The internet is forever changing it seems. New websites pop up and there is constantly always new changes happening around the big websites. Google likes to try out new things all the time such as Google Glass and Google Contributor. Google Contributor was an interesting new project by Google to say the least. The idea that web users can pay a small monthly fee to prevent websites hosting Google Contributor from displaying pay per click advertising adverts seemed to go against PPC completely – we are sure to find out the success of Google Contributor sometime this year. However, Google Contributor continues the trend that seems to be happening that the internet is becoming a paid service. 

The term that describes this best is ‘micropayments’. As it says in the name, this is when a web user pays a micro sum of money to get access to something online, such as an article for $0.10 or a small fee to watch a video clip once etc. The question is if micropayments are becoming to become the future of the internet because if it is, we are sure to see Google Contributor continue which will be disappointing to many publishers of PPC.

The Benefits to Micropayments

Below are the main benefits associated with micropayments online:

• Secure – With the likes of PayPal and others involved in Micropayments, you can be sure to know it is completely secure wayof transacting money.
• Fast – Micropayments are utterly fast: to the point that it will be so ease of access to transfer small amounts of money to websites that most people will do it.
• Convenient – Linking with the above point, micropayments are made to be convenient to the web user.
• Better Online Content – If people are going to be willing to pay a small fee to watch a video or read an article, then the people that make them videos and articles will put much more time into the production and creation of the article, which will genuinely increase the quality of them.

The Drawbacks to Micropayments

Below are the main drawbacks that are associated with micropayments:

• It Costs – The first thing web users will compare micropayments to is the next best alternative, which is the use of browsing websites for free. This makes it clear that many people will not like the idea one bit that something free has gone to something that costs, even if it is only cents.
• Not Well-Known – Another problem micropayments face is that it simply isn’t nowhere established enough to go mainstream – it will need the backing of 3-4 ‘Google’ size companies to really get it going.
• It Costs – I mention this twice because it really is a big drawback. Why would you pay to read something when before you could read the same information from many sources for free? It is something micropayments will have to figure out in order to get many people using them.