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Google CEO Confirms Online Payment System
didde writes "Reuters is reporting on statements that Google's CEO Eric Schmidt had made regarding Google's upcoming payment system. Apparently they're not looking to compete with PayPal." From the article: "Schmidt said Google does not intend to offer a 'person-to-person stored-value payments system' like PayPal's, in which money briefly resides in PayPal's control during the transaction, but he did not give details of how the Google system would differ."
and assume resonsibility for financial mistakes, i believe this is where Paypal are the scam, look like a bank but un-regulated and assume nothing
Because I'm starting an international chain of fast food hamburger restaurants, but I'm not looking to compete with McDonalds and Burger King.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
When is google going to be building an ecom site to go along with this?
That's how I would design a system like this - and then 'disappear' to a tropical island.
Oops ... I said to much, didn't I?
*Disappears to a tropical island*
I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
Maybe they are going to offer Googlecoins as the first form of virtual currency?
diegoT
How on Earth could Google possibly compete with paypal? Unless ... they are silently planning their gebay? Now I see. It will be an interesting war. But will good (Google) win with evil (not Google) this time? Only time will tell.
Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)
Hmmm... this just sounds like another credit card to me. If it is only designed to bring money from consumers to businesses (and Google), then it appears to be just another credit card!
Paypal need a competitor.
Google has many fingers in many pies.
BUT
are they over-estimating the strength of the market brand and the benefits of offering such services?
I guess I don't understand how they can do this without the money at SOME point being in their control.
I mean, what else are we looking at?
"With GooglePay you write a check directly to the person you're paying, then write another check for 3% of that amount to Google. Easy!"
First it needs an escrow which would enable greater trust between transacting parties. It also needs the ability to reverse a payment for when transactions are not fulfilled to satisfaction.
Paypal has the first, but the second leaves much to be desired. Once the payment is made, there is little recourse if it turns out that the transaction was bogus. If Google can implement something like this, it would push it way over the top.
Schmidt said Google does not intend to offer a 'person-to-person stored-value payments system' like PayPal's, in which money briefly resides in PayPal's control during the transaction
Well what about a 'person-to-person stored-value payments system' like PayPal's, in which money doesn't briefly reside in Google's control during the transaction but rather gets directly transfered to the merchant.
I personnally have always thought that PayPal's way of doing it (keeping the money in your 'PayPal account') was pretty lame.
I wish we had a few more details.
On the surface it sounds a little like something that could evolve into the micropayment structure that could end spam.
Exam 4/C again. Maybe I'll do better this time.
"Schmidt said Google does not intend to offer a 'person-to-person stored-value payments system' like PayPal's, in which money briefly resides in PayPal's control during the transaction, but he did not give details of how the Google system would differ."
I guess they could just facilitate payments directly from one persons bank/credit card to another, and take a cut of the transaction...act as a middle man without storing the money. OH and they'd totally use AJAX to do this.
I'm guessing and hoping that Google is going to introduce the first viable micropayment system on the web. If anyone can do it, they can.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Great, what I always wanted, a way for everyone to search for my financial transactions.
me: I transferred 100$ for his pog collection. Where did it go?
google support: But it's beta! And Beta means we can fuck up from time to time!
Also -- not competing with Paypal because they aren't going to store money? Sure, but won't google add that functionality the moment it becomes commercially advantageous? Not to mention the fact that I think for most people, an instanteous credit to your credit card (or bank account or whatever) when you get paid for you antique pog collection is not such a bad thing.
Final thought -- for every post in this thread complaining about the number of Google stories on /. -- God kills a kitten. What -- prove me wrong.
--Moiche
Can't wait. Can't wait to drop Paypal and their horrible transaction fees.
I guess what aggrivates me more is "Not being allowed to post buyer pays paypal transaction fees on ebay purchases" in your ebay posts.
And all the other crap Paypal pulls out of it's mighty ass.
Semi-intersting links:
http://paypalsucks.com/
http://www.paypalwarning.com/
The company also operates a price-comparison shopping engine called Froogle, which analysts think could one day become the heart of a full-fledged e-commerce system.
