[ih] History of the Economics of the Internet?

[Greg Skinner]

On Jul 28, 2026, at 1:39 PM, Jack Haverty via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> For example, I recall hearing presentations at some conference in the early 1990s about "micropayments" and the technical ideas and progress which were currently being tested.  Yet today, we are all barraged with content that we can't access unless we subscribe to something.  Everyone wants a subscription and the continuous revenue stream it would bring - similar to the "all you can eat" philosophy sometimes used by restaurants if only for special events. Micropayments were touted as alternatives to subscriptions, so an Internet user could pay for one "meal" (article) at a time instead of committing to weeks or months of all-you-can-eat content.
> 
> What happened to micropayments?
> 
> Any economists out there?  Perhaps someone can relate the history and timeline of how the Internet Economy has evolved over the decades?   Is The Internet dying?
> 
> /Jack Haverty
> 

Mark Manasse of Severe Tire Damage <https://www.std.org/index.html> (the band mentioned here earlier that was the first to livestream over the MBone) invented Millicent <https://web.archive.org/web/19970601153143/http://www.millicent.digital.com/>, one micropayment system, while he was at DEC (Digital) SRC.  There are many other sources of information about him and Millicent online.

--gregbo