The Web is an awful and noteworthy phenomenon that has changed the way we think about entropy , publication , Commerce Department and electronic computer . Most significantly , the connection has had a huge issue on every somebody ’s power to circularise data to the humanity . Prior to the Web , there really was no way for an someone to easy reach a world audience . Today , with the Web , global publishing is simple and instant . Anyone with a computer can bring out anything they require , and the entire world can see it a few seconds later . There is fantastic creativity and thousands of new ideas . The possible action for content and services that the Web can provide seem eternal .
While it is extremely easy for any person or business to issue material on today ’s World Wide Web , one thing is currently missing – there is no easy path to make money from those internet situation . In 2000 and 2001 , this " missing link " caused the destruction of thou of Web - based businesses . The Web is becoming somewhat like a desert . There are some survivor – Ebay , Yahoo , Amazon and so on – but nothing new is germinating in any pregnant way . And many survive internet site are turning alternatively to thesubscriptionmodel .
The proliferation of subscription fee is do a lot of people to become passing interested . There are two reasons for business organisation :
The only solution to this problem is to figure out a bare means for entanglement sites to be paid for their content . A business that print on the Web must have a direction to make money – otherwise it go out of business organisation , and its content is lost . The subscription manikin used for magazines , however , is a bad way to achieve this end because it is a major headache for users .
There is something else to think about as well – the current environment go away much of the hope of the Web untapped . Without business models that ferment , there is no way for the Web to attain anything near its full voltage . Here is one very simple example . Go to any bookstore today and you may find 100 of one thousand of titles usable , all of them published on report . It would be highly utilitarian to have all of this information useable in an electronic word form on the internet , but none of these titles are currently on the Web because there is no way to make money from them . We are locked into composition publication right now because of the lack of a good Web commercial enterprise model .
What if it were potential to change matter ? What if we make a business example for the Web that solve ? In other Word , what if we could find an easy general style for WWW site to get pay for their content and services that did not want subscriptions ? If we could visualise that out , new Web site would soar from the desert floor . We would have millions of Web situation producing every variety of content and electronic service that you could imagine . There would also be zillion of jobs created in an electronic economy that we only see the barest outline of today .
In this article , we will hash out the " penny per varlet " idea , a simple business enterprise model for the Web that would let Web sites to receive direct requital for their content from everyone that use the Web .
This musical theme is being published here so that people in the Web Community can see the current trouble , see the effects it is get , and discuss possible solutions . The " penny per page " mind describe in this article is one easy solution that might have a positive effect on the Web . However , even if this idea is never take on , the discussion will be extremely productive because there is a huge change in the Web pickings place decent now .
The Challenge Facing the Web
How can we build asuccessfulelectronic saving on the vane ?
Originally it was thought that advertising would support costless Web land site in the same mode that advertising hold up free TV stations and devoid radio Stations of the Cross . Almost all commercial WWW site therefore adopted the " free capacity with pay advertizement " model . Unfortunately , this business role model ended up being completely wrong for the internet , and a vast number of site exit out of business organisation by using this modeling .
The reason that advertising does not work very well on the connection is because the Web is nothing like TV or tuner . TV and wireless are running , and with a linear medium you could force the viewer / auditor to give tending to an ad that cut off the programme . The Web is nothing like that . Instead , the Web is much more like a book or a magazine . People come to the Web primarily to read and see pictures , and they can toss to a young page or to a wholly unlike site whenever they feel like it .
For small sites , the intellect that advert does not work is because you have to hire a sales staff to sell advertising . In increase , advertisers are not specially interested in lowly sites . For small sites , advertising is not an option . [ Seethis letter of the alphabet from the President of StockCharts.comfor an interesting discussion of the situation face by minor and intermediate - sized World Wide Web sites . ]
When you go to the book store , you never see free books . It is also very rarified to find books hold advertising . Instead , people ante up at once for the information that Bible contain because the information is valuable to them .
The challenge facing the WWW today is that the web is using the wrong business exemplar . The Web want to adopt a new business model in ordering to be successful – to hand its full potential . The Web ’s revenue theoretical account ask to involve payment like the book revenue model , but it also needs to accomodate the completely unnumerable and fluid nature of the web .
A Penny Per Page
One potential chemical mechanism for produce an loose , sustainable revenue framework for all Web sites has a very mere name : It ’s calleda penny per Thomas Nelson Page .
Here ’s how it would do work . lease ’s say you go to Google to do a search , or to CNN to read about Afghanistan , or to Amazon to corrupt a book . Whenever a person looks at any Web Thomas Nelson Page , that viewer will pay a penny . The Web site will receive the centime . It is that round-eyed .
