日前，在线支付服务公司贝宝（PayPal）宣布向Facebook和其他在线媒体网站提供微交易服务，使用户无需退出所在网站，就能快速便捷地为低价商品，比如说一篇新闻或一件虚拟商品付费。

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针对每笔低于12美元的商品交易，贝宝将收取占商品价格5%的费用，并额外征收5美分的交易手续费。

据悉，这是贝宝为抓住低额商品交易发展机遇而推出的一项举措，旨在通过为用户创造快捷的支付方式，增加贝宝的额外营收。

事实上，微交易形式已经被许多游戏所采用，但目前为止，游戏玩家仍需成批购买Facebook Credits等虚拟货币才能实现这一操作。贝宝本次推出的新服务，将促使社交游戏对其繁琐的虚拟商品交易方式进行自我审视，看看在Zynga的《FarmVille》游戏中使用虚拟货币购买一只奶牛究竟有多方便。

在此之前，eBay也已将贝宝视为其主要营收来源，地位甚至超过了eBay自身的在线拍卖服务。在上个季度，eBay的拍卖营收同比去年增长率首次低于10%，而贝宝营收却仍然稳步增长。

事实上，这并不是贝宝首次出击微交易市场，该公司表示过去六年中贝宝一直在尝试挖掘这一市场潜力。

2009年，贝宝从720亿美元的在线支付交易额中，总共创收20亿美元，今年以来已创收13亿美元，并预计年底时将达30亿美元。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译）

PayPal to launch micropayment option for Facebook and other sites

Online payment company PayPal announced today that it is introducing support for micro transactions on Facebook and several other online media websites.

The new payment system allows users to quickly pay for low-cost items like a story on a website or a virtual good without ever actually leaving the site. PayPal will charge 5 percent of the cost of the good plus an additional five cents as a transaction fee for any purchase under $12.

The idea is to capitalize on impulse buys of low-priced products. By giving consumers a quick way to execute a low-cost purchase, PayPal is hoping to generate additional revenue.

Micropayments have also become the de facto payment method for many games, but until now users had to buy virtual currencies, such as Facebook Credits, in bulk. PayPal’s new offering is described as “dropping a quarter in to play a video game,” and could lead to an overhaul of how some virtual goods — say, a cow in Zynga’s Farmville — are purchased on a case-by-case basis.

The announcement comes as eBay continues to focus more on PayPal rather than on its online auctions as the primary revenue stream for the company. Just last quarter, eBay’s auction revenues stopped growing more than 10 percent year-over-year for the first time since late 2009, while PayPal continued to grow at a steady rate.

But this isn’t the first time PayPal has made some kind of promise to jump on board with micropayments. In fact, the company has said it would explore this opportunity for the past six years.

In 2009, PayPal brought in $2 billion of $72 billion in online payments. PayPal has brought in around $1.3 billion in 2010 so far and is on track to generate $3 billion this year. （source:venturebeat）