ANALYSIS OF ELECTRONIC MICRO-PAYMENT MARKET

Despite the potential of micro-payment systems very few systems have been successful. Little is known about the reasons behind the successful few and the failures of the majority. Micro-payment markets exhibit two-sided network effects and the underlying dynamics of these markets are not very well u...

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Veröffentlicht in:Journal of electronic commerce research 2007-02, Vol.8 (1), p.63
Hauptverfasser: See-To, Eric W K, Jaisingh, Jeevan, Kar Yan Tam
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Despite the potential of micro-payment systems very few systems have been successful. Little is known about the reasons behind the successful few and the failures of the majority. Micro-payment markets exhibit two-sided network effects and the underlying dynamics of these markets are not very well understood. Based on a stylized model of a two-sided market, we find that a 'survival mass' of merchants and consumers is required for a micro-payment system to exist and a 'critical mass' for the acceptance levels to take off and remain stable. We also find the non-intuitive result that lowering the consumer-side adoption cost will actually reduce the chances for the micro-payment market to develop. Thus, subsidization alone cannot create a micro-payment market. Anecdotal evidence supports this finding. When subsidization is needed, the consumer side will normally be subsidized. The two-sided market structure makes comparative analysis complex and non-trivial, rendering the implementation of micro-payment systems very difficult as indicated by the mixed results of a number of initiatives worldwide. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:1938-9027
1526-6133