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The end of Patreon? Google is implementing micro-payments into Chrome

Google is working on integrating what it calls Web Monetization functionality in its Chrome web browser. One of the main intents is to add a way to reward good content on the web.

Most websites rely either on ads or subscriptions for revenue generation. While direct payments are in theory great, they are not in practice. Each payment has additional costs and intermediary services are needed in most cases, as individual implementations are technical.

This lead to absurd scenarios where fees eat up a large chunk of payments.

Google's solution: Web Monetization

Google explains the feature in a support document on its Chrome Platform Status website: "Web Monetization is a web technology that enables website owners to receive micro payments from users as they interact with their content".

Google highlights that the feature is designed to add a new revenue option for webmasters and publishers that does not rely on ads or subscriptions.

The system offers two advantages according to Google:

  • Support for small payments
  • No user interaction

Google says that users would pay for content while they consume it. The company explains that websites would add the HTML Link element rel="monetization" to links, which signifies to the browser that the website supports it.

This would then start a new web monetization session if the visitor has a wallet set up for that particular website. Visitors retain control over the entire process, including the sites that they want to reward and the amounts.

In other words: there needs to be a mechanism to a) add funds to a wallet and b) manage websites or publications that the user wants to support. Once set up, things would happen automatically from that point on.

Technical documentation is available here.

Closing Words

Web Monetization addresses a core problem if micro-payments on today's Internet: fees. While it still requires payment providers, as funds need to be added to a user's wallet, it would remove the requirement to pay fees for every single payment.

The new technology has potential, but there are lots of uncertainties at this point. It is just a draft at the moment, and even if Google implements it in Chrome, it would need the help of websites and users to make this work.

What is your take on the idea? Sounds a bit like what Brave Browser is doing with its crypto-approach. 

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