FairPay works through a very simple balancing dynamic:

1. Selectively offer to let the buyer unilaterally set any value-based price the buyer considers fair -- after the sale, when the real value is known.

2. Track that buyer value-based price and determine whether the seller agrees that is fair, and use that information to let the seller decide whether to make further offers of that kind to that buyer in the future.  (Unfair buyers are downgraded to lesser offers or fixed-price.)

3. Continue for future transactions, to build a relationship based on fair value exchange, that adapts and evolves over time.

This gives buyers a strong incentive to price fairly -- and enables sellers to limit their future exposure to those who do not.

...more on How FairPay works

Customers  -- Pay only what seems fair to you (based on your "Value2Me"):

• Pay what you want for products or services -- after you try them

• Make every purchase on a trial basis--so you can always be sure to get your own fair value for your money

• Agree to set your price fairly--in your judgment--and explain why you think it is fair

• Do that as long as you can convince the seller that you are being fair

Businesses  -- Get the most revenue from the most customers by continuously learning what each one values:

• Engage in real dialog with each of your customers on the personalized "Value2Me" they get from your products or services

• Make a trial offer to every potential customer who sees potential value and is fair-minded

• Let your customers self-select into segments (based on usage, value perception, willingness and ability to pay, ...)

• Limit your risk from those trial offers by tracking the results (fairness) for each buyer, and limiting future offers if you judge that buyer to not pay fairly

• Continue to make every offer a trial...
  ...as long as each buyer continues paying fairly--in your judgment

Delight your customers: give them what they really want, at a price they really think fair.  Shift the conversation from price to value.

The strategic value of FairPay to business

FairPay is a pricing discovery and management process that provides
•  More effective pricing -- based on "Value2Me" (as perceived by each customer)
•  Greater customer reach, delight, and loyalty
•  The ultimate in market research:
         transaction-level value perception and behavior detail
              ...for every transaction by every buyer
•  Fine-grained buyer self-segmentation
to create a new framework for win-win value exchange.

Adding to the business opportunity, FairPay tracking processes build a Pricing Fairness Reputation Database on customers (much like a credit rating database) that becomes a valuable asset. When applied in a cross-vendor platform service, this database offers an added first-mover advantage.

The invisible hand meets the cloud
...A new economics for the Internet age

The Internet “cloud,” and the networked economy it enables, has opened the door to a historic leap in human culture, but that leap is hobbled by the need for a new economics--one that can deal with the abundance of value that this new economy creates.

• The very structure of our transactions, and the “invisible hand” that guides them, is unsuited to an economy in which digital goods can be replicated and delivered in unlimited quantity at negligible cost. With unlimited supply, prices are driven to zero, and our established pricing mechanisms no longer work.

• We need to turn the invisible hand of economics to guide an efficient and fair exchange of value between producers and consumers of digital culture.

• We must exploit new information on actual value to each buyer, as it emerges out of each transaction and use, in the context of ongoing buyer-seller relationships.

Radical, but practical and prudent...

FairPay is radical in offering a degree of buyer participation in price setting that may seem foolhardy, but is balanced by mechanisms for sellers to manage risk and predictability. 

FairPay is also prudent in being:

• Usable in harmony with conventional pricing schemes (pay walls, freemium, etc.), as a complement, not a complete replacement.

• Deployable in limited/niche segments and phases, to gain value and experience, without any risk to established revenue streams.