Micropayments vs subscription fees

[thecodebear]

Micropayments are supposed to be a big deal with the Lightning Network coming and all, and some stuff like tipping it'll work great and not be competing with current models, but do you really think micropayments will be more popular than subscription payments?

Would you rather pay $10/month for netflix or be charged some amount of cents for every hour of Netflix you watch? Subscription fees have the nice benefit that you can use as much of a service as you want without paying extra, and it is nice for businesses because they know exactly how much they will make each month (depending on # of users). I really don't see micropayments being more attractive than subscription models in most cases.

The only case I could see it being more attractive is to get a service on a unit-basis without actually having to sign up for that service. So you don't have to sign up for say some news website that has a paywall, you just pay say 5 cents worth of bitcoin over the LN to get to read a specific article you want to read. You want to see a specific movie on netflix and they charge you a dollar on the LN for that movie. I could see this being a decently used model for people who don't want to actually sign up for a service of keep a service month in and month out. I would use that type of thing for Netflix instead of getting Netflix for a month here or there when there is some show I want to watch on it.

Thoughts?

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[mammothine]

Interesting question. In your example, no, Netflix would be subscription only. But that is mainly because there are already other options to 'micro pay', mainly, buying a single movie or TV episode using a different service.

However, I can imagine (and wish it were possible) to pay for a single article paywalled on a news site to which I don't subscribe (nor ever have any intention to subscribe).

[harrypot]

Micropayments know as financial activities in online where transaction happen in a little amount of money and it developed in 1990 then it’s applied in many areas. Whereas subscription fees are applied in mainly in book, apps, newspaper etc. Whereas bitcoin have no subscription fees and there is many area to invest money and transactions are free and no limitations.

[climaxcrypto]

I prefer Micropayment system more. The service is more interesting and also cost-effective. You will only pay for the service that you would be receiving than subscribing and getting all of the service together.

[johncruze]

Actually it varies man to man. we all are here because of BTCcryptocurrency,BTC which is our common field of interest. but everyone has different needs as well as perception micropayments and subscription payments are different then each other as like our interest. personally i prefer subscription payments, but there can be some one else whoe prefer micropayments, because it's helpfull as well.

[thecodebear]

Actually it varies man to man. we all are here because of BTCcryptocurrency,BTC which is our common field of interest. but everyone has different needs as well as perception micropayments and subscription payments are different then each other as like our interest. personally i prefer subscription payments, but there can be some one else whoe prefer micropayments, because it's helpfull as well.

Yeah I can see subscription payments being good for stuff people use often, but for stuff you don't use often micropayments make more sense. Also it's perfect for something like itunes. Instead of using a credit card that takes out like 30 cents from a $1 song or whatever, using LN would give Apple the entire dollar. So there is definitely a strong incentive in cases like that for merchants to use LN micropayments. And same thing for all those small like $1 purchases in mobile games, LN would give those companies much more of the money spent rather than a third of it going to credit card companies.

[erickkyut]

Micropayments are supposed to be a big deal with the Lightning Network coming and all, and some stuff like tipping it'll work great and not be competing with current models, but do you really think micropayments will be more popular than subscription payments?

Would you rather pay $10/month for netflix or be charged some amount of cents for every hour of Netflix you watch? Subscription fees have the nice benefit that you can use as much of a service as you want without paying extra, and it is nice for businesses because they know exactly how much they will make each month (depending on # of users). I really don't see micropayments being more attractive than subscription models in most cases.

The only case I could see it being more attractive is to get a service on a unit-basis without actually having to sign up for that service. So you don't have to sign up for say some news website that has a paywall, you just pay say 5 cents worth of bitcoin over the LN to get to read a specific article you want to read. You want to see a specific movie on netflix and they charge you a dollar on the LN for that movie. I could see this being a decently used model for people who don't want to actually sign up for a service of keep a service month in and month out. I would use that type of thing for Netflix instead of getting Netflix for a month here or there when there is some show I want to watch on it.

Thoughts?

A good question to ponder. In my opinion, it varies depending on the person. For people who have lots of time and love to watch movies or series, it is better for them to subscribe and pay a fixed monthly subscription fees. By doing that, they might save a lot rather than paying for every movie or episodes they will watch but there are also people who doesn't have the luxury of time to do a movie marathon all day, in that case, it is better for them to pay for every movie or episodes they will watch.

[entrepmind23]

Actually it varies man to man. we all are here because of BTCcryptocurrency,BTC which is our common field of interest. but everyone has different needs as well as perception micropayments and subscription payments are different then each other as like our interest. personally i prefer subscription payments, but there can be some one else whoe prefer micropayments, because it's helpfull as well.

