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eBay Bans Google Payments
whoever57 writes "eBay has added Google Checkout to the list of payment options banned on eBay. A recent update to the Accepted Payments Policy includes Google Checkout (click on 'Show' next to 'Some Examples' to reveal the list).
More comments on this action can be found at the eBay Strategies Blog."
Why sue them when they can probably implement auctions.google.com in much less time. I am pretty sure google could implement a much better auction setup than eBay, and the kicker? They won't ban you from using paypal.
Unfortunately, there isn't a good alternative yet.
I think you meant "anymore". In the 90's there were quite a few "auction" sites on the internet. eBay's marketing and consolidation have driven most of them either offline or turned them into standard retailers. It's possible some new one could spring back up, but I think it's unlikely. More likely, I think, is eBay just fades into obscurity leaving only free sites like craigslist in its place as people get tired of the hassle and frustration of doing business through eBay.
E pluribus unum
Actually, Kmart own Sears
You know, it seems more often then not, when I search Google for a product, I sure get a lot of Ebay auction listings in the search results. I would imagine this brings many people into the Ebay auction scene when they otherwise would not have considered bidding instead of buying. Many, MANY people, I bet.
Perhaps Google should consider removing all ebay auctions from their search results? I'm sure the same phony logic that prohibits Google payments from ebay auctions could be used to remove auctions from search results, such as:
"Ebay auctions are not categorically safe transactions, so as a safety precaution, we are eliminating ebay auctions from our search results. Please consider purchasing your new from the following vendors who have an established track record. And coincidentally, these vendors accept payments with Google Payments."
Let's see who needs who then, ebay...
First off, I'm totally close to this business - and this was an anticipated move, predicted it almost 2 years ago now. eBay needs to protect their business for the upcoming storm. I fully expect eBay to be remembered in a few years similarly to the Modem (remember those?) .. yeah people still use 'em, but most everybody's got a broadband connection.
Google isn't going to release auctions, auctions are so 2001. NOBODY WANTS TO BID. The stuff you bid on is used crap, and honestly even then it falls into the "Working crap" and "broke crap". eBay is transitioning to a fixed price marketplace, so is Google. (Don't believe me, check out eBay express)
It doesn't matter where you buy online -- the price battles online are over, they were over last year, price differentials are minimal. If anything eBay sellers are at a disadvantage due to all the fees they incurr and the higher overhead from the resulting support cost. The next frontier is mobile commerce, or perhaps more appropriately "local commerce" -- which is where Google is clearly headed. All the analysts seem to miss that Google has a really clear 3 year plan, and it's pretty freaking awesome - here's how it goes:
1. Online prices are too similar, they are irrelvant.
2. Who has a product closest to me, and is reliable, lets buy it from them.
3. Will Google allow a local retailer to match "best price", or perhaps even come close -- you betcha.
Within two years -- i'll be able to buy an 19" LCD monitor for $99 from GoogleBase, after it negotiates the best price for me, then tells me to go pick it up at the local circuit city or fry's, where I pay via Google Payments when I arrive to pick it up (probably via my phone). Yupe, it's right around the corner.
The store will try to upsell me on other items while i'm there.
Google will get a cut of the entire sale, in exchange they'll be more likely to send more buyers to that store. The stores that do the poorest job upselling, will see less buyers (think Adwords).
And don't forget:
1) Ebay isn't an auction site.
and
2) Paypal isn't a bank.
Quite ironically, being a heavily-regulated bank gets you out of antitrust troubles. The theory is that there are specialized state and federal agencies taking care of the banks, so the antitrust laws should not have a big role regulating banks. The fact that eBay and PayPal can do whatever they want hurts them in the antitrust sphere. Furthermore, Ebay and PayPal are vertical: Ebay is a dominant auction site and they use PayPal for payment services. Thus, eBay is using its dominance of its field to exert market power into another field on a basis other than merit. That's pretty much an antitrust violation right there. It's doubtful eBay can come back with a reasonable, non-malicious explanation for not accepting GCheckout. Oops.
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
The purpose of monopoly laws is not to crush an organisation so it never trades again. It's to stop them from illegally protecting a monopoly.
Where's IBM's monopoly? It seems to have worked in that case.
Obviously it did exactly nothing in the Microsoft case, but I don't think you can use IBM as an example of the system failing.
Advanced users are users too!
its not that you cant simply not deal with the monopoly, its that if you want to make those kinds of deals, the monopoly is becomming closer and closer to being your only choice.
A large amount of online transactions are processed through paypal and most of those are ebay (and most of ebay is paypal...etc). In terms of seperate companies, paypal and googlecheckout are both competing online payment vendors who use a third party to actually generate use of their service (in this case, ebay). In the 3 company world, ebay could only stand to benefit from another good payment service showing up, they wouldnt lose any transactions and they might gain a few from anti-paypal people. The problem lies in the fact that there are really only 2 companies here, ebay controls paypal and then stands to lose revenue if paypal loses transactions. If google enters the market, they will take more and more transactions away from paypal. They may also generate new transactions for ebay but not enough to eclipse the loss felt by paypal. What is the obvious self-interest first choice? Dont let people use things you dont own. Of course this ends up being bad for the consumer and potentially bad for ebay (things will stagnate or there will end up being a competitor who goes to court and wins) but at this point they arent thinking about that, they are just trying to keep their revenue stream (maybe they will switch to ebay-fee discounts or something to encourage paypal use which is probobly legal as long as its not huge).
This is akin to visa saying they will only let you pay down your credit card bill with a personal check, cashiers check/money order, or another visa card. No mastercard, no discover, and definately no american express. People are still going to have to pay that bill, so its not like people will dissapear but it will direct additional revenue into the pockets of visa while blocking out competitors. (ok so the example isnt perfect since most people dont pay with another credit card, the credit card industry is an oligopoly not a monopoly and people are a lot more comfortable paying with checks but. ..you get the point.
Bottles.
So, just what is it that makes Google Checkout inappropriate for eBay's marketplace? If that track record is anything to go by, PayPal most certainly shouldn't be allowed. Those bastards stole over a thousand bucks from me by freezing my account, and between their unreachable status and their position in a legal limbo as a quasi-bank-transfer-service-thing, I wasn't even given the option to bend over. I'd trust a new payment method which is a subset of a company with an excellent track record over an established payment method which is a subset of the rule-maker and known to screw people over regularly.
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
I think 1 and 2 most likely, but doing all these as soon as possible would be a real kick in the balls for ebay.
Life is too short to proofread.
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