1) Froogle +
2) link to product +
3) "I'm feeling lucky" ==
4) profit?
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
Schmidt said Google does not intend to offer a "person-to-person stored-value payments system" like PayPal's, in which money briefly resides in PayPal's control during the transaction, but he did not give details of how the Google system would differ.
Even though companies are out to make money and occasionally have to step on the toes of another company if they want to turn a profit, it's nice to see that not all computer business is so cut-throught. Maybe Google has realized that a little healthy competition is good, but more than likely they have slightly different aims or are trying to tie it in more with the rest of their services in a way that paypals method doesn't work.
Companies need to realize that crushing the competition and taking control of the market isn't going to be healthy for the consumer. Look at some of Microsoft's (Not to pick on them, but they're an obvious example) products like Internet Explorer. For a while it was the best browser around to many people, but after it gained control , Microsoft stopped upgrading it and fixing it, making it a rather sub-par product today.
To those of you who say that Google or any other company wouldn't fall into the same trap if they gained market dominance is plain ignorance. Go ahead and root for Google, Apple, Sun, AMD, or any other underdog company, but just remeber that they're as capable as being as evil and ruthless as some people feel that Microsoft, Sony, Intel and other industry leaders are today.
To quote the article "The payment services we are working on are a natural evolution of Google's existing online products and advertising programs, which today connect millions of consumers and advertisers"
So an advertiser can give you 5 bucks off if you buy from them. Or maybe reward points to use in the network.
or perhaps not
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
If I used Google's payment system, would I be able to google for my missing micropayments? And how long would it stay in Google's cash -- er, cache?
It must be Windows. It needs half a gig of RAM and a hardware-accelerated graphics card just to run Solitaire.
I think it is important to put this in the "Google Mindset" if you will: Everything Google does is related to search.
They made GMail to allow you to store all your messages you ever send/receive and then give you a powerful tool to search through them.
Google Maps is just a nice compliment/interface to Google Local.
And the list goes on. So what can Google do to bring the power of search to a payments system?
The preceding message was based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed.
Well, one improvement over PayPal would be global coverage. Just few days ago I was very impressed by a nice piece of software (mp3splt, BTW), and I decided to donate some money to the corresponding Sourceforge project via PayPal. Half way through I found out that my small European country (Croatia), was not covered by PayPal services.
I for one welcome our new Google overlords...
Google has Froogle, and Froogle isn't eBay, so GMoney (hehehe) won't be working in the same space as eBay and PayPal per-se. What remains to be seen is whether Google can actually use their own electronic payment system in conjunction with their Froogle search service effectively. These are all just my personal guesses as to what Google is doing of course.
It's the quality and innovation of your competitors that keeps a company viable. As long as there are alternatives to your service, you're at least partially dedicated to improving your service and offering some semblance of better value to your customers.
Paypal has nothing encouraging the development of value for their customers right now, so I welcome the arrival of Google in an online payment market.
I don't root for them to dominate, just to compete. (and in what logical way can Google be called an "underdog" company?)
The bottom line in any sort of online payment scheme is the credit card companies. There can't be a truly revolutionary change to any sort of online payment structure until it either cuts out credit cards, or offers a viable alternative to their infrastructure.
:::: the insomniac's digest
I suspect gtokens. You but £10 a time or what ever - then whenever you visit a site with gfirefox or something you can but cheap things with it directly and safely with your gcredits. Google gets the interest of the money in your account between time of purchase and the time the seller redeams them.
Eventually though no one will trade in their money and we will have the ubiqous "credit" - in the same way that UK money say's I promise to pay the bearer £10 pounds everyone will no they can trade in their money but never will!
Replace them.
I'd love it if there was some other Paypal-like entity out there. Paypal is convenient, but after getting shafted by them I avoid them like the plague.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
...hehe
Look up their history at
http://malfeasance.50megs.com/
At the end of the day, you are happy because you got to read the article for $0.02, WSJ is happy because they didnt have to bother about managing subscription (which you were unwilling I assume) and still got the $0.018 and google of course, got the $0.002. Everyone comes home ahead. Many have tried micropayments, but if there is anyone who can do it, it is google
My main problem with Paypal is that Paypal has every right to say "go fuck yourself" if something goes wrong or a customer gets screwed. Credit card companies cannot do this. If I don't get my merchandise, I can issue a charge back and get my money back. With paypal it's a crapshoot as to if I get my money back. Paypal has also been notorious for taking money from people's accounts without authorization.
