Charging for content just got easier in the UK, mobile payment service GoPayforit launches

GoPayforit[UK] A new mobile payment service in the UK aims to lower the barriers to paying for content online, and in doing so, help bloggers, musicians, and other content owners generate much needed revenue.

GoPayforit lets website visitors make payments ranging from 25p to £10 via their mobile phone, charged to either their monthly phone bill or debited from their Pay As You Go (pre-pay) credit. The service is based on the industry-wide mobile payment system Payforit, which is backed by all of the major UK mobile networks. Talking of those (greedy) networks, the amount that content owners will receive after GoPayForit takes their cut can vary greatly as each operator charges a different amount per transaction.

Payment examples provided by the company include purchasing tracks or videos from a band’s website, subscribing to a blog or donating to a charity.

GoPayforit’s main pitch, however, aside from claiming to be more profitable for content owners than competing online payment offerings, is that the service is more convenient for consumers. Not only does it enable those without a credit card to pay for content online (via a verification code sent by SMS), each transaction involves far fewer ‘clicks’ than credit card-based payment methods, the company claims. 106 clicks less than shopping at supermarket Sainsbury’s online, 104 less than retailer Play.com or 64 less than sites that support PayPal, apparently. The latter claim is based on PayPal’s use of “address capture software” not when costumers pay by logging in with their existing PayPal credentials, a comparison that obviously favours GoPayforit.

While number of mouse clicks as a metric used to talk down competitors isn’t one that we see too often, admittedly, as Amazon’s one-click payment system shows, the easier you make it for consumers to part with their cash, the more likely they’ll spend on impulse. That’s where the potential of GoPayforit and similar mobile payment services isn’t hard to see. On that note, content owners can add GoPayforit functionality to their site by inserting a few lines of code.

The service is backed by Interlinked Media Ltd, a UK-registered company with offices in Newcastle, England and Richardson, Texas.