To: mreisel@oslonett.no
Cc: online-news 
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On Mon, 17 Oct 1994 jvncnet!oslonett.no!mreisel@dowv wrote:

> I have downloaded the new free www browser from Mosaic Communication called
> Netscape.
> Very good, although the 0.9beta version does not give you many choices as
> to choosing fonts and styles. (they said the 1.0 version will be better
> though)
> The URL is http://www.mcom.com
> and according to their press release they will have their "commerce server"
> software ready by November which for $5000 can take care of commercial
> transactions...
You may also want to check out http://www.wais.com  They are offering a
commercial version of the Z39.50 server.

> also check out
> http://www.digicash.com/
> and
> http://www.fv.com/
> both are offering clearing house-style business transaction on the net.

My understanding is that these are both businesses capable of much more
than just simple "billing".  It's more like electronic banking.
 
> The question is ofcourse, if we should sell monthly or yearly subscriptions
> or pay-per-view  services.  Considering the general trend of adding online
> discussiongroups to serving the users/readers with news from the editorial
> department, I would guess that monthly, quaterly or yearly subscriptions
> would be the best choice, otherwise you limit access according to income
> and that wouldn+t do, would it? 
> any ideas?
Generally, users tend to like the "budget billing" approach.  Colorado
Supernet for example charges a flat monthly rate which includes a generous
amount of time for a shell user or a pop/uucp user.  At the same time,
they allow the user to pick up increments of an hour, and finally they put
a cap on the montly billing, equal to about 30% more than 24/7 dedicated
service.

Clarinet charges about $3/month/user for the first N (N=10?) users, and
$1/user for subsequent users.

Another alternative is a $/megabyte price.  This also provides some
flexibility in distributing news.  I could take a 10Kbyte article and
distribute it to 100 users, or I could suck up the whole megabyte for my
own personal use.  Pictures could be charged at a $/gigabyte rate.

The idea is that if, at the end of 2 months, the user turns out to be an
intense "power user", his rate can be adjusted.  The panic comes when
someone gets a bill for $10,000 of $1/kbyte service (Like DJ-NRS) without
warning because some employee or dependent decided to browse through 100
pages of "The Wall Street Journal", and hung up in the middle of the dump.

Corporate Librarians get very adept at squeezing the maximum value out of
on-line >$1/kbyte service like NRS, NEXUS, LEXUS, and WestLaw.  Even the
big guys are leaning toward flat monthly rates with thresholds and caps.

> Micha Reisel   managing director/CEO,  "Kommunal Rapport"/"The Municipal

	Rex Ballard - Grunt for DowVision :-)
	(Personal Posting).

 




From jvncnet!marketplace.com!owner-online-news Mon Nov 14 08:22:43 1994