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
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.
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