Micropayment

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term micro-payment , low-value payment and micro-payment refers to a payment process less sums especially when buying " paid content ", ie digital goods such as music pieces and newspaper articles , but for example, when buying a bun incurred. According to the prevailing opinion, micropayment amounts to between EUR 0.01 and EUR 5.00. Any additional sums are referred to as macropayments. However, this limit is not used uniformly in practice and theory. The lower micropayment area is often referred to as the smallest amount , millipayment, nanopayment or picopayment. This area includes, for example, fixed network charges in Germany, which are billed in fractions of a cent.

The importance of micropayment-enabled payment systems grew in the wake of increasing e-commerce sales at the beginning of the 21st century. With the trade of digital goods, completely new business areas emerged. Since digital goods could now be distributed over the Internet at very low cost, the low-price segment was increasingly addressed (news, real-time stock prices, music downloads, online games and others).

Problem

In the case of low-value goods, the cost-effectiveness of payment is a key problem: Conventional methods such as credit card payment or direct debit are unsuitable, as the costs for processing payments often exceed the value of the goods. The alternative strategy of many providers to finance a largely free offer through advertising is often not effective. Firstly, the increasing willingness of customers to pay for (low-value) digital goods and services is not skimmed off, and secondly, the largely fixed income from advertising is offset by expenses from the traffic caused by consumers, which may be difficult to calculate . Overall, there appears to be a gap in the payment system: Processes are needed with which low-priced goods can be billed economically.

The chances of success of micropayment systems are, however, being discussed critically, especially in the Anglo-Saxon region. Opponents often cite the construct of mental transaction costs ( Lit .: Szabo, 1996): From a certain price floor onwards, the customer is already too "expensive" to consider whether a good is worth the price demanded for it ( opportunity costs ). The "mental costs" result from the time that u. a. is required in each case for assessing the properties of the goods and for making decisions. If a quantity of low-priced goods has to be weighed in each case, it is possible that the mental costs for this already exceed the prices of the goods. To reduce mental transaction costs, reference is made to known measures such as product bundling , i.e. the combination of several products into one package. This often leaves the micropayment area.

history

Micropayments in themselves are not necessarily a phenomenon of the 21st century: with screen text, for example, it was already possible in Germany in the 1980s to generate amounts between 0.01 and 9 according to a pay-per-view or pay-per-click model , 99 DM per page or up to 1.30 DM per minute. Nevertheless, the topic was not tackled intensively until the mid-1990s by start-up companies such as DigiCash or FirstVirtual , who pioneered the establishment of new, unconventional payment systems with extensive field tests . However, the high expectations and the initial euphoria had to quickly give way to disillusionment: subsequent pilot tests by banks quickly failed due to a lack of demand from customers and dealers. This was less due to a lack of demand than to product-specific shortcomings. The list of those system operators who have come and gone to this day is long and one can say that, even if promising tendencies gradually emerge here and there, no system has yet fully established itself.

Systematization

Many of the payment systems currently vying for participants advertise the ability to settle small amounts. Basically, these systems can be divided into three types: prepaid systems , billing / collection systems and cellular-based systems .

Prepaid Systems

When using pre-paid (“pre-paid”) systems, the monetary debit time precedes the actual purchase. The credit is thus more or less guaranteed and costly liquidity checks and account access can be waived at the time of purchase. The prepaid systems include e-money , bonus point / discount systems and virtual accounts .

eMoney

Under eGeld such systems are grouped under the definition of which appeared in the 1998 report of the European Central Bank ( Ref : European Central Bank, p.7) and the E-Money Directive (2009/110 / EC) ( ref : European Union, Art. 1 No. 3b). This means that eGeld is a product that can be used widely for payments to companies, except for the issuing body. (The latter means that, for example, single-purpose cards - such as the telephone card, in which the institution operating the system is also the recipient of money - are excluded from this definition; instead, a broad payment option similar to cash should be given).

There are software-based systems in which a wallet software must be installed by the customer and, if necessary , by the dealer, which provides the functions of an electronic wallet, such as credit storage and balancing.

Hardware-based solutions in the form of smart cards are also part of e-money. The functions of the electronic wallet are provided by a microchip.

A special variant of e-money are distributed systems based on peer-to-peer processes that combine the advantages of cash, in particular its extensive anonymity, and transfers. A variant that is now very well known is Bitcoin , which, based on sophisticated encryption methods, works completely without central control and gets by with voluntary fees of around 0.0005 Bitcoins (approx. 0.3 US cents; as of Jan 2012) per transaction.

Bonus point / discount systems

Bonus point and discount systems are money surrogates in which traders pay in advance. Here, bonus points are bought in advance from the system operator at their monetary value, which can then be passed on to the customers. The latter can use the points collected to purchase products from the offerings of the companies connected to the system - either at discounted conditions or fully financed by points.

Virtual accounts

A number of heterogeneous systems are summarized under virtual accounts. It is characteristic that it is not e-money in the above sense and that there is a certain amount of credit that can be used up successively. These include, on the one hand, what are known as scratch cards, on which a card-identifying code must be scratched off, with the specification of which an associated credit can then be used. The credit is not stored on the card itself, but on a shadow account with the system operator.

This also includes online account-based methods in which a credit must first be created or topped up. Then z. B. units of value are transferred between persons or customers and dealers via e-mail.

Billing / collection systems

Billing / collection systems reduce the costs per transaction by initially accumulating a series of individual payments (“billing”), which are then added periodically in a second step using conventional payment methods. In addition to banks, telecommunications providers often act as collection agencies; Payment can then be made directly via the (mobile) telephone bill.

