I recently wrote about Flattr and how it’s a different take on micropayments that seems more interesting to me (though I’m still not convinced it’ll get big enough to make a difference). In that post, I also noted a competitor, Kachingle. Apparently, another company is about to enter the space, named Twixa, but it has a slight twist on the concept. Rather than asking users of a site to click a button to pay with their own money, the “ThankThis” offering from Twixa gets a sponsor to pay the money. Basically, any time you clicked the “Thank This” button (which looks similar to the Flattr button), rather than some of your money going to the site, a sponsor’s money goes to the site. Of course, it also puts up a simple ad, which is how the sponsor finds this worthwhile. In some ways it’s almost a direct play on the fact that some sites ask people to click on their ads to get cost-per-click cash from advertisers — even though that’s often frowned upon as a form of “click fraud.” In this case, however, it’s encouraged with the participation of sponsors. I’m still not convinced that enough people would really click to make a difference, but it is quite interesting to see how this space is evolving.
Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
