Smart cards are well-established in Europe and they are moving onto the Internet. In that same month, Proton World International announced that its 30 million smart card users in Europe are now able to reload their smart cards over the Internet as well as make purchases. Given the global appeal of content such as popular music, these announcements give some companies an immediate business case to support micropayments. Smart cards are emerging more slowly in the United States, partly because credit and debit cards are firmly established. But on the Internet you tend to do things in smaller chunks.
Some analysts cite per-play online games as a potential micropayment killer application.
Others say the electronic delivery of music, particularly as prices for CD recorders continue to fall, will give small payment systems the boost they need to go mainstream. There is also a lot of room for selling services in smaller increments. N.Y. On the information side, micropayments will allow for deep searches and expand other existing information distribution models. Some worry that micropayment systems will encourage content providers to charge for material that is free today. But the market has already drawn a distinction between free content, which providers use to support products and garner advertising revenue, and premium content.