Micropayment platform Blendle will launch a US beta in early 2016 • Hacker News Board

Re: Micropayment platform Blendle will launch a US beta in early 2016

#11

Post by intopieces » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 9:43 AM UTC

JeanMertz wrote: post #7

intopieces wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you require users to purchase a certain number of credits up front after the trial? I see you offer refunds if you don't like the story. What prevents a person from just reading all they like and then asking for a refund? Is it possible to copy and paste text from the articles to share on social media? (I assume you have a share mechanism, but this is more specific). Once I pay for the article, does it stay in my…

Interesting questions. Re: Do you require users to purchase a certain number of credits up front after the trial? The "trial" is really $2,50 that we give you upon signup. You get another $2,50 after your first "top up". We show the prices in your own currency, so no "credits", but top-ups start at $5, and go up from there. You can choose to auto-topup when your wallet drops below $0. Re: I see you offer refunds if y…

Thank you for your reply! One more question: there was some kerfuffle about The New York Times changing a story they had already published [0]. Will your platform allow this? I find it to be highly unethical, but I could see publishers demanding to have that ability. To put it simply, there is value in publications printing retractions, and I hate to see them go in favor of sneaky edits.

[0]http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/360545/new-york-times-...

Re: Micropayment platform Blendle will launch a US beta in early 2016

#12

Post by mynewtb » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 9:56 AM UTC

JeanMertz wrote: post #2

Our founder, Alexander, just announced this on Business Insider's IGNITION event. You can add yourself to our beta invite list at https://launch.blendle.com . We're really looking forward to next year! Let me know if you have any questions.

What about privacy? Do you link my name to what I read? Do you analyse that? Do you provide that to third parties?

Re: Micropayment platform Blendle will launch a US beta in early 2016

#13

Post by rogeryu » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 10:01 AM UTC

JeanMertz wrote: post #7

intopieces wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you require users to purchase a certain number of credits up front after the trial? I see you offer refunds if you don't like the story. What prevents a person from just reading all they like and then asking for a refund? Is it possible to copy and paste text from the articles to share on social media? (I assume you have a share mechanism, but this is more specific). Once I pay for the article, does it stay in my…

Interesting questions. Re: Do you require users to purchase a certain number of credits up front after the trial? The "trial" is really $2,50 that we give you upon signup. You get another $2,50 after your first "top up". We show the prices in your own currency, so no "credits", but top-ups start at $5, and go up from there. You can choose to auto-topup when your wallet drops below $0. Re: I see you offer refunds if y…

As content is visible via your webbrowser as well, copying content is possible that way, even if the app doesn't allow it.

What happened to the articles from the Volkskrant that were removed because the editor copied them from elsewhere? Are they removed from Blendle?

Re: Micropayment platform Blendle will launch a US beta in early 2016

#14

Post by jvvlimme » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 11:24 AM UTC

matdemy wrote: post #10

I have been using Blendle here in Belgium and I absolutely love it. I'm able to read the paid articles without having so get the full subscription for a big array of newspapers (and magazines like the `New Scientist`) definitely saved me money.

Yep, I can agree with this.

They also send out a mail twice a day with headlining stories. There's almost always at least on story that interests me.

Blendle really is the ideal tool for me. I don't have a problem paying for quality content, but don't make me take out an XX$ subscription just to read one article every now and then.

Re: Micropayment platform Blendle will launch a US beta in early 2016

#15

Post by lucaspiller » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 12:22 PM UTC

vincentkriek wrote: post #4

There are a lot of numbers coming out of Blendle but I would like to know what actual revenue Blendle is getting. I don't believe the micropayment method is the way to go and I see more value in payed subscription model. I think a lot of the numbers they publish include people in free trials or people buying one or two articles and that's it. Blendle's got a lot of hype behind it, I wonder if it's really taking of.

I wanted to watch some videos on GDC the other day - I'm not a game developer and don't intent to be, just a developer who is interested in how those things work. They provide some free videos, and then for others you need a subscription, which starts at $500/year.

If I was in that industry I could see the potential value paying for that gives, but as someone who just has a passing interest there is no way I'd pay for that. I'd consider maybe paying $1 or $2 to watch them (although the quality of the free videos was very hit and miss, so even that I think might be a bit high), but that's it. In the end I just found some (free) talks on YouTube about the same topic.

Personally I think talks from conferences should be released for free online. Other than headline speakers, most of the people who give talks at conferences just get paid for their travel costs and accomodation (if that). The real value in going to a conference is for the networking, so people will still pay to go - I'd like to see the knowledge shared released for everyone to benefit.

