Will Internet Users Pay for Content?

securitas writes "One of the most challenging business problems is trying to figure out how to make money on the Internet, especially with content. Louis Borders believes that Internet users will pay for online content and explains in an interview the how and why. He is founder of Borders Group, a $3.4 billion company that is the second-largest bookseller in the USA, as well as the billion-dollar online grocer and dotcom flameout, Webvan. Borders thinks he has found the answers and has just launched KeepMedia, an online newsstand subscription service. As someone who has had spectacular success and failure in his career, Borders' latest venture will be an interesting one to watch."

I already pay

[isorox]

Most of the places I go to are

• Companies I buy, or potentially will buy, products from (my custom)
• The BBC which is a public service broadcaster (taxes)
• Government sites (taxes)
• Friends sites (which we do for fun)
• Slashdot (I dont subscribe at the moment, but I dont block the ads, and have bought from thinkgeek)

I dont go to many sites that employ staff, I might drop a few quid to a site I really like that is struggling to pay hosting bills, but the best sites in life are free. Charge money, and I'll go elsewhere. I used to run a 2000 visits-a-day site back in 99, I did it for fun. One of the biggest sites I goto now is trektoday, with no paid-for staff. Once you start charging by the page, I'll think "Is this really worth it?", I'll stress over every click, doesnt matter if its 1 cent a page or 0.001 cents. Its akin to paying per minute, or byte, for internet access.

really sure this is from ESR?

[Sardonis]

you can find this quote here [gnu.org], it appears to me that it is written by RMS.

Re:Slashdotters are the exception.....

[brokencomputer]

I think aol users are more likely to pay for more things. They already pay extra for proprietary content. There are add on extra things for aol that subscribers have to pay for. The article already mentioned the time magazine example.

Anyone remember The Romp?

[ShadeARG]

The problem with this model is that when the users start paying, the users start demanding. They demand better content and more of it. When the content is free nobody cares if it is excellent or crap, and they have no room to complain. Anyone remember The ROMP? They kept calling their user base free-loading wusses. Users liked their content, so they obliged. After about a month they had to call the entire operation quits because they simply could not keep their new flash content out on their release schedule, and it all collapsed around them. All that's left is the hype of a movie called "When Booty Calls" that is pretty much vaporware.

Slashdot subscriber stats

[hankwang]

Oops, wrong, long comment pages got truncated. Try again:

SCO Targets US Government, TiVo: 1.86%
Real Announce Helix Grant Program, Player: 3.96%
Former Intel Engineer Pleads Guilty To Taliban Aid: 1.67%
Novell To Cease NetWare Development?: 8.18%
Sinclair's Answer To The Segway: 0.00%

Given these numbers, it seems that about 2-5% of the active /. readers is a subscriber. If they have a maximum of 30 ad suppressions per day, they each contribute US$ 0.15 per day. The big unknown is of course the number of active /. readers. If it's 50000, then that's 1000-2500 subscribers, or US$ 150-375 per day.

Micropayments need banking regulation first

[lysium]

Many, many people use large commercial banks that will charge for each and every transaction that the user makes, regardless of size. A .50 cent micropayment suddenly jumps to 1.00; worse still, a hundred .001 cent payments gets a whopping $50 fee.

This is very common with debit cards; less so with credit cards, but still a problem, as credit cards are issued by banks and not by Visa and Mastercard. The only real alternative is PayPal, which cannot really be trusted with more than five dollars of your money at a time.

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Re:Slashdotters are the exception.....

[scribler]

I don't think Slashdotters are the exception when it comes to paying for content. I say that, because while i am not paying to read Slashdot, I do subscribe to Delphi forums. And I know I am not the only subscriber. I am willing to pay for Delphi forums, because I visit the forums several times a day and the added benefits are worth the cost. (At least in my book.) Subscription services will work, as long as you provide the user with something for which they are willing to pay and the cost of subscription is not too high.