Spare Change Payments
{{notability|Companies|date=October 2014}}
Spare Change Payments was an online payments company specifically designed for conducting micro-payments inside games and applications on Facebook and other social networking sites. It is now owned by Visa, Inc.
The company was the first{{cite web|url = http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/facebook-micropayments-arrive/304137|title = Facebook Micropayments Arrive|publisher = Allfacebook.com|date = 2008-01-16|accessdate = 2011-07-17}} to offer a micro-payment solution for social networking application developers shortly after Facebook opened its Facebook Platform. It operated a virtual goods monetization platform that allowed users to deposit funds into a central Spare Change account that they could then spend across multiple games and applications on the social network, and was a precursor to Facebook Credits.{{cite web|url=http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/05/12/confirmed-facebook-to-launch-virtual-currency-test-in-platform-applications-soon/ |title=Confirmed: Facebook to Launch Virtual Currency Test in Platform Applications Soon |publisher=Insidefacebook.com |date= |accessdate=2011-07-17}}
The company pioneered and evangelized the move for app developers away from advertising based monetization models toward micro-payment models and the sale of virtual goods.{{cite web|last=Isaachson |first=Walter |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1877402-4,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716071614/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1877402-4,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 16, 2011 |title=How to Save Your Newspaper |publisher=TIME |date=2009-02-05 |accessdate=2011-07-17}}{{cite web|url=http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=93850926358 |title=Niet compatibele browser |publisher=Facebook |date= |accessdate=2011-07-17}} In March 2009, Spare Change was reported to be processing $30M of payments across 700 applications on Facebook, MySpace and Bebo and to have over 1M wallet accounts.{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2009/03/25/spare-change-on-track-to-process-30-million-in-micropayments-on-social-apps-this-year/ |title=Spare Change On Track To Process $30 Million In Micropayments On Social Apps This Year |publisher=TechCrunch |date=2009-03-25 |accessdate=2011-07-17}}
Company history
Spare Change Payments was founded in 2007 by Mark Rose, Simon Ru and Lex Bayer, with offices in Cupertino, California.{{cn|date=July 2021}} In April 2009, the company was acquired by [http://www.playspan.com/ PlaySpan],{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2009/04/21/micro-consolidation-playspan-buys-spare-change/ |title=Micro-Consolidation: PlaySpan Buys Spare Change |publisher=TechCrunch |date=2009-04-21 |accessdate=2011-07-17}} which was subsequently acquired for $190M by [http://usa.visa.com/index.html Visa Inc],{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2011/02/09/visa-buys-virtual-goods-monetization-platform-playspan-for-190-million-in-cash/ |title=Visa Buys Virtual Goods Monetization Platform PlaySpan For $190 Million In Cash |publisher=TechCrunch |date=2011-02-09 |accessdate=2011-07-17}} in February 2011. The staff and technology at Spare Change and PlaySpan was ultimately used to build out [https://usa.visa.com/pay-with-visa/visa-checkout.html Visa Checkout]. Visa designed Visa Checkout to be quick and tailor for mobile shopping experience. Like an online wallet, it only requires a username and password to check out once the user is registered. In September 2017, the technology patent "Method and system for authenticating online transactions"{{cite web|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US9754254B2/en |title=US9754254B2 - Method and system for authenticating online transactions |publisher=Google Patents|date=2019-09-05}} originally filed by the Spare Change founders was granted by US Patent Office.