Re: Micropayment platform Blendle will launch a US beta in early 2016

#16

Post by kardos » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 12:45 PM UTC

mynewtb wrote: post #12

JeanMertz wrote: post #2

Our founder, Alexander, just announced this on Business Insider's IGNITION event. You can add yourself to our beta invite list at https://launch.blendle.com . We're really looking forward to next year! Let me know if you have any questions.

What about privacy? Do you link my name to what I read? Do you analyse that? Do you provide that to third parties?

Indeed. I don't have a reference handy, but have read that the revenue for online advertising on news articles is south of 5 cents per reader. Paying an order of magnitude more to buy out the advertising "experience" must also come with some privacy guarantees, else it will be a hard sell. It is the tracking (+malware, etc) issues that are driving the recent adblocker surge after all.

Re: Micropayment platform Blendle will launch a US beta in early 2016

#17

Post by skrebbel » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 12:46 PM UTC

henrik_w wrote: post #3

Interesting points on micropayments from Clay Shirky: "Why Small Payments Won’t Save Publishers" http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/02/why-small-payments-wont...

I guess this tweet is relevant then: https://twitter.com/cshirky/status/605576180851314688

Re: Micropayment platform Blendle will launch a US beta in early 2016

#18

Post by JeanMertz » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 1:31 PM UTC

kardos wrote: post #16

mynewtb wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about privacy? Do you link my name to what I read? Do you analyse that? Do you provide that to third parties?

Indeed. I don't have a reference handy, but have read that the revenue for online advertising on news articles is south of 5 cents per reader. Paying an order of magnitude more to buy out the advertising "experience" must also come with some privacy guarantees, else it will be a hard sell. It is the tracking (+malware, etc) issues that are driving the recent adblocker surge after all.

Once the beta launches, the privacy statement can easily be accessed in English. But for now, here's how it starts:

===

Blendle takes your privacy very seriously, and will process and use your information carefully. We keep it safe, and hidden from third parties. Since we don't have any ads, there's no need for us to collect data to sell ads.

To use Blendle, all you need is a valid email address. Of course we (no one else, mind you) are interested in getting to know you a little better in order to make your Blendle experience even more amazing. For example: our head honcho Alexander lives in Amsterdam, but was born in Oss. So what we'd like to do, is show him news articles from Oss and Amsterdam newspapers in his Blendle article list first. There are many other ways to tailor Blendle to what you want based on your information, but of course we'll only use your info to do so if you're totally okay with it.

Most companies have privacy statements of countless A4-sized pages, written in a way neither you nor we can understand. We think that's ridiculous, which is why we've asked our lawyer to use as much normal language in the text below as possible. Using a down-to-earth writing style is pretty tough for lawyers, but he did a pretty good job.

...

Re: Micropayment platform Blendle will launch a US beta in early 2016

#19

Post by JeanMertz » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 1:36 PM UTC

skrebbel wrote: post #17

henrik_w wrote: post #3

Interesting points on micropayments from Clay Shirky: "Why Small Payments Won’t Save Publishers" http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/02/why-small-payments-wont...

I guess this tweet is relevant then: https://twitter.com/cshirky/status/605576180851314688

Related, this[0] Monday Note is interesting as well:

Last November, in a rather blunt way, I expressed my reservations regarding Blendle’s model (see The New York Times and Springer Are Wrong About Blendle[1]). My concerns ranged from the abundance of free content available on the web (especially in English), to the damage inflicted on the “cross-subsidy model” in which baseball coverage pays for the Kabul bureau, to the risk associated with the “unbundling” of news (and its impact of publishers’ ARPU).

To their credit, Blendle’s co-founders Alexander Klöpping and Marten Blankesteijn seized on my questioning and engaged me in an ongoing discussion focusing on business models that could ensure the survival of quality journalism. This could be a crucial factor in Blendle’s fate: this company has been created by journalists who fervently defend quality journalism and believe that great editorial must be paid for. In spite of my initial reluctance, the more I explored its model, the more I came to believe it should be tested and carefully analyzed, essentially because it is much more sophisticated and carries more potential that a first look might lead one to believe.

[0]: http://www.mondaynote.com/2015/10/05/blendle-is-up-to-someth...

[1]: http://www.mondaynote.com/2014/11/02/the-new-york-times-and-...

Re: Micropayment platform Blendle will launch a US beta in early 2016

#20

Post by joopxiv » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 2:02 PM UTC

I've used Blendle and kind of like it, but I wonder what its effect on newspapers will be. The model of paying per article encourages clickbait. Their way of countering this is that you have the option to get a refund if you thought the article sucked, but that will probably only be effective against the most obvious forms. If it's a bit more subtle, this tactic can still be very effective.