Why so many things cost exactly zero

Re:Why so many things cost exactly zero by saagarjha on Saturday January 18, 2020 @12:05PM (#22085508)

I think this is just the same problem of micropayments on the web: nobody’s “solved” it, so free is just the most convenient option by far.

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Re:Why so many things cost exactly zero by 8ytecoder on Saturday January 18, 2020 @01:20PM (#22085986)

https://www.allthingsdistributed.com/2007/08/the_amazon_flex...

Amazon had a service that was built mainly with micropayments in mind. It never took off.

"Amazon FPS’s aggregation feature lets developers track and aggregate micro-payments into a single payment transaction, saving on transaction processing costs and avoiding having to build complex ledger functionality into their own applications. Using the aggregation functionality coupled with the lower Amazon FPS fees, developers can now pursue micro-payments businesses that previously have been cost-prohibitive."

Edit: Better Source and a quote

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Re:Why so many things cost exactly zero by hesarenu on Sunday January 19, 2020 @01:10AM (#22089752)

In india we have UPI, we can pay as small as we want.

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Re:Why so many things cost exactly zero by amelius on Saturday January 18, 2020 @12:45PM (#22085760)

Not true, app stores solved it ...

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Re:Why so many things cost exactly zero by choward on Saturday January 18, 2020 @12:58PM (#22085843)

Don't they skim like 30% or something crazy like that off the top of every purchase? If so, I wouldn't call it "solved".

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Re:Why so many things cost exactly zero by AnIdiotOnTheNet on Saturday January 18, 2020 @01:06PM (#22085896)

When you consider the infrastructure provided for hosting, payment processing, distribution, and the storefront itself, 30% is not unreasonable.

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Re:Why so many things cost exactly zero by monocasa on Saturday January 18, 2020 @01:47PM (#22086197)

That 30% is on more than $60B/yr for apple. Are you suggesting that their overhead for running app store is anywhere within even a couple orders of magnitude of $20B/yr?

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Re:Why so many things cost exactly zero by AnIdiotOnTheNet on Sunday January 19, 2020 @02:22PM (#22093339)

I'm suggesting that, compared to what you'd pay to do these things for yourself, 30% is a steal. There's a reason people are ok with paying it.

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Re:Why so many things cost exactly zero by ghaff on Saturday January 18, 2020 @12:54PM (#22085817)

Kinda/sorta/not really. It's why "free to play"/in-app-purchases rather than up-front-buying is such a big (and annoying) trend.

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Re:Why so many things cost exactly zero by eliasbagley on Saturday January 18, 2020 @12:53PM (#22085809)

Not micro in the sense of penny transactions.

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Re:Why so many things cost exactly zero by amelius on Saturday January 18, 2020 @04:47PM (#22087504)

They don't lump together small in-app payments, so you get billed only larger amounts?

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