Product details

On-line trading continued to prosper throughout the 1990s, the credit card based electronic payment system being the preferred mode of effecting payment. However, this payment system was not suitable for transactions valued at only a few cents or a few dollars. Minimising transaction fees or developing new systems to settle micro-payments were two options that needed considering. GDE's began developing a micro-payment system in early 1999, pay-EZ, to settle small transaction amounts. Several competitive systems, Acosis and Millicent had already penetrated the market. Management was under time pressure to make pay-EZ marketable and overcome its technical and operational issues. Pay-EZ's viability had to be demonstrated at the general board meeting on 18 October 1999, two months before its official launch.