a flaw in my thinking, please correct me....

Afterall, Ideas aren't the most polished right out of someone's head...

My agency idea below proves as much...

-glych
---
"I may not be able to move that rock, but -man- can I make that rock think it's been moved"-Corran Horn, Star Wars

Glych's Experiment
SpittingTrashcan
Forum Member
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: USA

Post by SpittingTrashcan »

Mr. Glych,

I actually envisioned this as a model not merely for comic sites but for the web as a whole, to be administered not by commerce but by an impartial governing body...

You're right, it sounds like the socialist web. Not that there's anything wrong with that, other than that socialism hasn't worked yet, because people are too greedy.

I guess the only real solution is to vat-grow better people... If there's a more feasible one, that lets everyone get their cut without anyone getting screwed, I'd like to see it.
Rocket from the receptacle!
-SpittingTrashcan
Locked