One-click payments via social networks
A European media company is testing a one-click payment system developed by startup Paycento that will enable consumers to pay for digital content, as well as low-priced goods and services, via social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Speaking to Reuters, Paycento says the system will work by linking users’ Paycento accounts with their social network profiles, enabling people to pay to read a single article or download a track without having to fill in forms or enter their payment details every time. While the service is not yet being used by any online publishers, one firm is testing a beta version and Paycento CEO Pieter Dubois expects to have signed deals by July at the latest. The move comes as content owners increasingly seek new ways to generate revenues online besides advertising and subscriptions, which many firms worry will deter visitors.
“Those social identity networks also are really identity providers, so we piggyback on that,” says Paycento founder Pieter Dubois. “The payment is really seamless, it’s like a one-click payment on the internet.”
Using social networks to make micropayments could be an attractive option for many content owners, from publishers to record labels, as they seek to monetise content online. As highlighted by Dubois, many internet users are already logged into services such as Facebook when they browse the web, meaning that validating their identity via social networks is relatively simple and time-effective. Facebook in particular already has a payments service that is proving hugely popular within the social network for features such as gaming. This suggests that consumers are already willing to pay for goods via social networks, with Paycento simply trying to expand this system to content owners.
The proposition is likely to be taken seriously by content owners and merchants, in particular due to the lack of options for micro-payments currently. PayPal offers a small payments service but charges $0.05 plus 5% per transaction, making it almost impossible for businesses to charge less than $1 and expect to generate significant revenues. However, it remains questionable if content owners actually need a service such as Paycento between themselves and the social networks. As games firms such as Zynga have proven, it is possible to generate significant revenues via Facebook and, with the social network opening up its platform to anybody from publishers to music-streaming services, there seems no reason why these companies couldn’t make use of social network payments on their own.
The move to offer a payment system via social networks is just the latest aimed at boosting publishers’ online revenues. Just last month, Google partnered with a number of publications, including Adweek and the New York Daily News, with a new service that makes readers complete a short survey before they can access particular articles. Dubbed ‘Google Consumer Surveys’, the service functions much like a paywall except that Google, rather than the consumer, has to pay. Both services highlight that publishers are still experimenting with ways to monetise their digital content as consumer reading habits shift online and to mobile.
Whitepapers
Related reading
Central banks best suited to issue digital currencies
By Aaran Fronda A recent report by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) said that central banks rather than private ... read more
Instant payments: innovations inbound for corporates
In 2020, instant payments look set to continue their current trajectory to become the biggest trend in payments. While these schemes already offer numerous benefits to corporates, leveraging innovations such as APIs and request to pay will go some way to unlocking their full potential, argues Michael Knetsch
Obstacles exist for banks to meet ECB’s instant payments goal
The cost of joining instant payment platforms will be one of many hurdles banks and payment services providers must overcome to meet ... read more
Banks must be aware of “biases” in data used to train ML models
Financial institutions need to be conscious of biases in the historical data that is being used to train machine learning (ML) models, ... read more
