The term Micropayment, small amount and/or eingedeutscht micro payment designates the payments of small sums, which would result e.g. with the purchase of a roll or the acquisition of a digital piece of music or newspaper article. According to dominant opinion by this amounts fall between 0,01 and 5,00 euro; over it going out sums are called accordingly Macropayments. This border is not uniformly used however in practice and theory. One calls the lower Micropayment range frequently also small sum and/or Picopayment.

The meaning of Zahlungssystemen arose in particular in the last years in the course of the rising E-Commerce-conversions. With the trade of digital goods developed here completely new digital goods against zero tending costs over Internet to be also distributed knows, is here in particular the low price segment addressed (e.g. message, real time stock exchange courses, music Downloads,"Â…)

Problem

At inferior goods the economy of the payment represents a central problem: Conventional procedures, as credit card payment or the debit is ungeeinet, since the costs of the Zahlungsabwicklung often exceed the commodity value here. The alternate strategy of many offerers to finance a to a large extent free of offers by advertisement is often not goal-prominent. First of all the rising Zahlungsbereitschaft of the customers for (inferior) digital goods and services is thereby not taxed away (keyword "overcoming of the free culture"), and secondly faces that as far as possible fixed incomes by the advertisement possibly with difficulty calculable expenditures by the Traffic, which the Nachfrager cause. Altogether thus apparently a payment system gap exists: procedures are needed, with which niedrigpreisige goods can be accounted for economically. The chances of success of Micropayment systems are critically discussed however - in particular in the anglo-saxon area -. Opponents often state the Konstrukt of the mental transaction costs: the customer is starting from a certain price lower bound already the consideration, whether a property is worth the price for this required, too "expensive "The mental costs "result from the time, which is needed among other things in each case for the investigation of the characteristics of the property and for decision making. Now if a quantity of niedrigpreisiger goods must be weighed in each case, then it can be that the mental costs already exceed for this the prices of the goods. For the reduction of the mental transaction costs to well-known measures such as product bundling one refers, thus the summary of several products to a package. Thus the Micropayment range is often left.

History

Micropayments actually are not necessarily a modern phenomenon: with interactive videotext about it was in Germany in the 80's already possible to account for after one pay by view or pay by click model of amounts between 0,01 and 9,99 DM per side and/or up to 1,30 DM per minute. The topic only in the middle of the 90's was turned on nevertheless by starting UP enterprises such as DigiCash or FirstVirtual, which near-dared themselves with extensive field tests as pioneers to the establishment of new, unorthodox Zahlungssysteme, intensively. High expectations and the initial euphoria had to yield however fast the disillusionment: thus following Pilotierungen of banks failed fast because of demand lacking on the part of the customers and dealers. This was less on a need lacking to attribute than to product specific inadequacies. The list that system operator, which came and went until today, is long and one can say that itself - even if here and there gradually promising tendencies show up - still no system completely interspersed.

Systematization

Many of the Zahlungssysteme buhlenden at present around participants recruit with the ability for the account of small amounts. These systems essentially can be differentiated with respect to three types: Prepaid systems, Billing /Inkasso systems and portable radio-based systems.

Prepaid systems

During the use more prepaid ("Pre Paid") - the monetary point of load period is temporally pre-aged systems to the actual purchase. The assets are guaranteed thus quasi and it can at the purchase time from expensive liquidity controls and account accesses be refrained. Among the prepaid systems eGeld, discount systems of point/bonus and virtual accounts rank.

eGeld

Under eGeld such systems are summarized, which fall under the definition in 1998 of report of the European central bank appeared and under the eGeld guideline 2000/46/EG. With it it concerns with eGeld products, which can be used to broad extent for payments at enterprises, except to the spending place. (The latter meant that for instance in purpose maps - like the calling card, with which the system-operating institution the money receiver actual is excluded at the same time from this definition; instead a cash-similar, broad payment possibility is to be given)

One differentiates between systems on software basis, with which customer and if necessary dealer-laterally a Wallet software must be installed, those the functions of an electronic purse, like asset storage and - balancing, makes available.

The moreover one too eGeld hardware-based solutions belong in the form of Smart Cards. Here the functions of the electronic purse are made available by a microchip.

Discount systems of point/bonus

With point of bonus and discount systems it concerns Geldsurrogate, with which the dealers prepay. Here in the Vorhinein with the system operator points of bonus are bought to their monetary equivalent, which can be passed on then afterwards to the customers. The latters can acquire products of the offer of the enterprises tied up at the system with the collected points - it is completely score-financed to conditions or.

Virtual accounts

Under virtual accounts a set of heterogeneous systems is summarized. Is characteristic that it acts not over eGeld in the above sense and that certain assets exist, which gradual be used up can. For this counts on the one hand so-called Scratch Cards, with which an map-identifying code must be freigerubbelt, under whose indication afterwards associated assets for be used can. The assets are stored not on the map, but on a shade account with the system operator.

Further by this on-line procedures fall, with which first assets must be created and/or loaded. Subsequently, units of value between persons or customers and dealers can be transferred e.g. by E-Mail.

Billing /Inkasso systems

Billing /Inkasso systems lower the costs per transaction by the fact that first a set of single payments it is cumulated ("Billing "), which are settled then afterwards periodically in a second step added by means of conventional payment procedures. As collection offices also frequently Telekommunikationsprovider appear beside the banks. In addition, the Billing can be made directly by the telephone and/or Handyrechnung. Also Billingplattformen on those is sent digital content, which can be called up then liable to pay the costs by the user.

Portable radio-based systems

Portable radio-based Micropayment systems (see Handypayment) to form a cross section function: By means of mobile terminals they make the localindependent payment possible by the system types specified above. Apart from the ubiquitous payment possibility are the moreover one the high penetration rate of mobile telephones, the identifiableness of the customers connected with the devices as well as the favorable conditions of the portable radio nets regarding the transmission reliability of advantage.

Requirement at Micropaymentsysteme

The following demands are made against the multiplicity of paying systems.

Articles in category "Micropayment"

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