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Blendle: A radical experiment with micropayments in journalism, 365 days later

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Re: Blendle: A radical experiment with micropayments in journalism, 365 days later

#31

Post by michaelchisari »

JeanMertz wrote: post #24
michaelchisari wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't like the article -> click -> money back. No questions asked. That right there might be the most revolutionary part of their approach to online micro payments. You could apply it to so much.

It's also something we are very proud of. It turns out, if you give people the opportunity to read in an elegant and easy way, and provide articles written by great journalists, the refund ratio stays very low (avarage of 5%). Of course, the flip side of that (as the article mentions) is that click-baity articles tend to get a high refund ratio (sometimes up to 50%). But such a "negative" result might actually be a n…

What's your editorial policy? Did you seek out magazines and authors and content creators to keep a tight ship, or is it open to anyone?

Re: Blendle: A radical experiment with micropayments in journalism, 365 days later

#32

Post by bigiain »

michaelchisari wrote: post #18
birger wrote: post #4

I'm one of the 'didn't pay for newspapers before' and right now spend a couple of euro's a month on Blendle. Articles cost between € 0,10, and € 0,50. If you buy so much articles from one paper / magazine that it is cheaper to get the whole edition, you get the whole edition. Refund work perfect. You don't like the article -> click -> money back. No questions asked.

You don't like the article -> click -> money back. No questions asked. That right there might be the most revolutionary part of their approach to online micro payments. You could apply it to so much.

Didn't Zappos work that out ~15 years ago? 365 day no questions asked return policy and reputation for fabulous customer service seems to be what grew them to a $1 billion+ Amazon acquisition in 10 years...

Re: Blendle: A radical experiment with micropayments in journalism, 365 days later

#33

Post by hobs »

willlma wrote: post #23
TylerE wrote: post #21

Why do startups keep thinking micropayments is a thing people want?

Because people consume a lot of little things. Ads are essentially involuntary micro-payments. It's a way of aligning the interests of content-creators and with their users rather than their sponsors. What's wrong with micro-payments?

> What's wrong with micro-payments?

Nothing inherently, its just that they are generally used to extract more revenue from the existing model instead of supplant existing incomes.

There have been several studies about decision making being taxing the brain, and always being presented with a dollar sign for any part of your experience can be a bit wearing.

If your domicile had the ability to charge every time you go to the restroom, I guarantee they would just raise the rates until you considered pooping your pants.

Re: Blendle: A radical experiment with micropayments in journalism, 365 days later

#34

Post by JeanMertz »

michaelchisari wrote: post #31
JeanMertz wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also something we are very proud of. It turns out, if you give people the opportunity to read in an elegant and easy way, and provide articles written by great journalists, the refund ratio stays very low (avarage of 5%). Of course, the flip side of that (as the article mentions) is that click-baity articles tend to get a high refund ratio (sometimes up to 50%). But such a "negative" result might actually be a n…

What's your editorial policy? Did you seek out magazines and authors and content creators to keep a tight ship, or is it open to anyone?

We don't have an active editorial policy as far as I know, but we are limited by resources. It can take a lot of time and attention to "birth" new providers (as we like to call it internally). We pay a lot of attention to detail and want to make sure articles look the best they can in Blendle, keeping the authentic feel of the newspaper's/magazine's brand as much as possible.

In the beginning, we obviously had to actively seek out publishers. Marten and Alexander (our founders) spend a lot of time convincing publishers to come onboard.

As you can imagine, the deal we signed with The New York Times and Axel Springer gave us more "street creds" and made it easier to communicate with new publishers.

Still though, it's a large world out there, with a lot of publishers, each with their own wishes and doubts, so Alexander and Marten still have to convince them, just on a much larger scale now.

Re: Blendle: A radical experiment with micropayments in journalism, 365 days later

#36

Post by JeanMertz »

ersii wrote: post #35

You mentioned you have plans for expanding internationally. Any comments on that? :-) (I like the idea and I wouldn't mind to pay for things I read that interests me, unbundled. So you'd be welcome to sign up some Swedish papers!)

Other than "stay tuned", not really.

If you're interested, visit https://launch.blendle.com and leave your email address.

We'll let you know once we launch in Sweden :)

Re: Blendle: A radical experiment with micropayments in journalism, 365 days later

#37

Post by funzoneq »

ersii wrote: post #35

You mentioned you have plans for expanding internationally. Any comments on that? :-) (I like the idea and I wouldn't mind to pay for things I read that interests me, unbundled. So you'd be welcome to sign up some Swedish papers!)

We are working on it. But we have to reach agreements with all individual publishers, which takes a lot of negotiations and time. We also need to reach 'a critical mass of publishers', before we can launch in a new country.

But as listed in the article, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Washington post are coming. So we are beefing up our international outlet.

Re: Blendle: A radical experiment with micropayments in journalism, 365 days later

#38

Post by ersii »

funzoneq wrote: post #37
ersii wrote: post #35

You mentioned you have plans for expanding internationally. Any comments on that? :-) (I like the idea and I wouldn't mind to pay for things I read that interests me, unbundled. So you'd be welcome to sign up some Swedish papers!)

We are working on it. But we have to reach agreements with all individual publishers, which takes a lot of negotiations and time. We also need to reach 'a critical mass of publishers', before we can launch in a new country. But as listed in the article, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Washington post are coming. So we are beefing up our international outlet.

Does that mean you're opening up account creation for the US, when that content has come around? Or would I, as a Swede be able to create an account and read (and pay) for the US content? (I guess I'm asking about 1) Account creation 2) Geographical restrictions)

Re: Blendle: A radical experiment with micropayments in journalism, 365 days later

#39

Post by JeanMertz »

Rainymood wrote: post #27

Really cool! As a dutch student (econometrie) I do not / didn't know that anyone used this. Kind of silly since it was right under my nose. Very awesome :) if you guys need a werkstudent as a financial analyst or just a quantitative guy who likes to play with code and excel sheets ;)

We're hiring! Send me a mail at jean[at]blendle[dot]com and I'll make sure it gets to the right person.

Re: Blendle: A radical experiment with micropayments in journalism, 365 days later

#40

Post by jurre »

ersii wrote: post #38
funzoneq wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are working on it. But we have to reach agreements with all individual publishers, which takes a lot of negotiations and time. We also need to reach 'a critical mass of publishers', before we can launch in a new country. But as listed in the article, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Washington post are coming. So we are beefing up our international outlet.

Does that mean you're opening up account creation for the US, when that content has come around? Or would I, as a Swede be able to create an account and read (and pay) for the US content? (I guess I'm asking about 1) Account creation 2) Geographical restrictions)

We try to sign publishers without any geographical restrictions, but I think it's ultimately up to them.
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