PayCento Links Micropayments and Social Media

Accepting card-based micropayments is not cost effective for many businesses as discount fees substantially reduce profit margins. Media websites have typically avoided this problem by using subscription-based pricing to increase their average ticket or subsidizing free content with advertising revenues. PayCento is a Belgium based startup that provides micropayment processing services to enable online content providers to charge per article, downlaod, page view, etc. From Rueters:

“We want to make it economical for the merchant, for the publisher to offer something at any price point, that means both at 10 cents, at 5 cents and at 1 euro,” Pieter Dubois, the company’s 41-year-old founder, said.

Users fund a PayCento account linked to a social network and can make payments with a single click, similar to “Liking” or “Sharing” an item on Facebook.

“Those social identity networks also are really identity providers … so we piggyback on that,” Dubois said.

PayCento has not published a rate structure for merchants, but will have to compete with a number of well capitalized online payment providers including PayPal, Google Checkout and Checkout by Amazon. PayCento is seeking to raise $5 million dollars in venture capital funding.

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