Social Micropayments

...Show how much you ”like” with a cash donation...

Flattr, Rewrd and Kachingle are all social micropayment startups that allow people to demonstrate how much they like a website or content by making a small donation to that site or content provider by pressing a donate button. Those who wish receive peer-to-peer donations, sign up for the service and place one or more donation buttons on the sites.

People who wish to donate place a certain amount of money in their donation accounts each month via a credit/debit transaction or Paypal. At the end of a month, that money is divided equally among the web sites or content providers that a person “liked” during that month. More recently, rather than equal apportionment, a user could decide to donate a specific amount ranging from 2 to 50 Euros to a site or specific content.

There is a Flattr app that enables smart phone users scan a QR code off-line. The code is tied to a Flattr account, making it convenient for users to submit and Flattr content via a mobile device.

Sites charge a percentage of each donation to cover costs; provides an opportunity for casual commerce -- to donate for "likes" while creating a small revenue stream for digital content providers.

In another version, PayPal offers support for micropayments to merchants for US to US, GB to GB, AU to AU, and EU to EU transactions for Business and Premier accounts. This feature is offered at a special rate of 5% + $0.05 per transaction. I've seen several Silicon Valley blogs with a "Donate" Button.