Google Contributor: Buy an ad removal pass for the web

This has been the predominant reason for micro-transaction services failing in the past - when something costs more than zero there has to be a conscious decision made on the part of the consumer, and that decision making process is often enough of a barrier to stop them purchasing. For something very cheap the financial cost itself may be irrelevant but the cognitive cost of making a decision definitely isn't.

That problem is compounded by the fact a very low cost equates to a very low value in the mind of the purchaser. This manifests as a thought process like "if this only costs 0.01c then it's probably not worth buying", and the user leaves. That's hard to work around.

As far as I'm aware no one has ever implemented micro-transactions successfully. The best example to date, which is mobile gaming in-app purchases, isn't really micro-transactions in the usual sense. In a game like Candy Crush you buy tools to help you advance more quickly so you don't have to grind through a hard level dozens of times. You're really buying your own time (so you can play the game less, which is kind of weird really). Time is something people value, so they're very happy to pay. The model doesn't really apply to other purchases.

Completely disagree.

I want to be able to pay more for quality content and pay less for buzzfeed articles. I want content creators to be able to charge based on the the content they are producing.

I prefer a world where I can stop in a fine dining restaurant or a fast-food place, get the experience I want and be charged appropriately. I don't want a top of the line steak-house to have to find a way to serve my meal, while only receiving McDonald's priced payments. That's the problem with the current web.

I feel like I'm going to remember visiting this website for years to come. Either because this is will be future, or this is one of the biggest bets Google has made and failed.

> And it has to come from the ad networks

That is a truth. You need to already have the infra to make this change. I think it'd be too much to both successfully grow a business and try to change browsing behavior at once.

> ...The more people who use that kind of thing, the more the value of adverts goes down...

Not necessarily a bad thing. If the value of adverts drops, and this is a well known alternative it provides even more incentive to move to model where there is still money to be made. Not to mention there probably is a bit of "recapture". Of people who ran ad-blockers for the experience (ie zero-revenue providers) who are willing to pay for content. Similar to people who torrented, but instead became Netflix/Hulu subscribers when it became an option.

a lot of people get a percentage of everything.

Credit card processors, the post office, transportation companies. ISPs, kinda.

"A percentage of everything" is another way of saying "in the infrastructure business".