With a penny per page , in five years we would see unbelievable changes on the vane . Here are four object lesson :
Example 1: A search engine
Example 1 : A lookup engine
Google.com gets about 100 million page mental picture per 24-hour interval right now . With a cent per page , Google would make $ 1 million a day , or something like $ 350 million per year .
Would $ 350 million per year make a remainder to Google ? From a clientele viewpoint , it obviously would . But think about it from adevelopmentstandpoint . Google is arguably the best search railway locomotive out there right now , but it is only grave the surface of what a search enginecouldbe . Imagine what Google could become if the website could afford to spend $ 200 million per year on new software development . In five twelvemonth , Google ’s capabilities ( or those of a competitor ) would be breathtaking .
Without a centime per varlet , Google will still improve , but at a dramatically slow tempo . There needs to be money to support the development of new characteristic , and right now the money is not there in any substantial style . So it ’s a trade - off : " Free " is belike one of the most beloved words in the English oral communication ; but by not paying Google when we apply it , we ’re effectively denying ourselves the increased benefit that our payments would convey about .
[ See remonstrance # 3 toward the bottom ofthis pagefor additional data on Google . ]
Example 2: Any content Web site
Example 2 : Any content Web web site
Imagine what a penny per pageboy would do to :
The tilt is dateless . All of these website would pick up significant tax revenue from a cent per page . They could then produce Brobdingnagian amounts of cognitive content at a breathtaking tempo and have a fiscal incentive to keep producing more and more . one thousand thousand more mental object web site would protrude bound up like weeds , and they would all be hiring people . The effect that vane receipts would have on the economy , and on the type and amount of subject posted to the connection , would be significant .
Example 3: Any Expert
Example 3 : Any Expert
envisage a somebody who has an surface area of expertise . The person might know anything , from financial analysis to landscape pattern to car resort – it does n’t really matter . in good order now , the person has two option :
Neither of these options works very well for the person with the expertness . write a book of account demand a tremendous amount of work , and there is no guarantee that a publisher will assume it . The publisher also takes 90 % of the revenue * . Publishing on the Web does not need a publishing company , and also allows incremental publication – the expert can write and release a little bit every day . But the expert makes nothing for his / her cause .
With a penny per page , millions of people around the human beings would be able to publish information AND make money . established publisher would also have a rationality to convey be books over to the Web . The puddle of entropy on the WWW will explode .
[ * A very common question – why does the author of a book get only 10 % ? It is not because publishers are " evil " or " prehensile " , but instead because of the way book publishing workplace . To edit , rest out , print ( thousands of copy ) , warehouse , market and disseminate a Christian Bible , the lower limit amount a publisher will pass is approximately $ 100,000 . Many volume cost much more than that to get on the bookstore shelf . That is a very steep cost of entry per title .
Out of every 10 books published , as a general rule , less than half are able to turn over themselves out of the $ 100,000 fix . The publishing company eats all of those costs and still pays royalties , in the hope that several playscript out of every 10 will make a profit . After all of the cost are acquire into account , all that ’s left is about 10 % to pay to the source and still maintain a profitable publishing business . ]
Example 4: Anyone with a Good Idea
good example 4 : Anyone with a Good Idea
Imagine a person or small line of work today with a practiced entanglement thought that they would like to implement . The individual has to devote the time ( potentially century of hours ) to build up the idea , and then give a hosting company to host the novel entanglement site . Unfortunately , there is no manner to make money from the idea . The lack of taxation means that one thousand of good musical theme – ideas that would be very beneficial to Web exploiter – are not being implemented right now . This is a sodding equivalence for stagnation . [ Seethis letter from the President of StockCharts.comfor an interesting discussion of the situation faced by small and intermediate - sized Web sites . ]
Resonance
There are many , many WWW sites that start out as a by-line and then made it expectant . What made them big is a process calledresonance . When a WWW site resonates , it can grow a very large audience very quickly . reverberance come from normal human conduct . People tend to do two thing when they see a internet site they like : They lean to amount back , and they incline to tell their supporter . The retention and expanding upon of audience is resonance .
Napster , of course , is the poster child for sonority . When citizenry found Napster there was a huge probability that they ’d come back , and a huge chance that they ’d tell their friends and that their friends would come back . So Napster pop off from zero to 50 million visitors per month in something like six months .
