Bitcoin Payments Account for 11 Percent of Chicago Sun-Times Subscription Purchases This Week
The Chicago Sun-Times made a splash last week when they became the first major newspaper in the United States to accept bitcoin for subscription purchases. The move followed a purely voluntary paywall trial in February which allowed website visitors to donate bitcoin to the Taproot Foundation. In total, there were about 715 bitcoin donors, 63 percent of whom donated around 25 cents. With 78,000 visitors that day, there was about a one percent conversion rate, better than any credit card conversion rate the Sun-Times has ever gotten. And with last week's news, newsBTC has been provided with....
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The Chicago Sun-Times became the first major newspaper to accept bitcoin in early April and it appears this news has already translated into sales for the US publication. The paper told newsBTC that around 11.3% of new orders over the past week were paid for in bitcoin. The Chicago Sun-Times claims it usually receives a few dozen subscription orders per week. This week the paper got 62 orders: 23 were placed online using a credit card, 32 came from the paper's call centre, while seven were paid for in bitcoin. Surprised by demand. Keep in mind that these are figures for the first week of....
Readers who visit the Chicago Sun-Times today will notice something they aren't likely to have seen before: a bitcoin paywall separating them from their content. The Chicago Sun-Times is the ninth-largest newspaper in the United States, and the first major US publication to trial a bitcoin paywall. Instead of paying for a subscription, as patrons of the The Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times do, Chicago Sun-Times readers who visit the site on 1st February will be asked to donate bitcoin payments to the Taproot Foundation, or tweet about the nonprofit, in order to read articles. The....
The Chicago Sun-Times is set to launch the first bitcoin-enabled QR code advertisements this week. The ads, which will first appear on 2nd July, allow readers to make direct purchases of tickets for an upcoming concert featuring famed hip-hop power couple Beyoncé and Jay-Z. The Chicago-based newspaper teamed up with Coinbase and Blockchain on the digital currency initiative. Ticket broker Golden Coast Tickets will be handling the actual purchases. The Sun-Times first began integrating bitcoin in February. At the time, it was the first major US newspaper to begin accepting bitcoin payments.....
With the value of mobile payment transactions expected to reach $721 billion (US) globally by 2017, the slice of the pie for Bitcoin's taking is growing. This year alone, the value of mobile payment transactions is forecast to total $235.4 billion, a 44 percent jump from 2012's $163.1 billion, according to the latest figures from Gartner. The leading uses for mobile payments are money transfers -- which are said to account for 71 percent of 2013's total transaction value -- and merchandise purchases at 21 percent. Though bill payments are expected to grow by 44 percent this year, their....
A few days ago, on the first of February, the 9th largest newspaper in the United States, The Chicago Sun-Times launched a 'paywall' of sorts, allowing users to make donations to the Taproot Foundation via bitcoin, or by 'donating' a tweet. Some metrics are now available from BitWall, the west coast company that makes bitcoin paywalls that allow online media properties to monetize their content. Here's what the BitWall interface looked like on February 1st on the Sun-Times homepage: Donation Data. For starters, there were 713 bitcoin donors that day. 63 percent of donors gave about 25....