A new once-click payment system focused on social media is currently being tested in Belgium. Paycento enables internet users to pay to read a single article or download a piece of music without having to fill out forms or enter their credit card details on the website.

The company uses the fact that surfers are often logged in anyway with their profiles on social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. It means that visitors to a website can pay small amounts with a single click, much in the same way that they would click a “Share” or “Tweet” button to post an article on their social network profile.

Pieter Dubois, the company’s founder, explains:

The system works by a user having an online Paycento account, which they then link to their Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin accounts. The payment is really seamless… so it’s like a one click payment on the internet. We want to make it economical for the merchant, for the publisher to offer something at any price point, that means both at 10 cents, at 5 cents as at 1 euro. For the small payments service, online firm PayPal in Britain charges 5 pence plus 5%.

While the Paycento technology is not yet being used by online publishers, Dubois said a major European media company is testing a beta version, but declined to say which one because of a confidentiality agreement. He said that they would start doing commercial transactions towards the end of July.

[Source: News24]