Internet business models

A big problem for commercial Web sites are the business models forced upon them by the technical architecture of the Internet. Bandwidth and server resources have to be bought, regardless of use. Current e-commerce solutions, which work well for relatively large, discrete purposes such as books, CDs and cars, don't work well for smaller, more frequent transactions. Use of a credit card based e-commerce system isn't workable for a thousand one cent transactions, so sites must either implement accounting systems to batch payments, or give away potentially valuable ``product'' and balance their books with advertising revenue.