If you don’t know the details about this case, you can read up on it here – but it’s not the details of the case that are important, the fact that the dispute has been settled, is.
The reason why this is important to many of you (and me), is that processor stability is the true Achilles’ Heel of the online adult entertainment industry; where most operators rely on Internet Service Payment Providers (IPSPs) such as CCBill and Epoch to handle transaction processing and membership services for their websites. As such, anything that affects the processors affects us all, either directly or indirectly.
Consider that while there are a number of competitors in this arena, most are quite small, possessing limited market share and typically offering “alternative” payment systems. There are at this time, however, only two major players – you guessed it, CCBill and Epoch.
In most businesses, market dominance and the elimination of competitors is a major goal, but in this case, whether they stated it publicly or not, I believe that the principals of these two companies would agree that we’re all better off without having a monopoly in website billing.
As such, the strength of these two players is everyone’s concern; and just as any “friction” between them, or uncertainty surrounding them, can justifiably unsettle webmaster’s nerves, signs of “co-operation” and stability should be cause for rejoicing.
Regardless of the merits of the settled case and the issues leading up to it and its conclusion, I’m glad to see that this chapter has come to a close. Hopefully now, we’ll all be able to sleep just a bit better. Thanks guys!
