Loosely Coupled discusses whether Amazon will be able to successfully charge for web services as they announce the launch of a for-pay web services platform. Will it be possible to extend the micro-payments model for content to services?
No one has yet established a successful model of charging for on-demand services. Amazon aims to change all that, it seems, with the launch next year of Alexa Web Information Service (AWIS), which it announced in beta this week: “AWIS will be offered at no charge during the beta phase. Prices for the service will be announced when AWIS is officially launched,” says the Amazon.com press release. [Amazon to charge for services – Loosely Coupled weblog, Oct 6th 2004 12:10pm]