Microsoft micropayments

Further to my recent musings on Microsoft Points (The Virtual Bank of Microsoft), Dow Jones reports on CNN that Microsoft boss Bill Gates has been looking into the possibility of developing an online payment system that will be cheaper than credit card transactions, making it possible for companies to charge small fees for Web-based content and services they now offer for free.

Gates apparently told a breakfast meeting at the World Economic Forum that he reviewed a plan to enter the online payments business during his "think week," a twice-yearly ritual where he usually isolates himself in a backwoods cabin to study new ideas.

Speaking at Davos, the Microsoft chairman described a micropayments system that would undercut credit card fees, making it profitable for an online newspaper to charge small fees for individual articles, for example.

"If you want to charge somebody $0.10 or $1 a month, that will just be a click...you won't have to manage some funny thing or pay some big credit charge, where half of it goes to the clearing," Gates is reported to have said.

Little more than a flag-lying exercise, perhaps, but it gives an insight into the current thinking at Redmond. Microsoft is clearly taking more than a passing interest in the online payments business.

Don't say we didn't warn you