Nano Internet Payments the new religion?

SUMMARY
There's a big discussion going on about nano payments. In this post I present my vision on this subject. I'm convinced that nano payments will push the internet to it’s next, much better, level. nano payments are inevitable because nothing in life is free, somebody somewhere is paying the bill. Therefore websites need to develop a valid and sustainable business model. Otherwise sites like you-tube, linked in etc will stop to exist. At the same time the news, music, movie and publishing industry are screaming for a solid internet business model. nano payments is their answer. nano payments will become the new religion on internet.

DEFINITION
When I'm talking about nano payments I mean payments of less than a dollar, euro or yen. Even better less than a cent. Not because the market is bigger for small amounts (although it is) but it keeps the discussion clear.

NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE
The main reason why nano payments are necessary and inevitable is because nothing in life is free. Free news, movies, music books, networks, videos don't exist. Either you pay for it or donate to it. If you don't: it's crowded with ads, the content unreliable and eventually the site will stop. Today we have "free" websites like you-tube, face book, twitter and countless others. When they don't develop a sustainable business model soon somebody will eventually pull the plug. Let's take you-tube for example. Credit Suisse (a business bank) did a calculation on the profitability of you-tube. Everything is an estimation because Google doesn't publish you-tube figures. They estimated a loss for 2009 of $ 470 million. Since 2006 Google has spend $ 3.2 bln on you-tube and generated only $ 600 million on advertising income. That are some expensive movies! (complete article here)Ofcourse Google is a big company that can afford such an investment but there will come a moment when somebody says "enough is enough". And there are other sites that don't have such a big brother, it's only a matter of time before one them will go belly up. Ofcourse others will fill the gap but when they don't have a solid business model they will go down also. So you-tube isn't a free website, it only feels "free of charge" but Google is paying the bills.

BITCHING AND MOANING
At the same time the news, movie, music and publishing industry are screaming for a sustainable internet business model. nano payments could be the solution for their problems. Because people are willing to pay for things that are now "free". But there are a few conditions that have to be met before they will pull their wallets. First of all it needs to be relevant. You don't pay for something that doesn't fulfill your need, you would be nuts if you did. And this is going to be something completely new for some of the above mentioned sectors. Second, it must be very easy to make the payment. It should take less than 10 seconds. If you can make a payment in less than 10 seconds it can't be difficult. And ofcourse it must be safe, you are not happy when somebody steals 50 cents or even 5 cents from you. An interesting side effect of nano payments will be the distinction between reliable and unreliable content. When you can see how many people were willing to pay for the content you have an indication on the reliability and relevancy of that content.

MICROSOFT OR GOOGLE BANK
Do you realize that you-tube wasn't developed by the movie industry, i-tunes wasn't developed by the music industry and e-bay wasn't developed by the auctioneers. Strange isn't it! So my guess is that nano payments isn't going to be developed by banks or credit card companies. In my opinion there are only 2 companies in the world that have the resources and the size to pull this off. Microsoft and Google. They can raise the money, have the know-how and can activate the huge number of users that are required to make this successful.

ACT NOW
The news, movie, music and publishing industry should embrace nano payments as there internet business model. In their discussions with Google the must demand that Google activates it´s resources to develop and execute a worldwide accepted nano payment system.