Credit card companies are bastards, paypal is full of bastards, but credit cards are regulated. Bastard or not, as a consumer I want to be able to tell a company "go to hell" if they try to screw with my money.
This is what I want in a google payment service.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
is it does not seem to correspond to Google's market and stated goal of "organizing the world's information."
I am positive I have it all figured out. Google has searching, and offers up ads on the side for products. Google has Froogle, a searching service which indexes store products for display as well. Well, think about the next logical step... Google will provide hosting and payment services for people and companies selling products. Consumers will love it because their CC # will be going through Google, which they trust, versus a small site. On top of that, consumers will be able to find what they are looking for without running into broken links, unfriendly designs, or going through site after site. Google will get some small $ for each transaction (perhaps a percentage). Sellers will love it because they won't have to worry about server uptime as much, payment systems, or security... plus they have the worlds' biggest customer base at their fingers. This powerful move will literally turn Google into the worlds biggest store. Everyone wins. Buyers / Sellers / Google. Well, not everyone wins. Ebay sure won't win. Verisign won't win. PayPal won't win. Yahoo won't win.
We need a Paypal competitor. Paypal needs a competitor like it needs a hole in the head.
This is damning to the banking industry. The age where they can get away with bank charges should be dead and burried. The idea that there are 10s of clerks monitoring each transaction, and therefore incurring a service fee is archaic and false. We are now paying to maintain a computer system, which if it was commisioned properly should have its costs covered by the interest they gain from investments they make with the money the hold for their clients.
In the UK at least, consumers are free to transfer money between accounts for free. But it takes between 3 and 5 days so they can gain interest (what were they doing the previous x days when it was in my account?). Businesses are routinely charged £0.20 a transaction and the transfers still take 3 to 5 days!!! How is this fair?
Banks have enough ways to generate money without charging buisnesses for micropayments.
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
Converting real cash into fake cash gives the fake cash a real value and thus makes it into real cash.
In other words, if I buy a Gbuck and send it to a friend and they convert it back to whatever it is worth in cash, how is this any different than what paypal does, realistically?
If they create their own currency and decide not to tie it in a fixed way to another currency, then that's interesting, but doesn't change the fact that it's still them accepting one currency for a temporary period of time.
It also introduces the problem of fluctations of the new currency. People buy Gbucks, wait for them to be worth more real bucks, then cash out. Google is now out a ton of real cash. This is done with real cash all the time, but making it easy to convert between currencies will make this simpler. Only way to combat this that I can see is for google to implement a conversion fee to stabilize the fluctuations, which will discourage the currency from taking off in the first place.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
*sigh*, I'm such a google fanboy it's not funny.
I can see a gmoney app - bye-bye quicken and ms-money. I could also see google starting a "virtual" bank -- no storefront, but you can still have an account (probably as a wholly owned subsidiary due to banking regs)..
But, what I really hope their new system might be... something to compete with paytrust (gpay?). I used to love paytrust, but through a series of aquisitions the website/app -- as well as customer service -- has gone downhill. Don't get me wrong, I still like and use them, but they've lost my loyalty as a customer.
For anyone who doesn't know -- paytrust is an online bill payment service, kinda like what your bank probably already provides. Except you can have all your paper bills sent to them, and they capture most of your electronic bills too, so that you can then send payments all from one place, schedule them to be paid automatically, etc.
I believe they are only looking for the ad revenue. This is their cash cow. And they are not too greedy. Ofcourse being not greedy helps them conquer markets. Just like MS was in the beginning was far more interested in increasing their market share instead of making sure that everyone had a legitimate copy. We are a long time off from where Google would think that the market is not growing at all and they can only gain more money by screwing their customers.
