Paradox of Charging - A Reference for the Design of Charge Services

In the recent SOA model, no charging methods or charging services have been ever mentioned before, although it is the first thing which should be concerned by service providers in business. Based on the hypothesis that every service should be paid, a paradox arises, which means charging processes will not halt if the charging service must be charged via itself (still will be paid) or any other payable services. In order to give a reference for the design of charging service, this paper stands on the view of service science, management and engineering (SSME) to explain the details of the paradox in service markets and offers two solutions which could break the hypothesis. In the aspect of function, two basic service market designs will be given as follows: in one solution, one or more free public charging services are provided to form a supermarket model; in the other one, each charging service can charge itself for free to establish a bazaar market model.