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The Digital Executive
Rethinking Digital Monetization: Cosmin Ene on Microtransactions, and the Future of AI Agents | Ep 1108
00:13:32
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign welcome to Coruscant Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast. Welcome to the Digital Executive. Today's guest is Kosman End Cosman N is a digital monetization strategist and entrepreneur focused on building future ready models for digital content, AI services and SaaS access. He's a frequent voice on the intersection of user choice, platform sustainability and transactional media, advocating for systems that align value with usage, not friction. As the creator of one of the first microtransaction based platforms to scale across digital ecosystems, Kosman's work brings a systems level view to product design and revenue architecture shaped by global experience across media, tech and digital infrastructure. His approach challenges legacy business models and helps platforms prepare for a more dynamic user aligned economy. Well, good afternoon Cosman. Welcome to the show.
- [01:00]
B
Thank you Brian. Thanks for having me.
- [01:03]
A
Absolutely. My friend and I appreciate you making the time hailing out of Berserk Switzerland today. I appreciate that I'm in Kansas City, so a lot of times traversing time zones can be challenging, but I always love to highlight where the guest is coming from. So thank you again Kosman. If we could I'm going to jump into your first question. You've been a pioneer in microtransaction based platforms. We what initially inspired you to challenge the dominance of subscription based models and how has that evolved into SuperTAV?
- [01:32]
B
Well, I've spent my whole career at the crossroads of media and monetization and honestly a lot of it comes down to dealing with frustration and innovating out of frustration. Early on I saw how hard it was for people to subscribe. We wanted to present ever did and that's no matter how valuable the content was. And that was an aha moment for me where I realized that publishers and content providers and now AI companies are leaving a huge amount of money on the table. And at the same time users are frustrated because they are not getting what they want. I mean just think about yourself. Maybe you just want to use an AI to edit a few images or read a single article on some publications website, watch a niche video. What happens, you always get hit with a paywall and they always want you to subscribe. So the system there I realized was broken for both sides. And that's when when the sushi story came in, I was sitting in one of those rotary sushi places stacking up my plates as I went and I you know, that's where you pay at the end. And I thought that's exactly how it should work online. You get value first, you choose what you want and Only then you pay. And that was the spark for Supatab. So in a way, my past experience gave me both the frustration and the inspiration. Because Zupatab is about fixing that broken system by giving people, if you like, the freedom to consume first and what they want, and giving publishers and content providers a way to finally make money from the 98% of users who never subscribe. And actually we made that cost means law. 98% of people don't subscribe. So how do we help them? How do we monetize them? At the same time, how do we make it easy for them to consume what they want?
- [03:21]
A
Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Love the background, love the story you innovated out of frustration. How do you fix the subscription model? Right. And the story I like was your sushi story of how do you get what you want, get that value and then pay at the end. And I'm going to highlight the thing that I thought was important. You know, 98% of people don't subscribe, but as they say, it's now Kosman's law. So I appreciate that, really do. Kosman. SuperTab recently partnered with Google to power the offer wall. Can you share the significance of this collaboration and what it means for publishers navigating AI driven disruptions in search traffic?
- [03:57]
B
Our partnership with Google is a big milestone for us and it is a new way for content providers, creators and publishers to make more money. We are intuit directly integrated into Google Ad Manager's offer wall, which is the name of the product, which means our customers can run Super Tab just like an ad unit, except instead of showing an ad, it unlocks premium content. It gives you the choice between watching an ad to unlock content or pay a small fee to unlock content. And that's from Super Tab. So the beauty of that is how easy it is because there are no new integrations, no code changes. It's literally plug and play. So Google did all the work so that content providers don't have to. And Super Tab appears. You see results in your existing dashboards. And the best part is that you make more money with ads and you add transactional revenue to that without endangering your subscription revenue. And this is something that I just wanted to make sure I emphasize. We are not about dismantling subscriptions. We are, we are actually complimenting subscriptions. We found out that we are adding more than 10% in additional subscribers to a customer's subscription base. That's because we give people a choice between how to engage with our content. And once they see the value of your content, many of them buy higher priced options like a day of access or a week of access. And some of them subscribe. And that's actually the magic of the model that it's not taking away, but it is actually a model that lives between ads and jurisdictions. The last one is the timing. Like the timing is important. The oppo wall is already providing successful because it aligns with the user behavior. People are fine with flexible access, but not with being forced into subscriptions. So combining those models with Google scale makes it possible to reach millions of users in a way that feels natural to them, while adding a new revenue model next to ads and subscriptions.
- [06:05]
A
Thank you, that's awesome. It's really a big milestone you'd mentioned to work with Google, but I really like that customers can leverage your super tab right within the Google platform. And you did say you're not replacing subscriptions, but complimenting those subscriptions, but have found that you're adding about 10% more subscribers. So I think that's really powerful. So thank you. And Cosman Microtransactions once had a mixed reputation. What has changed in the digital economy that makes them more viable and even preferable now for both users and content providers?
