Ulrike Lange interviewed Cynthia as part of our German language launch and was interested in four main topics (posted in German and English, the German version has also been posted at Carta). Here are excerpts of Cynthia’s responses:
- Why Kachingle favors giving contributors only a few choices (the paradox of choice):
“I looked for a system that the typical web user could get into and that implies that people really don’t have to do anything complicated. That’s why we make signing up as easy as possible and why you can only put up five dollars initially.“ - Can social micropayments become part of the newspaper industry business model?
“We hope we’re going to be a big part and we hope they won’t be dead by then. Some of these sites are very large and that of course is very attractive to us. The other great thing though is – it’s not just the money. Our system is social.“ - Why is publicly supporting your favorite web content part of your persona?
“Users are building a reputation, they are thinking about the way they define themselves. Is the fact that I read “Vorwärts” part of my persona? Is it important for who I am? Then I am going to turn the medallion on. When you see other people like you doing this that’s how you create a new social norm. The real difficulty for any system like this is creating a new social behavior. At the core people know this is the right thing to do, but they need to see others doing it to follow their example. That’s why we have all these social signals on our site.“ - Can social micropayments become a new social movement?
“It will take time and a number of key sites and maybe even celebrities to stand up and say, this is the way to go. But we’re in it for the long run. The early adopters are the ones that can make that case. It’s almost a new world attitude, like a new movement. It’s part of a democratic society to show which causes you support.“