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Google Launches PayPal Rival
Google Checkout Launched
Roy van Rijn informs us that Google's new online payment system is now online. "Under the name Checkout, the venture offers an incorporated manner to search, advertise and pay. If you buy something on Checkout, 2% and $0.20 go to Google. Paypal, the biggest competitor uses 1,9% and $0,30. Analysts compare Google/Paypal to for example Visa/Mastercard living peacefully together, while others predict the end of Paypal."
W3K adds "You can use your Google account to store an unlimited number of credit cards and addresses. The service allows you to track all your orders and shipping in one place," and adds a link to a quick video tour.
Just like GMail meant the end of Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, and the myriad of other online mail services. And how Google Maps meant the end of Mapquest andd MS Maps (??). I know that Google has created some welcome competition to many online services, forcing them to improve their offerings, but it hasn't completely killed the competition. Most people I know haven't switched from their current providers. However, I'm sure they would have if Hotmail stuck to 2MB, and Mapquest didn't touch their interface. I'm happy google's here, because it makes everyone else have to try harder. Let's hope the same happens to E-Bay. They haven't changed their interface since their inception.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
OK, I acknoledge that I'm paranoid, but the thing that makes me nervous about google services is that thay use single account for all purposes. This not only allows to keep track of my whole life, but also allows a person, who hijacks my email account, take control over my mail, internet messenger (IM was used for several famous frauds in Russia), and now money directly!
May Peace Prevail On Earth
If by "Google launches PayPal Rival" you mean, "Google launches a service for merchants to process credit cards". Then yes, this is a PayPal rival. This service does not allow you to transfer money from person-to-person, nor does it allow you to pay by check, bank draft, etc.
Big difference between paypal vs google and the competing mail services. People have had a choice for years. No one complains about free email its reliable, its there, its ubiquitous. What irritates people with Paypal is the rather random enforcement of buyer and seller protection coupled with their stranglehold on ebay that pretty much makes any other method of payment impossible. After paying listing fees, final value fees, paypal fees, extra paypal fees if you want to be able to take credit cards, and dealing with buyers protection which is in my experience used in scam attempts as much as in real disputes, the ebay/paypal racket is hardly a bargain.
After all that, I still use it on occasion because I have no choice, thats the difference.
The difference between 1.9% + 30 cents (ebay) and 2.0% + 20 cents (google) might not strike you as significant, but google now works out to be cheaper for all sales under $100.00
Don't think that the "ebay power sellers" aren't keenly aware of the difference. They know how ebay nickel-and-dimes them to death, and if they can save a few dollars a week AND stick it to ebay, they will.
Example - item at $10.00
eBay: 49 cents, google:40 cents. Difference: 9 cents.
Do 100/week, and over the course of a year you're looking at $468.00 in savings ...
That is 100% correct. I run a small web store and we use PayPal to process orders. We are paying 2.9% + $.30 per transaction. I would love to switch to google, but I see one issue. With PayPal people can place orders on my site, pay with a credit card, and not have a PayPal account. PayPal just processes the card. When google will let my customers pay without having a google account I will switch.
You, like some other posters, seem to think that PayPal's prices are fixed in stone forever.
Don't put words in my mouth - I never said that. Here's the reality ...
Then there's the whole regulatory issue - ebay has had to make deals with regulators in almost 20 states ... google will just go out and BUY a bank. Then they'll issue their own credit cards, etc.