Google in a document submitted to NAA (Newspaper Association of America) says, they’re developing something – a micropayment platform to be precise – that will be “available to both Google and non-Google properties within the next year” – which is expected to primarily pitch at newspapers, which are already facing a downturn.

What is Micropayment platform ?

Micropayments are very low (hopefully reasonable) prices that will be paid for things small in volume. Like paying for a newspaper. It doesn’t cost much. What Google is said to be developing is, a platform (similar to the payment gateways, in a way) based on Google Checkout – an online shopping option by them, almost similar to Paypal.

Why is this interesting ?

Because the subject of “future business models” is something that’s actively discussed and talked about. There are some who believe everything on web will be totally free forever. Not really. The web will be totally free and open forever. But that needn’t mean everything on web will be free. There will be lot of content for which you’ve got to pay for, and a lot more content that’s totally free. That’s it. That’s what Google means when it says “‘Open’ need not mean free”.

Back to micropayments.

Many things on the web, newspaper sites for example, are free because, as of now, it’s very inconvenient to charge (due to associated processes,fees and such) for single editions/copies (micropayments). What Google is said to be developing is something that’ll solve this problem. Their platform is expected to make it feasible for publishers/enterprises to charge very low prices for their content.

Yes, it’s kind of like the iTunes store and App store. Low prices. But this time, it’s open to people as a platform, rather than a proprietary technology, like Apple does it now.

Sum it up

It all comes down to this. Google is developing something new, that’ll extremely help not much people other than the already failing newspaper industry. In 6-8 years, Newspapers won’t be anywhere near what they are now. They will turn out to be, uhmm, just another type of paper ?!

P.S. There will be no type of paid content on the Internet, for which there aren’t free alternatives.

Thumbnail image by SqueakyMarmot