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In Chris Anderson's new book Free: The Future of a Radical Price
So, this is why it's puzzling that Google is thinking about building technologies to allow for the purchase of content. What's going on here? Well, it may be that Google realizes it needs to be more political in how it deals with much-needed constituencies, such as the newspaper industry.
According to a memo submitted to the Newspaper Association of America, Google is looking into building a content payment system for its Checkout platform. Actually, it would allow for so-called micropayments (which involve amounts as low as just a penny).
It also helps that Checkout already has a solid foundation, such as with fraud protection, billing, and other administrative features.
Yet, there are still many challenges. For example, the newspaper industry is still skeptical about the intentions of Google. Is the micropayments system some type of ruse?
The fact remains that many internet users seem to think that it's only natural that content should be free. This seems to be the case with music, and will probably be the case for television and movies, too.
Micropayments can be a pain. Do you really want to keep paying for stuff that you read? Doesn't this ruin the user experience?
In other words, Google's foray into micropayments has a long way to go.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook
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