Blindle, a groundbreaking new service that allows you to purchase even articles with rose sales of paid newspaper and magazine articles, has entered full swing and can be returned after reading

A billing platform that pays fees for one article, a startup aiming for journalism's iTunes Store "BlendleFinally entered the United States and released the beta version. Blendle, which has already been successful in Europe, arrives in the USA, so the opinion of pros and cons from each media flies.

Blendle
https://launch.blendle.com/

'Blendle Trending' in de App Store
https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/blendle-trending/id947936149

Blendle - Android application on Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blendle.app

Blendle is a Netherlands startup that started service in April 2014. A content service targeting newspaper articles and magazine articles published on the Internet, users can purchase and read from one article. Blendle has partnered with major Dutch newspapers and tabloid papers, fashion magazines, beauty magazines, etc. It sells from 10 cents (about 11 yen) to 80 cents (about 90 yen) per article, and about 7 The number of registered users exceeded 130,000 in the Netherlands only in the month.


Since then, he has invested $ 3.8 million (about 420 million) from Europe's most famous German media "Axel Springer" and the American "The New York Times" and entered Germany, and in 2016 the Netherlands and Germany Number of registered users exceeded 650,000 people. And, this time, I came to the United States to advance and released the beta version.

BlendleWe have tied up to make it a success in the USThe total of 20 newspapers and magazines including "The Wall Street Journal", "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", "The Economist", "The Financial Times", "Time", "Newsweek", "Bloomberg Businessweek" The beta version was launched on the limit of 10,000 people, and the newspaper article can be purchased for 19 to 39 cents per one (about 21 to 43 yen) and the magazine article for 9 to 49 cents (about 10 to 55 yen). Because it is charged, advertisement is not displayed. Moreover, if you are not satisfied with the content of the article you can also return it.

About Blendle's entry into the US, it is one of our partnersThe Wall Street Journal"With the advance of Blendle, publishers can change the mechanism by which readers access content, and in recent years Facebook, Apple, Snapchat maintained publisher content on their own platforms while advertising revenue with publishers We introduced a new way of sharing.As for such a big change, many media should have more or less opinion "Why do not you try it?"


Also, Scott McAllister, Senior Vice President of Time's Marketing Department, says "Blendle is an important service for the media to test and learn." Other media that partnered with Blendle sees Blendle as one of the marketing tools, thinks that Blendle has a good impression of reading articles and then subscribes with official service That's right.

However, some companies have raised questions about the development of Blendle. IT related mediaRe / code"Although it is good for Blendle to show new ways to publishers who are struggling to generate revenue," "micro transaction (small transaction) is a powerful It is a tool.While most users are playing with no charge, online games are earning money by charging a large number of users by a large amount.If they are big fans of The New York Times Even if there are wealthy readers, we should use the subscription service rather than paying for the article alone, "he said in a negative attitude.


The VergeHe points out that there is a problem with Blendle's return system. According to Blendle 's April 2015 data, although the return rate of all articles was 10%, the return rate was 50% at the maximum in gossip magazine articles. This may be because the content of the article itself did not meet the needs of the user, but possibly the possibility that the user just did not like the content of the article. It may happen that only certain media are refunded depending on the user's preference. In addition, The Verge is also concerned that adopting micro transaction will prevent users from reading articles that conflict with their own opinions, which makes it impossible to read two-way opinion.

Also,Rita McGrace of Columbia University Business School"If Blendle's microtransaction succeeds, it will generate a great deal of benefit to the publisher, although there may be negative consequences for readers and editors - the more you buy an article, the more readers From the data Blendle sometimes decides which articles are posted on the top of the page and which articles are posted on the bottom of the page.If editors and reporters feel that Blendle is profitable, There are possibilities that only articles that readers can easily purchase increase. "

Alexander Cropping, a co-founder of Blendle, launched the company to save newspapers and magazines with a drop in the number of users and advertising sales. Whether Blendle can contribute to the revenue of newspaper companies and magazines is still unknown, but if Asahi Shimbun's total advertisement sales in fiscal 2015 areIt falls to about 60 billion yen, which is less than one third of the peak periodIn Japan, newspaper companies and magazine companies are forced to fight hard, and if Blendle succeeds in the United States, it might be able to boost the publishing industry which has advanced to Japan and stagnates.


Blendle is planning to implement an option that enables monthly subscription of newspapers and magazines via the service. First of all, we are releasing the same function in Europe and it will be implemented in the near future in the United States.