It would depend on the situation if you often use that site or not. You have to calculate how much time you spend on a particular site and then see if it is more favorable for you to pay a subscription fee or just one time micropayment if you need to use that site. You have to look at the bigger picture and see if you will have more savings when you subscribe and when you just use micropayment. When you subscribe in netflix for a month but didn't watch as much or wasn't able to utilized it then it would have been better if you just use micropayment.

I prefer Micropayment system more. The service is more interesting and also cost-effective. You will only pay for the service that you would be receiving than subscribing and getting all of the service together.

Yes this would be a good payment option as you are receiving only what you paid for. Personally, I would prefer this one compared to subscription because I would be busy with other things so I cannot afford to just have a movie marathon all month to make my payment worth it. This would be applicable as well to those shopping cards wherein you have to pay for a whole year subscription to get points but you don't shop that much especially for us who are into crypto since we prefer to be in front of our computer than go outside.

[nicosey]

There is a reason why to date Micro-payments have had minimal transaction.
People don't like spending money.

Subscription fees somewhat lock you in.

[franky1]

though i see LN still has flaws and is not the unlimited superfast thing they promised that solves scalability and can handle every user type. lets not concentrate on trying to promote LN as the candidate for the future of bitcoin on this topic

anyway as for this topic
for general purposes of economic strategy for businesses to make money from its customers i would say do BOTH

netflix for instance knows that a user uses its service for an average of 1 movie or 2 tv show a day
so if $10 breaks down as ~35 cents a day

possible netflix promotional material: "15 cents a tv show 30 cents a movie.. or for $10/month, unlimited use"
 
starbucks averages 1 coffee a day per regular customer
possible promotional material: "$x a coffee  or for $xx/month, unlimited refills"

newspaper article
"2 cents and article or $xx unlimited reading"

[Brianlee0112]

Nice and interesting sharing actually. It is true that for subscription fees, you might pay more than necessity. So micropayments would be great choice for those who wants to use very short. Though micropayments could be expensive more than subscription fees.

[samarabtc]

Subscriptions fee are more attractive rather than micropayments. Because people are getting more benefited from subscriptions and it is also nice for business.

[darkangel11]

Subscriptions fee are more attractive rather than micropayments. Because people are getting more benefited from subscriptions and it is also nice for business.

Not in all cases. For instance in the world of computer games micropayments are more popular. A typical player is used to playing free games that you only have to buy in the store or get an online access key and it's yours forever. That's why RPG games that needed a monthly fee weren't liked by everyone, especially by casual players who didn't want to pay for something they're going to be playing only on weekends. That's where micropayments came in and allowed the devs to earn by selling special items and buffs that allowed those casual players to catch up.

[hatshepsut93]

Micropayments might be more attractive in developing countries were people can't afford to pay for monthly subscriptions - for example HBO's Game of Thrones show is the most pirated show in the world and most of the pirates are from poor countries, but maybe if people could pay for exactly this show instead of full subscription, some of those pirates would choose to do so. Also, not everything can work on a subscription model, so micropayments will find their place in the Internet economy.

[gentlemand]

Can't see micropayments ever really being a thing for subscription services. Subscription services depend on people forgetting or not being bothered enough to cancel.

If you're micropaying you're constantly having expenditure shoved in your face. That turns people off. And if I had micropayed for some of the shit on Netflix I wouldn't be impressed. If you've paid in a blanket style for everything you chalk it down to experience

There's definitely a place for it in other areas, but not that one.

[buwaytress]

I can't speak for others but it seems that there is still a great demand for micropayments pay-as-you-go services. We see it with mobile subscriptions (data, calls, sms) where people still want to be paid as they use. I always go for the subscriptions, simply for predictability in bills, even though I know almost for sure that I would probably have saved more had I got the micropayment route.

That said, I do see a lot of use cases for LN micropayments - testing small services being the chief example. And with BTC, what constitutes as micropayments is much smaller, faucets or even tips would work perfectly for this.

[virendarnagpal]

Choosing one from Micro payments and subscription fees will depend upon so many factors.  Like;
If one person is having a lot of vacant time and also he is interested in getting services in routine so it would be advisable for him to subscribe the services.  But in case one person rarely enjoys services; then micro payments will be good choice for him.
In some cases people find it difficult to pay heavy subscription fees so they find micro payments cheap source available to avail the services.
In case of micro payments we are paying exactly for what we want to use but in subscription we have just to pay whether use or not.

[onemoretime8520]

there are some apps that charge you monthly for using their services like learning about programming or other stuff so instead of paying monthly or yearly subscription and pass through some uninteresting things and which I already know I would rather pay for the specific lessons.

[edisonali]

I truly do agree with your thoughts! Subscription fee is better than micropayments as it doesn't charge extra and gradually subscription is getting easier to deal with. Besides, the subscription fee is fixed. It doesn't move to something's impact. So, thumbs up for it.

[Kristina_2805]

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