PayOrShare enables businesses to charge consumers for their premium content — but lets the customer choose whether to pay in cash or social currency.
In the world of digital publishing, social media shares have a direct effect on readership figures and advertising potential – so much so that ‘social currency’ can be just as valuable to a site as plain old-fashioned money. We have already seen social paywall Sharewall enabling readers to unlock premium content on a share-one, read-one basis. Now, PayOrShare, from Germany, is providing an even more flexible platform. Customers are able to read the digital material first and then choose what currency to pay with – which might be in the form of a post on their chosen social network rather than money.
By sharing a post on social media, a consumer can claim a coupon for an online shop.
There are four basic steps to the process. Firstly, the user clicks the coupon and selects the option to share via social media. This prompts the PayOrShare form to appear. The user now chooses which social network they want to share the coupon campaign on. They can then choose the specific message they want to type alongside the post, to give it a personal touch and prevent it from looking like an automated post or spam. The user then posts this message to the social media site of their choice. It does not require them to leave the site on which they are shopping. Finally, the user claims their reward, which might be money off an order or credits for future business with that company. This example is also transferable to other content, such as online newspaper articles, white papers, music, videos or in-game items.
Businesses can use PayOrShare’s platform to monetize their digital content — whether that be an e-commerce store promoting coupons, a publisher promoting premium content or an entertainment company sharing videos. The platform builds on Sharewall’s format by acknowledging that some consumers may prefer to spend a little money rather than share content, and it has taken care not to isolate those users. By letting consumers choose how they want to pay on a case-by-case basis, businesses can benefit from increased traffic and an increase in monetary income. The system also generates useful data, through which businesses can analyse the strengths of their campaign.
PayOrShare can be integrated into an existing site in less than 30 minutes, and the team, based in Hamburg, can create custom solutions for different business models. Katharina Wolff, who has co-founded several start-ups in the media and Internet spheres, had the original idea for PayOrShare. She then teamed up with Fiona Brandes and Max Fielker to create the team that turned the idea into reality.
Several alternative payment methods already exist – Pay with a Tweet and the Hanse Ventures start-up are direct competitors – but PayOrShare stands out from its rivals in several ways. Firstly, it combines the payment and share functions in a simple form, which makes the customer experience much simpler and user-friendly. It also dispenses with the additional integration of ads and ensures that it is unobtrusively integrated into the look and feel of the client’s website.
Determining the value of digital content is one of the key challenges facing the industry. PayOrShare’s main focus lies in the long term on the findings for clients from their Business Intelligence scheme, which few if any of their competitors offer. PayOrSHare’s vision is to offer platforms in the long term with optimized real-time pricing that finds the optimal price point for digital content.
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Website: www.payorshare.de
Contact: info@payorshare.de
Innovation name: PayOrShare
Country: Germany
Industries: Entertainment & culture / Financial services & fin tech / Marketing & advertising