That won't be a problem, as long as I can still pay hackers for other people's credit card data.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Let's take SecondLife as an example. They have a monetary system in the game that allows you to convert dollars into their units of trade and transfer those units for goods. The sellers of the virtual goods can then transfer the units back to real-world cash. They aren't a bank, they're a game, and you're paying for extra "credit" in the game, not transferring money into a different unit.
If Google were to take advantage of that, we should consider what this would mean if we could hook it into email systems. Let's say you have to have an "account" with them in order to send email to me. I can set up accounts and give them to my friends. You have to transfer $.25 from your account to my account in order to send mail to me. If you aren't sending junk mail to me then I immediately refund the money. If you are, then I keep the money and eventually cash out the spare for my personal use.
White lists could be created for your friends to auto-refund their money. Blacklists would delete the spam before you see it, money staying in your account.
Voila, spam-proof email system. I'm liking this idea. Maybe I'll go write it myself...
Wake up - the future is arriving faster than you think.
This line is heard in War Games, but is also quoted in the rather curious Dark Side of the Moon (a 1990 film, not the Pink Floyd album).
Mind the Gap
It could be, but I'm finding it hard to imagine a micropayments strategy that couldn't be described as "person-to-person stored-value payments system".
Micropayments for reading articles are person-to-website rather than person-to-person, but the former would be adapted to the latter really, really quickly, at least if they allow anybody who sets up a web site to be a payee. But maybe not; I'll get back to that in a second.
And micropayments are usually "stored-value payments systems", because the best way to reduce the overhead is to give the central guys $20 and have them shift $.02 from one account to another (which is cheap) and only occasionally turning it into real money (which is expensive). Of course that's effectively what Paypal does.
Perhaps I'm misreading Schmidt's statement, but it just doesn't sound like micropayments to me. At least not generalized micropayments. You may be spot on with the limited notion, where the only valid payees are large corporations like the New York Times. It would still be a stored-payments system in all likelihood (you just can't charge $.02 to a Mastercard), but the asymmetry might make it profitable.
Look at Cybersource's Investor's Overviewi cker=cybs&script=2100
http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?t
Interesting?
sorry... had to say it.
pi
I hope they implement a system of revokable transactions: parties agree at the time of the deal the price *and for that price* how much of the total transaction is one-time, and how much is revokable, up to a certain date. Then publish the histories and statistics for all parties. This gives you a reputation-based system based on real money that drives lower prices for reputable buyers and sellers: a system of risk sharing that is non-binary. Notice that Google doesn't actually have to take part in the transactions: just be a trusted party for maintaining reputations and using valid data. They better hurry up and patent it before I do :-)
Making wild-assed guesses so you don't have to. http://www.riskychicken.com
Google won't be competing with Paypal but with the US Dollar by introducing an entirely new currency. Googlebucks, anyone?
filmcritic.com - Movie reviews on Internet time
Adsense is essentially a micropayment platform as is Y! ad technology, consider: 1 your click transfers money from advertiser to adsense 2 they are concerned about 'click fraud' 3 advertisers will pay *anyone* to get you to look at their stuff; google and others offer you services in exchange for you looking at the ads they sell
A deposit-only account linked to PayPal would prevent PayPal from automatically drafting unlawful and overdrawn Bills on your bank. PayPal is meant as a replacement for credit accounts, yet when one is demanded to be linked to PayPal it is self-evident PayPal is an interest squatter and nothing else. I think it's perverted to credit someone with debt instruments.
Without recourse,
Gregory-Thomas
without prejudice
When i first heard this news I immediately dumped all of my EBAY stock. My intuition tells me that google is going to start moving in on EBAY's space. I'm thinking they will either create a paradigm shift in the online auction market (i.e. something so good and different for purchasing that auctions aren't needed) or that they'll do to Ebay what they did to hotmail, and yahoo.mail with gmail, just blow it out of the water.
However I'll probably buy back my Ebay stock when it gets down to about $34.00 since google won't be able to do much within the next 6 months.
Any other insights here? Discuss, discuss.
Oh, that's real good.
Doesn't anyone check links anymore?
