PayPal & Flattr: Making Micropayments Simpler

PayPal wants to make micropayments simpler. Instead of having users purchase chunks of credit up-front, soon, they will be able to buy inexpensive items and be billed once a higher amount is reached. Since users like to purchase things one-at-time, the company thinks that this will encourage more transactions overall.

Previously, the associated costs with these small purchases would've been too steep to facilitate and remain profitable. Moving forward, PayPal is hoping that by bundling these transactions together and billing users overtime they will further expand the digital marketplace online; a move that should please merchants.

In related news, the Sweden-based, social micropayment platform Flattr has opened up the beta-test version of their site to everyone. If I remember right from the video, part of founder Peter Sunde's vision behind the platform is to make it super, super easy for fans to exchange value directly with content creators. Both PayPal and Flattr's efforts will be a great for artists and labels selling single tracks direct.