PayPeanuts
PayPeanuts competed in the ‘Micropayments to the rescue’ battle of our Startups for News competition. PayPeanuts allows Internet users to pay for content using their loyalty points, helping publishers increase revenues.
What did you do prior to launching PayPeanuts?
Jussi Savolainen has over 10 years of experience developing software and managing international teams. He brings a passion for media based on his MA in digital media studies, as well as a global mindset. He has worked at Microsoft and the UN.
Jens Schindler has over 15 years of experience in media and management. He has been an entrepreneur as a publisher, journalist, and events organiser for over 10 years in his own cash flow funded business in Cambridge, UK. Running a small business, he was ultimately in charge of all business areas. He received an entrepreneur scholarship from Der Tagesspiegel publisher to pursue his MBA studies, where he won the faculty award. His master’s thesis research is on monetisation of content online.
What problem are you trying to address for newsrooms?
We are addressing the online revenue challenge by providing monetisation of content solutions for the 98% of occasional users, who are willing to contribute, but are not necessarily willing to subscribe.
How are you attempting to solve the problems described above?
We are creating incremental revenue for publishers. PayPeanuts connects two ecosystems:
- premium content publishers that are constantly in search of new funding streams;
- and the loyalty industry, (the points from your supermarket, the miles from your airline) that is constantly creating a surplus of unused funds, creating unintended consequences such as low engagement or customer dissatisfaction.
Users can connect their loyalty cards to our system. Once connected, they are able to access a whole range of high quality content by paying with their points.
They are far more likely to transact as they are not required to spend any new money. Instead, they can simply offset an existing pre-paid value, that may otherwise go unused.
What sets you apart from your competitors? List three elements.
1. PayPeanuts provides the user with the funds it asks them to spend and thereby removes any friction to paying for content.
2. Conventional paywalls cut off user access to content as a protective measure. At the same time, they inadvertently cut off the user’s ability to evaluate what they are supposed to buy. This is a high risk for many users, especially new or occasional ones. Only a small fraction of users, who are already convinced by your brand and offering, are willing to commit in this situation.
3. A content pricing and demand & supply matching mechanism is at work despite neither the publisher, nor the user side being required to know, set, or agree on these prices. This is removing one of the biggest obstacles of monetisation of content.
What is your business model?
We charge a percentage-based commission fee on the funds we pass on to publishers.
What are your next steps?
Our next steps for 2018 are:
1. The development of a beta product and implementation of user feedback from earlier tests (Q1).
2. Testing our beta service (Q2/Q3) with our corporate publishing and loyalty partners.
3. Winning new media and other partners throughout the year.
