Berkeley, CA-based rewards marketer Cybergold Inc. launched its new
micropayment “Earn & Spend Community,” calling it “the first and only place on
the Web where consumers can earn cash online (from advertisers) and use it to
purchase digital content.”
Consumers will be able to purchase things such as MP3 music files, articles,
maps, software and other works, some priced as low as one cent, in the
company’s MultiMediaMart.
“The Earn & Spend Community fulfills Cybergold’s vision: to create an
advertiser-supported economy where individuals can buy and sell creative works
without relying on traditional publishing models,” said Nat Goldhaber,
Cybergold CEO. “Traditional publishers of books, music, research, software,
media and other content have a capital-intensive model. They can bring to
market only those select few authors and artists likely to be commercially
successful. We’ve changed all that.”
Cybergold said its Earn & Spend Community brings together advertisers who
recognize the value of incentives-based marketing, a community of
demographically desirable consumers, and authors and distributors of creative
works. Cybergold said it has developed a comprehensive micropayments system
and Internet portal capabilities to support its model.
“Getting digital content to work online was a chicken-and-egg problem,” said
Goldhaber. “Until now, authors had no efficient way to be paid for their works
on the Internet. With no demand, there was no reason to create an efficient
payment system. Cybergold has solved this problem: our Earn & Spend Community
fully leverages the Internet, our nearly 1.5 million ‘spend-ready’ members,
our patented business model and a substantial engineering investment.”
Cybergold members visiting the community also have access to other Internet
features, including search, chat, e-mail, games and stocks, weather and
horoscopes.
Among the first “Spend” merchants are 2nd Story Software, iDeal, RI Soft
Systems, Animation Factory, Epitonic, Kagi, Nolo Press, Register Now! (a
service of Universal Commerce), Mondo 2000 Music, DeMorgan Industries,
CDWorld/Artistic Visions, Photos To Go, BuyCollegeStuff, Aladdin Systems,
QSpace and Xing Technologies.
Cybergold’s Mu
ltiMediaMart
is powered by WebCatalog, Pacific Coast Software’s e-commerce solution.
Other merchants, including MP3 music distributor GoodNoise, will be added to
the community shortly. In addition, Cybergold and @Work (a division of @Home
Network, Inc.) are working together to explore the use of Cybergold technology
for providing micropayment services to @Work customers in the future.
“Later this year, individual consumers will be able to sell their creative
works in the MultiMediaMart–stock tips, photographs, poems, stories,
articles, recipes, songs–anything that can be sent digitally,” said
Goldhaber.
To make a purchase, members can use money earned through Cybergold incentives
or “load” their Cybergold accounts with funds from a Visa card.