The World Wide Web allows any soul or business on the planet tocreate a connection siteand reach a worldwide audience . Anyone can create something , upload it to the Web , and the entire world can see it . Any 10 - year - old can learn the technology , and anyone with acomputerhas the instrument , so there is no barrier to entree . At no time in the account of the mankind has there been this sort of freedom of speech or this sort of world-wide voice for this many individuals . The admittance and potential is virtually inexhaustible ; plangency then picks the winners .
The Web allow on-key private publication and planet - spanning distribution . What is missing right now is any means for an mortal or business to derive economic value from an innovative WWW estimation . With a penny per page , we would have a self - propagate compounding of business and creativity : instant publishing with instant revenue for any individual who can get at the Web .
Under the centime - per - Sir Frederick Handley Page good example , millions of businesses and individuals can try jillion of ideas , and if they are successful they will directly and immediately benefit . They do not have to search venture capital . They do not have to experiment with and invent convoluted business model . They do not have to engage large sale forces to sell ads .
What this means is that the richness and diversity of substance and service on the vane will explode . In the cognitive process , individual mass and line of work will , for the first fourth dimension , be capable to right away benefit from their work . A person with a cracking estimation will be able-bodied to make a significant amount of money almost straight off because of sonority .
Changing the Culture
What will people intend about the idea of paying a centime per varlet ? Wo n’t mass complain about bear to pay for the WWW ?
Anyone who get at the Web from nursing home pay a monthly fee to an ISP for the privilege . An AOL account is typical , and it cost about $ 20 a calendar month . MSN and Earthlink are about the same . masses in the United States are already paying for the Web ; but the Web sites – the cause people lumber on in the first blank space – get none of it .
Will masses kvetch about give slightly more per month under the penny per varlet model ? Right now the great unwashed give forcable video , newspaper , magazine , telephone set call , directory assist , video tapes , flick tickets , DVD , pay - per - opinion , candela , books , doughnut whole step , 900 services , college courses …
The fact that we do n’t pay for Web content is a historic anomaly . The benefit to be reaped by make up a very small amount of money for Web content are gigantic . decently now , people are actively refuse themselves many of the most amazing thing that the connection could provide because of the " all spare " World Wide World Wide Web .
One of the rationality for pick out a simple overture like a penny per pageboy is because it is such a minor amount of money . Here are four illustration to illustrate the point :
These are farcical question – of course it is deserving a centime . Right now you belike devote a buck to get a mortal ’s speech sound identification number from directory assistance . A cent is an amazing buy .
It ’s also not going to add up to very much per calendar month . hoi polloi who lumber on to check stock prices , search up the weather , read the top tidings story and so on might look at 25 or 50 pages a day . They would pay something between $ 5 and $ 15 per month for Web content . But let ’s also take the worst compositor’s case scenario . Let ’s say that you sit in front of your computer 8 hr a day and looked at a new Thomas Nelson Page every two instant without interruption 20 24-hour interval per month . That would cost $ 48 for the month . That is the worst case scenario , and it is improbable anyone is go to do that . The cost will be minimum for just about everyone .
Flat Rate Pricing
One important thing to recognize is that a centime per page is not the only possible billing fashion model . The goal of a penny per page is to find a way to pay WWW sites directly for their content so that they can survive and thrive , and so that people have an incentive to break Modern sites . One alternative would be a insipid pace pricing model .
For example , people might give a flat rate of $ 10 or $ 20 per month . Web web site would not meet " precisely one penny per page " , but or else would receive a lot of each user ’s $ 10 fee based on dealings . If 10 % of a user ’s pageboy views extend to CNN in a particular month , then CNN would receive 10 % of the drug user ’s fee that month .
This approach answers the key objection that many the great unwashed have to the pure penny per Sir Frederick Handley Page concept – its open - terminated nature . WWW sites would not take in a penny per page , but they would get money establish on their dealings . An highly loose agency to carry out this model would be for ISPs to collect the $ 10 fee from users and distribute it to Web web site based on traffic stats available to the ISPs .
Getting Started
What is the best direction to implement a penny per page ? There are three possibilities :
The first possibility has been tried in unnumerable course , and it does not work . When a Web site tries to one-sidedly charge for its content , the audience almost always rejects it because everything else is free . vane situation will have to move in unison for a penny per pageboy to work .
Having the ISPs handle charge would probably be the easy approach if the ISPs can create a vulgar , fair and uniform model for all customers .
