Mashboxx Selects Peppercoin to Process Small Payments for its Online Peer-to-Peer Music Network

Peppercoin Helps Mashboxx Profit on Small-Dollar Transactions

WALTHAM, Mass., Feb. 14 /PRNewswire/ - Peppercoin, a payments company that enables profitable new business models for low-priced digital content and physical goods, today announced that Mashboxx, the first peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing network authorized by major record labels has selected the Peppercoin Small Transaction Suite to enable Mashboxx to sell licensed low- priced music profitably.

Mashboxx enables P2P consumers to purchase high-quality legal digital downloads for $0.99. Mashboxx intends to capitalize on the 2.2 billion music files that are traded monthly through the P2P networks, and is the first to employ Snocap's digital licensing and copyright management system. Snocap was founded by Shawn Fanning, the founder of Napster.

"Despite early resistance from the recording industry, consumers continue to demonstrate their keen interest in music file-sharing applications," said Wayne Rosso, CEO of Mashboxx. "At the same time, consumers have expressed a willingness to pay a fair fee for the music they want, which addresses the recording industry's concerns. Through Peppercoin's Small Transaction Suite, Mashboxx customers can purchase digital music easily with their existing credit and debit cards. Equally important, Peppercoin will help Mashboxx grow revenues by letting consumers choose whether to buy their music on a pre-paid, pay-as-you-go or subscription basis. And because Peppercoin reduces processing and customer service costs for card payments, they enable Mashboxx and our partners to profit from each and every transaction."

Significant Market Opportunity

The online and mobile small payment opportunities are substantial; fueled by music, games, video, publishing and services TowerGroup estimates the digital micropayments opportunity reached more than $3 billion in 2004. And a September 2004 Ipsos-Insight study revealed that, in just one year, the number of US consumers who have made small online purchases grew 250%, from 4 million to 14 million.

Consumers are demonstrating a clear and growing preference to use their credit and debit cards for all sizes and types of purchases. In a 2004 study, Ipsos-Insight estimated that roughly 37.5 million US consumers would choose to use their credit and debit cards for transactions below $5.

"As the market for digital music and other content continues to explode, P2P networks like Mashboxx must establish a profitable payment system that also satisfies consumers' desire to use their preferred and trusted credit and debit cards," said Mark Friedman, president of Peppercoin. "Peppercoin's technology enables an entirely new class of music distribution -- legal, profitable peer-to-peer file sharing. The Peppercoin Small Transaction Suite allows digital, mobile and physical POS merchants to access and profit from the more than 354 billion sub-$5 transactions that take place annually."

About Mashboxx:

Mashboxx, scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2005, will be the world's first P2P application with content authorized by major record labels. The software will allow consumers to search for content on most of the major file sharing networks and will offer the largest selection of authorized music downloads yet to be found online. The company was founded in September of 2004 and is based in Virginia Beach, VA with EU offices located in Madrid, Spain.