Phone Billing : Pay Per Minute vs. ‘Buy now, enjoy later’

As we point out on our website, most of the world does not have a credit card. However, practically everyone has access to a phone or cell. With this is mind, it is important that you include phone billing as part of your processing portfolio.

There are two primary methods to employ phone billing, which this article aims to address : Pay-per-minute, whereby - as the name suggests - surfers pay you on a per minute basis, and ‘one shot’ billing, whereby the password ordering process generates the revenue : how much access time you then grant for said revenue is up to you.

Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages which we will now explore in greater detail.

Per-per-minute billing primarily only works in developed markets whereby the end-user has access to a broadband internet connection and has thus has access to a phone line and the internet simultaneously.

Surfers are invited to call a premium rate number which then grants them instant access to the desired member’s area for the time that the call connection is maintained : the moment they hang up, they lose connection to the desired web-content.

The hold-time and thus revenue generated with such billing is totally content driven : the more compelling the content, the longer the surfer is likely to hang around. Such a payment method makes for a perfect fit with VOD and livecam sites.

As anyone who has been inside a member area that floats their boat knows, time can really fly by - and this can result in connection times of half an hour or possibly much more.

As for the ‘buy now, enjoy later’ method on which PbP ‘classic’ is based, this works with ALL types of internet connection, including with dial-up which remains the primary method of connecting to the internet in the developing world. However, they first need to disconnect from the internet in order to free-up their phone line in order to make said call.

The ordering process to generate the password needed in order to gain access to the premium content is what generates the revenue – once ‘inside’, the billing clock is no longer ticking.

Thus surfers from developing countries simply note the password/number generated, and then reconnect to the internet and enter it accordingly. This method is also popular with surfers from developed countries, with some ordering their password from one computer, and then enjoying the content at a later stage from another.

This method of phone billing also makes for a great fit with dating sites : surfers need not worry about running up high phone bills since the hold time is fixed : however, once they have created their profile and enjoyed a day’s membership, they need to buy another password at a later stage in order to check their messages/winks etc. – in short, a fantastic recurring business model when used in association with compelling content.

When deciding which method of phone billing to deploy, operators of the classic pick and vid paysites should offer both. In an era of increasing market saturation and the abundance of free tube porn, the more options that you give surfers to pay you for the convenience of not having to search for their desired content elsewhere, the better.