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Technology Stocks : CheckFree Holdings Corp. (CKFR), the next Dell, Intel? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brooks Jackson who wrote (9305)	8/24/1999 12:58:00 PM
From: BitWizrd	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 20297

Question: how much of a hassle will it be for consumers to activate this "pay" feature, I wonder? Can they apply on-line in 5 minutes? Or will they have to send or fax some paper? The easier to activate, the better. Reg E requirements will force service providers to collect a paper signature from the owner of the DDA (or checking) account before the third party can draft on it on the owner's behalf. However, a bill to grant cryptographic (or digital) signatures the same legal stature as regular signatures is close to passing. Faxes are ok. Question: Will Yahoo! CHARGE consumers for this service, or will it be free? I assume it will be free to consumers, given the amount of money that billers will save if this catches on big. It will be free to view the bill, but it will cost to pay it. I'd like to see an arrangement where Yahoo! actually pays CheckFree for the payment as part of a roll-out promotion. Save 33 cents with every bill you pay! Then maybe after ninety days, the consumer starts to see a fee debited from the same account for bill payments for service fees. Question: Will Yahoo! do anything to speed up wide adoption of e-billing by midsize and small companies? Its going pretty slowly now, but Yahoo! COULD be a catalyst if they offered an e-bill "kit" to any company that sends a monthly bill. Aw, man, that would be great. Don't tease me. And finally -- how much longer can Yahoo! wait before people start talking about this product the way we talk about Transpoint's vaporware? (Ugly thought, I know.) Shhhh! Bit.

To: Brooks Jackson who wrote (9305)	8/24/1999 3:40:00 PM
From: Erik T	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20297

I assume it will be free to consumers, given the amount of money that billers will save if this catches on big. In this whole EBPP thing, it is the biller who really wins big if this catches on. They are the ones that are guaranteed savings on producing and mailing paper bills. The consumer will not benefit financially very much, and I suspect Yahoo! will probably charge about $5 per month for the service, just like most other providers; certainly not for free. I think it would be hard for any portal to realize value of $4-5 per month (which we need CKFR to receive) per user of the service just by marketing other services or extra ad revenue. What continues to amaze me is how slow billers have been to get up-and-running when they will be the big winners. I don't see Yahoo! making too big a deal about promoting EBPP. I suspect it will appear in a banner ad like their instant messaging product is now. However, that banner ad is prominently displayed for the 40 million or so registered Yahoo! users. I think Pete Kight's guess of 1 million of those using the service over the next nine months is reasonable. We'll see. Erik (IMO)