Cellular-based systems

Mobile-based micropayment systems (see mobile payment ) form a cross-sectional function: with the mobile terminals they permit the location-independent payment by the above-mentioned system types. In addition to the ubiquitous payment options, the widespread use of mobile telephones, the ability to identify customers associated with the devices and the favorable conditions of the mobile radio networks with regard to transmission security are advantageous. Examples are Android Pay or Apple Pay .

Requirements for micropaymentsystems

The following requirements are placed on the multitude of payment systems.

Requirements buyer: Requirements provider:
High security High security standard
Protection in the event of damage Reliability, protection from abuse
Free of charge Low transaction costs
Cancellation option Minimizing payment defaults
Many acceptance points High distribution and acceptance of the system
user friendliness Easy to use
Receipt of goods before payment Speed ​​of the payment process
anonymity Clear identification
uncomplicated software and hardware requirements cost-effective implementation in the company

Micropayment as an online entertainment business model

In recent years, a system has developed under the catchwords Micropayment or Micro Transactions within the entertainment industry (especially in the music sector and in the computer and video games sector) which enables customers to purchase individual elements for products that have already been purchased. Small amounts are used to equip MP3 players with songs (e.g. via iTunes or Amazon ) or to purchase special items, chapters, episodes and advantages in games that other players cannot receive in the normal way. The physical production effort is often in disproportionate proportion to the potential profit, since a virtual object (including an MP3 file) only has to be produced once, but an infinite number of copies can be made from this. Depending on the popularity of the respective platform, sales can generate enormous income. The basic principle is based on the view that many small amounts can be quite lucrative if there is only a one-off production effort.

Micropayment can be found, for example, in the business models of virtual worlds such as Second Life , in PC gaming distribution platforms such as Steam , Virtual Console for Nintendo Wii or Games for Windows and in item shops of MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft or Runes of Magic .

With regard to free-to-play models, micropayment only takes care of the actual payment for the service. A free-to-play model is a marketing concept that is primarily used in online games. In principle, the game can be obtained and played free of charge on the Internet, but in order to progress smoothly, the player must purchase smaller benefits, packages or a special game currency in order to be able to catch up with the leading (and also paying) players. Extra content that is subject to a fee is therefore often mandatory for one's own performance. Depending on the playing time invested and depending on the enthusiasm, the smallest amounts can be condensed into larger amounts. In contrast, well-known game manufacturers in particular use a subscription model , which - similar to a flat rate - charges a higher, fixed amount. But all game content is then available to everyone.

The payment methods are kept simple and usually work via a prepaid system, credit card or direct debit . The consumer buys a points card in the shop or online, which he can use for the purchase within a sales platform. For example, Nintendo uses so-called “Wii Points” for its own offer. One Wii-Point corresponds - depending on the provider - to an amount of approx. EUR 0.01.

See also

literature

  • Breitschaft, Markus; Krabichler, Thomas; Steel, seriousness; Wittmann, Georg: Secure payment methods for e-government . In: Federal Office for Security in Information Technology (Ed.): E-Government-Handbuch. Bundesanzeiger Verlag, 2004. Updated version May 2005. ISBN 3-89817-180-9 , 144 pages, 43 figures, 32 tables, study as a PDF download from BSI ( Memento from January 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  • Marius Dannenberg, Anja Ulrich: E-Payment and E-Billing - Electronic payment systems for mobile communications and the Internet , Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-409-12446-2 .
  • Karl-Heinz Ketterer, Karsten Stroborn (Eds.): Handbuch ePayment , Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-87156-463-X .
  • René Teichmann, Martin Nonnenmacher, Joachim Henkel: E-Commerce and E-Payment - Framework Conditions, Infrastructure, Perspectives , Wiesbaden 2001, ISBN 3-409-11805-5 .
  • European Union (Ed.): Directive 2000/46 / EC (…) on the taking up, pursuit and supervision of the activities of electronic money institutions , Brussels 2000 ( Directive 2000/46 / EC ).
  • Friedrich Thießen (Ed.): Payment systems on the Internet , Frankfurt a. M. 1999, ISBN 3-7819-0642-6 .
  • Knud Böhle, Ulrich Riehm: Blooming Dreams - About Payment System Innovations and Internet Trade in Germany , o. O. 1999, URL (PDF; 907 kB).
  • European Central Bank (Ed.): Report on electronic money , o. O. 1998, URL .
  • European Commission (Ed.): 97/489 / EG - Recommendation (...) on transactions made with electronic payment instruments , Brussels 1997 ( online ).
  • Ralf Kronberger: For discussion: E-money instead of cash - a utopia? , 2005, in: Wirtschaftspolitische Blätter 2/02, Vienna: Österreichischer Wirtschaftsverlag (to download: PDF )
  • Steel, seriousness; Krabichler, Thomas; Breitschaft, Markus; Wittmann, Georg: Payment processing on the Internet - meaning, status quo and future challenges . Regensburg 2006. ISBN 3-937195-12-2 , 229 pages, over 80 illustrations, details on the study and management summary as PDF
  • Nick Szabo: The Mental Accounting Barrier to Micropayments , o. O. 1996, URL .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the problem: Robert G. Picard: Micropayments in online journalism: cost trap individual sales . In: Carta. Blog for Politics, Media and Economics, October 6, 2009; last accessed on October 7, 2009.
  2. ↑ See for example the business model ( memento from July 31, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) of the company Gameforge , which is active in this area, on gameforge.de.
  3. ↑ GameStar. Dev. 2, 2008, ZDB -ID 2205719-5 , p. 53.