Google To Devs: Use Our Payment System Or Be Dropped

Meshach writes "Google has been pressuring applications and mobile game developers to use its costlier in-house payment service, Google Wallet for quite some time. Now Google warned several developers in recent months that if they continued to use other payment methods — such as PayPal, Zong and Boku — their apps would be removed from Google Play. The move is seen as a way to cut costs for Google by using their own system."

Comments

Google's payment options

[sixtyeight]

For all the good that Google is supposedly trying to do, this begs a question I've been wondering for quite a while.

Why don't they implement a Payment API for developers? People could then use all sorts of services, from PayPal to BitCoin to pay to Google, and be paid by them. Google doesn't implement all the extant services out there because if it implemented a few of them, it would be considered responsible for implementing all of them. But it would make sense to enable developers to do so, and customers to use them.

Or so it seemed. They appear to be more interested in restricting payment types in order to increase their margins. If this is so, it will diminish their user-base as this sort of thing comes out. Granted, they've found innovative economies of scale that have allowed them to do things it would be difficult for others to do as cheaply - which appears to be something they're now leveraging to put unfair leverage on the marketplace. A lack of effective competition becomes a monopolization.

Re:Google's payment options

[petman]

The thing is, even if we accept 'beg' as an alternative to 'raise', 'begging the question' is not grammatically correct. Try to replace 'question' with 'money', for example. 'I raise money for orphans' is correct. However, 'I beg money for orphans' is obviously wrong. The correct usage is 'I beg for money for orphans', which does sound awkward, but is grammatically correct. Likewise, the grammatically correct phrase would be 'begging for the question' instead of 'begging the question'.

What about for non-US people?

[inflex]

I would have loved to have jumped on board with Googles payment system in place of PayPal... but there was a slight problem... it was "US Only". It would seem that if I look at the dominant players in various fields, they are players that embrace the fact that the internet and more importantly, consumers, exist well beyond the US alone.

Soon as Google lets us buy/sell stuff using their PayPal-replacment across the bulk of the world, I'll be interested.

Re:What about for non-US people?

[aaaaaaargh!]

They will sue you for infringement of 100+ patents if you're successful with it.

They should do that only when...

[gaspyy]

They should do that only when Wallet is available in all countries. Google Wallet is not available in my country, I cannot receive payments so I HAVE TO rely on Paypal for this.

My app is available on Apple's AppStore, Blackberry's AppWorld, Amazon, Intel AppUp and Samsung's store and they all can send payments. It's just Google who doesn't. Even stranger is that they DO make payments to my country in the AdSense program, I just don't understand why they don't do this for apps on the Chrome Webstore or Google Play.

Re:Where voluntary isn't voluntary.

[thegarbz]

False. You're cut off from no-one.

I have yet to see an Android phone (in my country anyway) which doesn't feature a simple checkbox that allows you to install apps that didn't come from the market.
I have seen several Android phones out of the box which feature more than one market installed on the system (though admittedly they somewhat suck).
I have seen several alternative markets (Amazon included here) which are incredibly capable as almost a complete replacement of the Google Market, or Play or whatever they've changed it to.

Admittedly practicality here may be the key argument, but hey you are going to a 3rd party to host, advertise, collect feedback, and manage updates for your apps it's not such a hard rule to abide by.

Also as someone who vehemently hates PayPal, anything that works against it gets the thumbs up from me :-)

And Bill Gates is more and more a hero

[SmallFurryCreature]

The Bill Gates/MS icon on Slashdot (is/was) that of a borg version of the Dorky One... the idea being that MS wanted to assimilate you into the collective. Turns out it was a hippy collective indeed with about as many rules as Fight Club with no enforcement.

It has often been remarked that MS dominance was obtained not so much through the success of MS but through the failure of everyone else. Read Apple, IBM and the various home computer makers whose names are lost in the mists of time only remembered by the senile elders.

And through their failure, we gained the Wintel platform which now turns out to have been insanely open. Imagine MS telling Windows developers how to collect payment, if at all. Does MS tell Blizzard how to collect its pound of flesh of the enslaved? How shareware should be payed for?

Does MS dictate which version of MS you should run on Dell hardware? Does Dell stop you from upgrading the OS?

It is not as if MS never tried but it failed so often nobody took them to serious and so the evil that might have happened, never happened. It is like a brutal dictator whose brutality ends up as a kind of cute outburst with throwing chairs instead of the millions dead with efficient dictators. A dictator who fails at being terrible sounds a lot better then a dictator who succeeds... and Apple and Google are certainly trying hard enough.

It is kinda sad that companies keep trying to get total control when the PC did so well without it.

