Overview

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Intro    Terminology    History    Transparency    Biz Model    Target Market    Futures    Acknowledgment

Introduction

Micropayment monetization for online content and services, with zero "mental transaction costs" is possible! At Kachingle we have pioneered a new approach that will save traditional journalism from a premature death and enable millions of news and content sites, blogs, and online services to make real money directly from their avid users.

"Anything that can be digitized will be napsterized"

Kachingle presentation at EuroFinance 2009

View more presentations from Kachingle.

At Kachingle we are passionate about the value of online content and services, whether they be created by individuals, groups, or organizations. We also believe that because it takes real time, money, and insight to create and maintain valued online content and services, a business model for sustaining them must be available. Advertising, freemium, product sales, and subscription business models are partial answers, but Kachingle is a more direct mechanism that can complement these forms of revenue generation.

See these other sections for more about our Mission and our Philosophy and Guiding Principles.

Terminology

There are two sides to every transaction:

  •    "Kachinglers" - Individuals who are providing the voluntary contributions
  •    "Site Owners" - The creators of the online content or services that receive the Kachingler contributions

Note that while Kachingle's initial market focus for the receiver of contributions is news sites but ANY online content or service is invited to be part of the Kachingle-enabled network and the system works exactly the same whether it is a blog, a website, an online newspaper, an online service, a discussion board, etc.

Also note that a Kachingler can also be a Site Owner if s/he places the Kachingle Medallion on his/her site, and any Site Owner can also be a Kachingler (the latter is highly encouraged...if a Site Owner believes their site is worth something, aren't those of others also worth something?)

History

The concept of Kachingle was first envisioned by Cynthia Typaldos (the founder of Kachingle) in May 2004. The timing then was not right for Kachingle, because everyone still believed that advertising would pay for online content and services. While ad-supported business models are wonderful conceptually, they have not proven to be by themselves sustainable business models by themselves.

At Kachingle we believe the timing is now right for our voluntary crowdfunding system, as five years later, the real costs and value of content and services are becoming clearer. And we consumers have also become creators, thru our blogs, photos, videos, and so on, -- we now know that we gotta pay to play. So many consumers (but not all, and we don't need them all) are willing to pay, but only if it is fair, easy, painless, and there is something in it for us. And that's the Kachingle service.

Transparency

Kachingle is all about transparency in a myriad of ways:

•   Kachinglers are making voluntary contributions so they have the right to see the all of contributions made to a Site
•   Kachinglers have the right to display (or not) their contributions are part of their online persona (based on their privacy settings)
•   Because all contributions made by a Kachingler are displayed (to them), each Kachingler can easily verify that their contribution was delivered to the websites and blogs they love
•   Kachingle itself is transparent in its business models and transaction fees

Business Model

There are two business models -- one for the Site Owners and one for Kachingle.

• Site Owners: Invite their avid readers/users to become Kachinglers, and "turn kachingling" for their Site. Based on each Kachingler's usage patterns, each Site receives a "fair" proportion of their Kachinglers' monthly contributions. 85% of the contribution is distributed to the Sites.
• Kachingle: Retains 15% to cover the cost of processing payments (we pay all related PayPal fees) and our commission.

Target Market

Kachingle's initial target market is blogs and news and politics sites because these wonderful sources of information are suffering the most from the lack of a viable business model and there is much angst in the blogosphere and journalism sectors regarding this. However, Kachingle is a generalized crowdfunding service and will work with many other forms of valued online content and services including music, software, online services, video, podcasts, etc. Kachingle welcomes content and service creators in all market spaces to experiment with Kachingle now and to contact us if they have any questions, suggestions or insights.

Futures

There are many conceivable future features and markets for Kachingle. In particular we will be adding a Facebook Application and lots more integration with social media. And we expect our Kachinglers and Site Owners to help guide us as to where we go next.

Acknowledgment

Cynthia would like to acknowledge her longtime friend, Laura Haydée Gutierrez [1951-2005] of Buenos Aires, Argentina, for providing her with the initial inspiration for Kachingle.


Last update 11/10/09 11:49pm PST by ct