The traditional way to get anything done on the Internet is for the Internet community , in the form of existing standards organizations , to create a standard which is then follow up on a non - profit base . Alternatively , the top 1,000 or so WWW sites , working in unison , could do it . Here ’s how it could be done :
The Florida key , and the cause for a separate , non - profit company in the middle , is to keep the process pristinely sightly and unbiased . What makes the entanglement so strong now is the fact that it is a comletely level playacting field . Anyonewho can work a computing equipment can get a area name and start a Web site – there ’s no societal power structure on the vane . One of the chief thing that creates democratic site is ringing . In keep with the populist sense of the Web , everyone with a Web site should have adequate access code to the penny per page payment organization .
An unbiassed system like this with no middlemen would have Brobdingnagian benefit in term of innovation .
Implementing Flat-rate Pricing
compressed - pace pricing ( for good example , charging users a flat charge per unit of $ 10 per calendar month to get at WWW mental object – seethis pagefor a verbal description ) would be even easier to enforce . Here are two selection :
Q & A
Is a penny per page the right amount?
The centime per Sir Frederick Handley Page approach is extremely easy for everyone to understand . A centime per page does not present a large barrier to the remunerator , and it devote a overnice amount to the Web website . It could be argued that half a centime would work , and so would two pennies . The net residential district can toy around with the number and decide .
Under a prostrate - charge per unit pricing modelling , users would likely pay a flat fee of $ 10 to $ 20 per month .
Is charging by the page impression the right unit? Why not charge by the byte?
If you pickbytes , then you will see the great unwashed bloating range of a function and doing all kind of other disturbed things to amplify their pages .
Won’t Web sites chop up their content into a zillion pages if they get a penny per page?
Probably not . Banner adshave already cause as much chop as we will ever see . If sites chop things up too much , they wo n’t resonate and they ’ll die out .
Why should pricing be uniform? Shouldn’t each site be able to set how much it charges per page?
perchance , but it perplex things . Say you are looking at a list of varlet in Google and you want to come home on one . Before you clack on it , you have to remember to search close to check that that the Web site is not going to charge $ 100 per page rather of a penny per Thomas Nelson Page . If it ’s a uniform pricing modelling , then you’re able to select any Thomas Nelson Page without worry about it , just like you do today .
What do we do about streaming audio and video, and things like MP3 files?
Streaming video is unique because it consumes significant bandwidth . A 10 - arcminute streaming telecasting at 300Kbps consumes upwards of 20 megabytes of bandwidth and might cost the Web internet site 10 to 20 cents to direct it to the watcher . A earnings - per - view model might be the right overture . Or peradventure it ’s a dime per stream . WithMP3 files , if artists automatically and direct received a dime every metre someone downloaded one of their songs , it would create an incredible musical revolution .
What would prevent a site from having a page that pops up 100 new pages when you land on it to ream the unsuspecting visitor out of a dollar?
The charge mechanism should cross for and eliminate charges for that , as well as for pages that auto - refresh themselves , error and non - existant Thomas Nelson Page , pages arrived at by pressing the back push , duplicate Page and so on .
People in the U.S. tend to prefer a flat-rate model to a pay-per-unit model. Could there be a flat-rate model with penny per page?
As discussed onthis varlet , flat charge per unit pricing would be extremely easy to go through and would egest one big objection that many people have to the " penny per pageboy " concept .
Answering Objections
referee have voiced a number of dissent to the penny - per - page idea . Here is a list of the most common objections , with response to each one .
Objection #1 - Penny Per Page is impossible to implement
There are variations on this dissent that range from , " there is no fashion to track the dealings " to " there is no mode to make a bill " to " there is no style to collect the money . " Right now ISPs , as well as the WWW sites , have comprehensive tools that get them cross each page viewed by each visitant . Third party companies can track traffic as well – see , for example , Hitbox.com . ISPs are already billing tens of millions of people on a monthly basis . Implementation is straightforward .
Objection #2 - Penny Per Page is an invasion of privacy
Many people vocalise the expostulation that the centime per page billing company will have a unadulterated list of every site visited by every exploiter , and that is a violation of privacy . The penny - per - page situation is no dissimilar than your earphone troupe having a complete list of every phone call you have made , or your deferred payment card company having a pure list of every entrepot from which you have purchased good . Right now , chance are that your ISP and your employer / school already have a perfect phonograph record of every page you visit .
Objection #3 - Penny Per Page will make it impossible for search engines to spider sites
The remonstrance here is that , even though Google will make lots of money from the cent per page mind , it will have to pay even more to spider all the vane website it maintain rail of . There are two possible answers to this dissent :
Objection #4 - Third-world countries and other disadvantaged populations will no longer be able to access the free Internet
This is one of the more surprising objection . The gist is , " pitiable masses and people in third - world state will be unable to see the internet if they have to pay for it . " This protest neglects the fact that , to get to the Web :
If it is o.k. for wretched people to devote for all of these other token , why should it be bad for them to pay for the subject ?
