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Google Launches PayPal Rival

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the lookit-all-them-teeny-payments-vern dept.

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.

3 of 449 comments (clear)

  1. NYT article by ems2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    NYT times also has a interesting article on this with quotes about Google's plans on what they want to do with this product.

    --
    Plan 9 from Bell Labs.
  2. New Revenue Streams Trend to Conservatism by kthejoker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think the most important thing about this entire endeavor is that it is the first Google product that plans on actually introducing a revenue stream besides advertising to the company (especially since the Google Pay Video system has more or less fell through at this point in time.)

    I'm not quite sure what that means for the long-term health of the company, but I suspect that the more streams of revenue a company has, the more likely they are to become conservative, entrenched, and reluctant to embrace change. Google has managed to avoid all that because they've had a strong beam focus on a single revenue stream (ad dollars) - as they start matriculating, I suspect that beam focus will dissipate.

    But then again, they're Google - they just work smarter than basically every other company out there today. So I put nothing out of their reach.

  3. Need more payment options! by RemovableBait · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Before Google Checkout has much hope of usurping PayPal, they'll need to accept more payment options.

    Paypal currently allows payment direct from a bank account (I don't expect Google to need this), Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Delta, Maestro, Visa Electron, Solo, Discover, and more if you count their other services. That's at least 10 ways to pay.

    Google, on the other hand, accept Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Discover. With only 4 ways to pay, I suspect Google Checkout is not an option for many people.

    Disclaimer: I live in the UK and this is based on my experience with the UK PayPal service. I also agree with the sentiments of paypalsucks.com, and would like to see Google smash PayPal to pieces if they can Do No Evil. YMMV.