From: Mark <mark@lochard.com.au>
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 1995 09:31:53 +0800
To: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Subject: Re: Market Value of Web Pages
In-Reply-To: <acc79e46010210045c32@[205.199.118.202]>
Message-ID: <199511100143.AA22994@junkers.lochard.com.au>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


>>BTW - I don't think we should be talking about a penny/page cost because it
>>is way too high for the current market.  For example, my copy of Applied
>>Cryptography V2 cost about $.067/page AND came with the media to keep it
>>"forever".  My (used) copy of Snow Crash cost closer to a penny/page and
>>also came with the media.  I would think that somewhere between 1/100 to
>>1/10 of a penny/page is closer to the current market value of the page
>>content.

>I expect this to someday change, and to pay for some things at a fraction
>of a cent per hit, some other things for a few cents a hit, and maybe even
>some things at dollars per hit.

The maths of ecash and web pages gets very interesting very quickly. If you
charge per page of a web server, $0.01 a page and you happen to be doing this
on a million-hits-a-day web server then you machine is earning you $10,000 
ecash bucks a day. How much is it to buy hardware and a link and set up
a nice web site everyone wants to visit? If it was left running you'd collect
$3,650,000 ecash bucks anually. That is just for browsing. Sales on top of that
via ecash (very low overheads relative to physical means) would mean very
high profits. 1% of browsers spending US$50 is US$500,000 a day, or per year
it is US$182,500,000. Not bad for an outlay of a couple of fast SPARCs and
a quick net link and some staff to maintain it.

If you toss arguements like this at some of the sites that would be viable for
the hit numbers and then explain the only way that will occur is if the crypto
laws are repealed, you will create a lot more lobbiers annoying their reps
for the cause. ecash without good crypto is like the Federal Reserve
deliverying cash with open pickup trucks. Or doing credit card purchases on
postcards.

Cheers,
Mark
mark@lochard.com.au