The Internet was supposed to bring about micropayments, online money which could easily be sent from anyone to anyone, at transaction costs so low that sending as little as a cent would be feasible. This has not really happened so far, the closest is probably PayPal, but that is geared more towards bigger payments. This week, I came across two interesting services, each addressing a particular niche in this market.

The first one is MYC4.com, a Danish company that provides a marketplace for microcredit loans to African countries. The loans are in the range between a few hundred and a few thousand euros, and go to individuals (mostly shop owners) in Africa. The loans are collectively financed by MYC4 members, who in an auction bid for part of the loan, with shares starting from five euro at an interest rate of their choosing. The bids with the lowest interest rates and enough combined amount are used to pay out the loan.

The second one was just endorsed by my favourite newspaper to help pay the bill for their online edition: Flattr (the Web 2.0 compatible name is a combination of to flatter and flat-rate) is a Swedish micro-donation service, currently still in an invite-only beta. It works just like digg, in that you put a button on your content, for people who like it to click on. The difference is that when they click, they send you some money. Flattr members allocate a monthly budget they want to spend (which can be as low as two euro), and at the end of the month this budget is divided equally among their clicks.