The plebeian solution used to give disadvantaged somebody memory access to the net is liberal public access . Libraries , schools and other public administration pay for calculator , power and Internet approach , and bid them to the world free people of bang . These same organizations can also yield for content .
Objection #5 - Penny Per Page is too open-ended
The concern is that a backbreaking Web user might receive a note for $ 100 after a calendar month of extremely acute surfing . $ 100 implies 10,000 pages . If someone is get at 10,000 pages of content , it seems appropriate to shoot down for it – 10,000 page is roughly 20 to 30 books , which might cost anywhere from $ 200 to $ 600 depending on the toll of the book .
Another solution is a matted - rate pricing modeling as discussed to begin with , or a cap on the monthly broadside . Either extinguish this objection whole .
Objection #6 - Many Web pages are not worth a penny
A big concern is the page that show up in lookup engine that carry rubble . " Why should I have to pay up for debris sites ? " is the objection . One easy root would be to leave a drug user one pageboy view ( or three or five , whatever ) on a given domain of a function for free , with the option to blank out that site in the future tense . In that case , the substance abuser would not be charged for visiting that site .
Objection #7 - It will be impossible to get the top 1,000 sites to act in unison, and without them penny per page will not work
This is a valid item . It seems like it would be difficult for 2nd - level sites to charge for subject if top - grade sites did not .
Objection #7a - If you do get all of the top sites to cooperate, I will not visit them after they start charging for their content. I will visit other sites instead.
A small but vocal minority refer the " I will NEVER compensate for content ! " terror constantly . Here are two important facts to keep in mind about this minority :
Objection #8 - Penny Per Page is too expensive for businesses and schools
get ’s take shoal as an example . unproblematic schools and high-pitched schools are currently spending gazillion of dollars on text books for their students . A undivided college text book typically costs $ 50 , and students must make up for them each semester . In that context , $ 10 to $ 20 per month per scholarly person is a bargain .
Objection #9 - Penny Per Page will cause huge media companies to buy all the good sites
A distinctive comment : " Most worrying is the possibility that Murdoch , Turner and a few other big media Moghul will grease one’s palms all the skillful situation as shortly as they can make money from them . " If that were a concern , Murdoch , Turner , etc . could buy the intact WWW right now , because entanglement land site have little or no value – it is inconceivable to make money from them . If the land site could generate revenue , it would give their Lord a way to keep them on the air . If large media society then want to buy the sites , at least the creators would have a bargaining position and a way to compete .
Objection #10 - Sites that need to make money can simply charge their readers using a normal subscription model
This is a valid approach , and it is happening more and more . For model , you’re able to get subscriptions to :
Let ’s say that Yahoo , CNN , Google and hundreds of other sites move this route . Just the 5 sites listed above would be about $ 500 per year , and you have to take the time to sign up for each one singly . The cost of subscribing to several 12 sites would potentially run thousands of dollars per year . In the process , it would make general research on the Web insufferable .
It makes far more sentiency to have a generic model , like a penny per page , where there is one note for all Web surfing .
At this second , the " barren Web " approach is backfire on those who advocate it . It is stifling new site and stimulate exist site to go out of occupation .
Time for Change
In this clause , we have search a parallel population – a cosmos in which people devote for Web contentedness instead of getting it for free . Imagine what the web would be like if a cent per page had been woven into the vane ’s fabric from the very start . Our world , and the worldly concern ’s economic system , would be all different today . There would be millions of companies and individuals making pregnant amount of money of money off of Web - base content and military service . There would be thousand of times more content on the Web , and there would be the incentive to add more and more .
But the biggest difference it would have made is in the number of new Web sites that would appear on the web . flop now , the turn of ideas being implemented is severely constrained because there is no way to make money off of most of them .
Here are three key things to keep in idea about the parallel universe that for - salary Web content would bring in about :
Would it be worth a centime to you to take care up a phone number you need ? Would it be worth a centime to you to get a single-valued function to your destination ? Would it be worth a cent to you to get the solution to a particular doubtfulness ? A cent is an unbelievable bargain . The fact that none of us is paying that cent right now is set a huge damper on Web innovation . A cent per page will convey consistent revenue to the vane , and the change that it will contribute will amaze all of us .
