What Is A Micro Payment Anyway?
The term micro payment is often used when describing mobile payment, contactless and internet payment applications. However I have discovered that there is no generally accepted definition of this term.
Below is a table comparing the classification of payments by transaction value from two different sources (Definition 1 and Definition 2 - note that I used a value of 1 USD = 0.75 EURO and rounded somewhat where necessary):
| Definition 1 | Definition 2 | |||
| From | To | From | To | |
| Nano | $0.00 | $0.15 | ||
| Micro | $0.00 | $2.00 | $0.15 | $7.00 |
| Mini | $2.00 | $20.00 | ||
| Medium | $7.00 | $1,500.00 | ||
| Macro | $20.00 | ∞ | $1,500.00 | ∞ |
As you can see, not only do the definitions vary, but the actual number of payment value classes varies! This was just a random sample of two classification schemes - I basically took two from a Google search. I would be curious to see if there has been an attempt to standardize these definitions, although I suspect they evolve with time and application.
