As prices become vanishingly small, Shirky adds, consumers' main concerns are convenience and good use of their time. Consider the way that we order cardboard boxes for a move, he says. No one tries to measure every item ahead of time and optimize the use of the boxes. We just take a guess and over-order slightly, regarding box costs as a trifling part of the move. Micropayment enthusiasts lose track of this dynamic, he says. They mistakenly treat cheap resources such as content or computing power as if these were precious, while regarding the user's time "as if it were so abundant as to be free."
If there is any palatable way to bring micropayments to the consumer, Shirky suggested in a recent interview, it may be through users' mobile phones. There, at least, users are already dealing with an instrument that gradually charges them more for greater use. Also, cell-phone contracts have already validated users' identity and creditworthiness -- two vital chores that a micropayment system can't handle easily on its own.
In fact, VeriSign Inc., one of the leading Internet-security companies, is concentrating its micropayment efforts on wireless services. Paul Healy, vice president of wireless services for VeriSign, observes that fancy ring tones are already sold this way. And he says that in years to come, people may use their mobile phones to pay for parking spaces, movie tickets, and other incidental purchases.
But even on the wireless Internet, micropayment enthusiasts may be fighting an uphill battle against the belief that if it's cheap, it really ought to be free. Consider the recent experience of Richard Kosinski, a San Francisco - based PR executive. On the Fourth of July, he went to yourmobile.com and downloaded "Yankee Doodle Dandy" as the new ring tone for his phone. It was free and fun, he says. Later, he went back to yourmobile.com to look for more ring tones, only to discover that the site now wanted to charge him.
"That was a real disincentive for me," he says. "When it was free, it was terrific. But I don't think I'd want to pay."
George Anders (ganders@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior editor based in Silicon Valley.
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