- [06:37]
B
Well, I would say timing is everything. And right now we are living in the era of subscription fatigue where people already have too many subscriptions and they are super reluctant to add more. And I think that was a big reason that is now driving people increasingly to look for alternative models. So once you've reached a certain percentage of your audience that is willing to subscribe to your product and their loyal customers, you cannot really grow beyond that point. And what we are adding to the mix is just one additional model that offers low friction, makes it easy for people to buy, makes it easy for them to start transacting with you, and then converts them at a later stage at their own convenience into subscribers if you like. So for consumers, because it works like a running tab, they can buy with a click explore and only pay once value has been established and once the transaction makes sense in an economical way. And for businesses and agents, SuperDAC provides the aggregation and the payment rails that makes those paper API call or paper token billing or computational billing seamless, whether charges are being bundled or settled instantly. So at the core, because we are all about giving people a choice and giving businesses a new complementary revenue model, this is coming at the right time where people are simply fed up with subscriptions. That doesn't mean they don't like subscriptions, it just means they have enough. And when you think about yourself, when do you subscribe to something? When you badly need something for work, or when you really like something and everything that's between, in between, you would like to consume, but that doesn't mean that you would necessarily want to subscribe to it. So we're just closing that gap at a time where people need to optimize their media budgets as well because there's so much out there you can pick up.
- [08:34]
A
That's amazing. You know, we see those ads all the time. At least I do, where it says, gosh, tired of your subscriptions? This particular app will find them all and eliminate half of them or whatever. And people are like you said, they're just have the subscription fatigue and people want to use some other platforms, but they're again afraid to add that other subscription. But I like how your platform provides a frictionless and seamless way to give customers choice, flexibility. Really love that. Kosmin Last question of the day. Looking ahead, what does a user aligned digital economy look like in your view? And what industries Beyond Media and SaaS are primed to benefit from this shift?
- [09:12]
B
I believe the future of the web is transactional and agents. AI agents play a big role in that. And maybe before I answer your question, let me start by defining what agents really are. Because I from my conversations with people, I realized that most of them talk about agents but not always understand what they are, what they do. So at the most basic level in everyday life, an agent is something that acts on behalf of someone or something else. So think of us humans. We've worked with agents for thousands of years, let's say a messenger in antique Rome. Their job was to bring a letter from A to B and make sure the letter doesn't get lost or stolen on the way. Today we are working with, let's say assistants who keep our backs free and then help us organize everything and keep out all the noise. So now when you think about agents, there are five things that decline an agent, they need to receive their environment by gathering input. Whatever it is you add text to it, or images or sensors or APIs, they get input. They need to understand and interpret that input using some AI model. Then they need to decide what to do next, like do they have to plan, reason or prioritize. Then they need to act, which means they need to carry out a task like write an email, buy a ticket, control the robot. And lastly, they need to learn so they improve their performance from feedback or results. And what's Interesting. Now starting to answer your question is how AI agents, when you think about them, when they come together, when they start talking to one another, that's where a lot of the magic happens. Which means you have agents talking to other agents, each with their own specialty. For example, you have a personal health agent like Deepak Chopra AI who asks a nutrition agent for meal plan, who would then ask a shopping agent to order the ingredients, who would then ask a delivery agent to bring them. That creates this kind of agent to agent commerce where you have machines negotiating and transacting and collaborating without you micromanaging. And right there you have a new economy that's coming up. And so I think one of the biggest shifts right now is the rise of AI agents where those agents are searching on behalf of people whenever they need content or answers. And that creates a huge challenge because those agents consume a lot of content at scale without compensating creators necessarily and ads don't fit into that flow. And yet the cost of generating those AI answers still need to be covered. And that goes well beyond search agents. And so that goes into a variety of jobs optimizing workflows to deliver hyper specialized content and support. And that's where SuperDAV comes in, where we are working on building this transactional layer for agents for allow agents to transact directly with content providers or even with other agents on a on a pre use basis. And I think that's the future that we are building for. That's why I said that the future of the web is transactional and we need to provide choice to humans, but at the same time also to AI agents and to provide the transactional layer that makes it easy for them to talk to one another and to transact with one another. That's where I see the biggest benefit not only for AI companies but also for traditional media companies, creators, content providers in general.
- [12:47]
A
Thank you, really appreciate that, appreciate your insights on the future of the web. As you mentioned, transactional is kind of the way it's going. You know, these agents, we'll be seeing agents talking to other agents. This agent to agent commerce is what it's going to end up being. But what I like about it is the fact that humans can multitask now with having these agents not micromanaging, just sending a prompt to an agent to take care of something and know that it'll get taken care of even though it is working with multiple other agents. That's very cool. Cosman, it was such a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to speaking with you real soon.
- [13:22]
B
Thank you so much, Brian. Thanks for having me.
- [13:24]
A
Bye for now.