Digital Publishing
1 min read

Dutch start-up The Playwall is giving readers the option to pay for online content by answering questions

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When a reader arrives at an article that is behind a paywall, they can either subscribe to the publication or try and access the story via a different source at no cost. But what if there was another option, that could benefit both the news organisation and the audience?

Dutch start-up The Playwall has been working on a way to allow people to pay for online content by providing data in the form of their opinion on different topics. The Playwall has been designed to be used in addition to an existing paywall, and works as an interactive quiz tool integrated with a publisher’s existing CMS.

For example if a reader comes to a story on a website where a paywall is in place, they will have the option to pay with money, or to ‘pay with their opinion’ by answering a set of five questions.

The publication decides what questions they want to ask based on what they would like to know about their readers, such as ‘what mode of transportation do you use to get to work?’ or ‘on a scale of one to 10, how would you rate the current government?’.

Publishers are not allowed to ask for details that would interfere with readers’ privacy, such as their address or phone number. The data readers provide is anonymous and securely stored by The Playwall without being passed on to advertisers or other third parties.

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