You'll be sorry. You might even lose your job. Don't let your curiosity get the better of you.
You have been warned.
No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
I suppose the exchange rates for USD 0.01 to Googlecoins would be 1^99. Am I wrong??? Then eBay will ^1-up them, but it'll be too late...Google would've already radiated everyone with enough Googlecoins and everyone would be aires 0^99 aires.
Damn those commercial advertisements...
"If I had the patent, I'ld be rich!"
"This metal detector helped me lose weight!"
"Bo Dell, this is teh best deal of thai-sporks ever."
without prejudice
Thanks for keeping my signature accurate!
Slashdot: 24 hours behind every other site or your money back!
Someone Inbox: NRAdude has sent you 5 x 0^100 GoogleDollars(TM).
Someone thinks "How did they send me GoogleDollars without my having an account?"
NRAdude to Someone: What? You didn't have an acount yet? I'll try to to reverese the transaction and just send you a Money Order through snail-mail...nope, it won't let me retract the transfer. Just click on the link in the eMail and it'll let you "get it"(TM).
Someone: It wants information I don't have! Bullpie!
NRAdude: Well, you have a PayPal account and you acknowledged that I sent you money.
Someone: Damnit!
******
This is how I had my first PayPal account installed, 6 years ago. What a great way to spread venue; let your idiot existing users do it for you, and force the account open just by having an eMail address. Nonsense!
without prejudice
How much do you think 5 x 0^100 is?
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
FDIC insurance is useless... you heard it here first, then cover less than 0.5% of total system deposits. Check out their financials, they're a mess... dabble in credit and options markets just like banks. in case of a real financial crisis they won't be able to produce squat for you. absolutely serious here.
Hello again; I responded to another of your couriers.
How much it is worth to me...
1. UCC1 Financing statement incorporating the eMail address as a transmitting utility:
USD 99.00
2. Unsolicited use of the transmitting utility:
(with double bonding) USD 198.00
3. Metred internet service.
USD 0.05 per eMail
4. Lien for USD 198.05!
5. Non-profit!
Do the same to just about anyone that engages you with commercial warfare: IMF IRS, US, CA, DMV, et al.
without prejudice
I like the idea, though. Web sites will be paid for the actual traffic they generate, instead of being paid by those intermediaries based on some stupid, marketing exec-made metric of website populariy (which, alas, is not verifiable or auditable so advertisers are at the complete mercy of DoubleClick et al)
Websites, in turn, could use advertiser-generated revenue to provide rebates to people who browse through their pages, so as to improve clickthrough. In the other hand, excessive advertising does scare users away, so websites have two choices: 1) try to find the balance between useful stuff and ads, or 2) start *paying* people to browse their pages. Of course, the second option wouldn't last long as the market would take care of correcting that situation very quickly. In the long run, everyone will strive to get the balance in point #1, which will be awesome!
2) Flat transaction fee. No more of this personal, premiere, or business account BS. Charge everyone the same fee for all transactions, regardless of the amount. This way you won't need different e-mails and bank accounts for every possible scenario. One account with multiple IDs: one for personal transactions, one for eBay sales, etc.
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
of the world.
i wonder if they'll give credit points the more u use it. spend it all on pron :D
Whyt is everyone looking here, As if the subjective tytle was not applicable?
These are escrow services for escrow services! PayPal is performing as a middleman between middlemen! Is that not difficult to comprehend?
without prejudice
This is precisely what I imagine will happen.
Google stores your payment information. You go to a vendor (presumably through Froogle) who accepts Google payments. On checkout, you are sent BACK to google.com to pay. Google takes a small proportion of the transaction fee.
As an additional result the things we purchase through Google may cost LESS than they do now because the companies using Google's payment system don't have to have their own secure system and payment app. They just have to talk to google's payment interface, telling google what you bought, from whom, and how much it cost. It's brilliant.
Mods: Do you disagree with me? Go ahead and mod me down. Meta-mods will sort it out. Good luck!
