The ongoing feud between the Newspaper publishers and Google is widely reported in media but what is largely unnoticed is the new initiatives introduced by Google to counter such issues. Google is on the verge of rolling out a micropayment service to facilitate smaller transactions on web.
The micropayment solution would be an extension to its Google checkout service and is widely expected to be used by the online media properties. The service would facilitate micro or small transactions across the partnered sites. WATBlog earlier reported the tussle between traditional media publishers and Google. We also carried a report about the ongoing plans of WSJ Online to introduce micropayments on their site.
This payment solution is thus an impending move by Google to calm the traditional media owners’ nerves regarding Online profitability and viability of business model. Google in the meanwhile has announced that the micropayment service is in a very early stage and would only support news sites in the beginning.
Google has also clarified that in order to achieve open web policies ‘the web content need not be given free’. The company has also submitted its draft proposals to NAA for consideration.
Will it help Publishers?
Traditional media owners are grappling under the fear of decreasing profitability and plagiarism issues. The traditional media has always attracted best of talented writers and thus has huge cost pressures. The media content is also superior to many online content sources as it is done with a sense of professionalism.
Google wants to provide a new monetization platform for newspaper publishers as even Ad revenues from Online content are dwindling these days. The new payment solution would help the publishers to charge small fees for content and the benefits would be large as Google would also be providing subscription management services across its partnered sites.
The falling Ad revenues may have forced major Online newspapers to look at subscription model but there is no guarantee of repeated success as in case of WSJ Online. The subscription model may work well for bigger Media publishers but for regional or country based services it may be a risky proposition to switch to this model as any failure would be met with serious damages to its online visibility.
Is it a Planned Extension of Google Checkout?
Google during last year has been fighting tooth and nail with payment services like Paypal by giving concessional benefits to merchants in order to make them shift to its payment service, Google Checkout. The strategy has paid off well as Google checkout is gaining reputation and has started seeing wide use in Online web transactions and is also integrated with many of other Google services.
This micropayment solution may also see future expansion to different commerce transaction and also in different markets. The service has large potential in Asian and African markets and could serve as an enabler for other paid services by Google in Future.
Micropayment solution is generally a business of maintaining small but very frequent transactions and as such takes much stronger tech credibility to succeed. Google’s own experience in Markets like India serves as a predecessor to its micropayment solution. The move is also significant as the success in micropayments would help it to even introduce paid monetization solutions for Orkut and its other portals in addition to Google apps product for SME’s.
Thus it still needs to be seen how long media publishers can stick to free content and finally give in to the Ad revenues pressure by embracing the paid subscription model.