This is a little crazy, but what if Google minted their own, gold- or silver-backed currency? They have the mindshare to pull it off. Having done so, they could instantly create the micropayments system the Web has been missing for so long. And they have the clout to roll the currency out with guarantees from 1000's of companies that it will be accepted. If it is backed by precious metal, then it doesn't matter if the currency itself ever goes out of style or use... people who retain some can just trade it in for the metal and turn that into US Dollars.
Kind of like Liberty Dollars, but with better marketing.
one of the most important questions is: will this online payment system be secure and anonymous? will they accept checks and money orders? that's the only way i can see people actually using it.
So if Goggle offers a service to do with money, and money is the root of all evil, and Google's model is to do no evil...
How does that work exactly?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I think there's a market for someone like Google to offering bill management services like www.paytrust.com, but with a system that integrates better with actual banks (a front end for existing banks). It let's them sit in the middle of everything, something Google does very well.
Maybe /. should use this instead of paypal :P
If you can't convince them, convict them.
I bet it's going to be GayGal *really big stupid grin*
this comment is provided "as is" and without any express or implied legibility or congruity [...]
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
On 19 July 2005 this patent expires:
See
http://www.salguod.com/agnostic.html
http
"There is another patent that is every bit as significant as the RSA patent.
More so, perhaps. Unlike the RSA patent, this patent has not been available
for licensing at any price, stymieing an entire field of research and wide
swaths of commerce. This patent is U.S. Patent 4,759,063 "Blind Signature
Systems". http://www.pat2pdf.org"
Have a look
The Singularity is closer than you think
Quant
Many websites doesn't handle payment by themselves - they outsource it to another company. What if google decided to enter that marked? If Google gets a cut in the deal, google could place adds for the most popular (read profitable) all over froggle and Gmail, they could use their expertise to try and guess what the customer will buy next and from whom. This would benefit both Google and the companies actually selling the goods.
Stats on google statistics for google wallet will be interesting to see how this goes over time
But you should love your work, as Google people often seem to, and if your work is money... then we are back to square one!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
No, my first guess I think may be the right one.
My guess is that they're going to be competing with Quicken, Microsoft Money, and probably even the online sites like TurboTax.
You'll be able to upload your Quicken and probably all ledger formats to Google. I imagine they've worked out some fabulously easy online bill pay system to couple it, and that's where they'll make the money. They'll charge the 1% or so that current credit card companies charge for their use. BTW, that charge is incurred by the seller.
put the what in the where?
I forgot to mention (preview should be required), I also figure they'll provide tax processing services and efile services around January. You wouldn't have to enter anything in, and maybe they'll even create some good algorithms to figure out which would be the best form for your situation. ;)
Can we just consider this one post?
Mod accordingly
put the what in the where?
BS all you want for the media, but PLEASE compete directly with those criminals at paypal! I want that unjust monopoly broken in half!
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
This thread is ridiculous.
Check out http://paypaldoesntsuck.blogspot.com/
When I first heard the news of Google creating such a service, I tried to imagine what it would look like as part of the Google site. Perhaps I got carried away, but I decided to make a mock image of my thoughts. It's meant to be more comical than realistic of course. In addition, I wrote up an entry on my thoughts.
At the micro level, it's lost in the noise, but at large scale, the interest they [paypal, google, or whoever] collect on money they hold temporarily really adds up.
Google already knows how to play that game: Take their AdSense program, where people put google-powered ads on their own web sites, and get paid per click. Your account gets credited immediately, but you don't get money from google until about 30 days after the end of a month where your total balance goes over $100. All they have to do is collect cash from the advertisers before they show their ads, and they end up keeping the money for a minimum of 30-60 days before they have to pay it back out again. Depending how you invest that, you could probably get at least a 3-5% return on the money you're holding, which at any given time is about two months' gross revenue of AdSense. For the math impaired, 3-5% of Really Really Big is Really Big. 5% of a billion is 50 million, 5% of 10 million is half a million. And so forth.
Definitely not their main business, but not a bad sideline either.
Mac
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
i just found stormpay.com
http://www.stormpay.com/
http://www.stormpay.com/
seems a paypal alternative. anyone done business with them? anyone knows they evilness-factor?
cheers.