Google Wallet vs PayPal

[Taco Cowboy]

I've used both Google Wallet and I've used PayPal

And I've used other online payment services

I find Google Wallet a little bit more "friendly" to the user. PayPal, which I've used for years and years, has become more and more, how should I say - arrogant

Re:Google Wallet vs PayPal

[sixtyeight]

PayPal is in the middle of their third class-action lawsuit for making it easy to start using their service, then freezing your account, demanding all sorts of identifying info they'd never said up-front they'd need (a utility bill that "must be in your name"? I don't get one.) and demanding that you justify to them all the transactions you've been involved with. Meanwhile, they're earning interest off of all the funds that have been frozen.

A California court ruled ages ago that they cannot include the term in their EULA stipulating that customers agree not to have access to a real court, and must instead seek resolution through an internal Dispute Resolution Team comprised of PayPal's employees, whose word is "final". The term remains in their EULA despite the court decision that it would mislead customers into thinking they didn't have access to a real court anymore.

Google has major connections with In-Q-Tel, the CIA's corporate investment arm. When the CIA wants to market technologies it has developed with taxpayer money, it puts them on the private market through In-Q-Tel. The CIA's Keyhole technology became known to us as... Google Earth. Facebook also has serious In-Q-Tel connections. There appears to be a lot of these companies working with the Information Awareness Office, who openly states its efforts to compile online information online on citizens in a centralized government database. Note that Google has placed itself as the free information service leader. Put your contacts list, your spreadsheets, and anything else you've got on Google's various free services. How convenient.

Google's "Don't be evil." slogan hearkens back to the Bohemian Grove's ("Weaving spiders come not here") as well as a rich, ancient tradition of invoking evil and other dark, malevolent symbols by attaching the concept of "not" to them and calling it good. This has been done for centuries in magickal lore and storytelling, using charms against various nasty things as a means of invoking that specific thing in a socially-acceptable way. Magickally, you call upon something by invoking the concept - and specifying "not [this]" is as much an invocation as saying "[this]". Among those who use this convention, it becomes a subtle form of calling card and social identifier to one another. It's been used for centuries.

Re:Google Wallet vs PayPal

[Taco Cowboy]

I find Google Wallet a little bit more "friendly" to the user. PayPal, which I've used for years and years, has become more and more, how should I say - arrogant

Yes--arrogant in exactly the same way as Google is being right now

First of all, let me state it here that I do not work for Google

In the case that we are talking about, Google is basically telling the devs that if they want to remain listed on Google Play they should at least accept Google Wallet as one of the payment options

While I do find it kinda arrogant, I do understand where Google is coming from - after all, Google, being the host, ought to have a chance to get something out of hosting all those apps

In other words, Google's arrogance is still within the acceptable range

On the other hand, PayPal has, on more than one occasion, being extremely arrogant, to the extent to being, shall I say, rude

There have been cases where PayPal shuts down accounts of entities that they do not agree with

If those entities engaged in illegal activities, such as supporting terrorist organizations, or selling cocaine to the minor, then I would have no qualm for PayPal shutting down their accounts

But there are other cases where PayPal shutting down the accounts belong to groups which do not see eye to eye with the government of America - such as WikiLeaks

I am not saying that WikiLeaks is an angle or something - but PayPal's shut down of WikiLeaks account mean that they are not allowing PayPal users like me to contribute ***OUR OWN MONEY*** to organizations that we think are doing a good job

That, my friend, is TRUE arrogance

Re:Google Wallet vs PayPal

[DJRumpy]

That isn't' what the article is saying. According to the TFA, they are banning accounts which refuse to use wallet as it's billing option. They are not requiring you to list it as an option, but rather requiring you to use it as well or face suspension.

From TFA:

In one email sent to a developer in late August, Google said the developer had 30 days to comply, otherwise the developer's apps would be "suspended" from Android Market. Reuters obtained a copy of the email this week.

"They told people that if they used other payment services they would be breaking the terms of use," said Si Shen, founder and chief executive of Papaya, a social gaming network on Android. "Whether it's right or wrong, we have to follow the rules."

Re:Google Wallet vs PayPal

[thegarbz]

PayPal shut down an account of someone collecting donations from the Something Awful forums for the New Orleans flood victims. The result wasn't a simple misunderstanding. It was weeks of fight and frustrations which ended up with all money being refunded and none forwarded to the charity.

To say PayPal is "rude" is to say someone who walks in and for no reason punches your kid is "rude". PayPal in my personal opinion ranks as one of the worst organisations on the planet.

Re:Google Wallet vs PayPal

[Anthony Mouse]

But increasingly, they are closing the openness.

I'm not really sure what you're talking about. The only thing that springs to mind is that they didn't immediately release the source for Ice Cream Sandwich, and then everybody was harping about how Android was going to be closed from now on... even though Google said they would release it when it was finished... and then they did release it, and most of those people shut up because they were wrong.

Paypal is paypal. We know what they are and what drives their motives.

Yeah, um... misanthropy?

It's pretty obvious why Google is doing this. Payment services have strong network effects. If all the users have Paypal accounts, all the sellers will accept Paypal. If the sellers only accept Paypal, new users will only sign up for Paypal accounts. Which allows Paypal to steal your money and kill your dog while making you thank them for it.

The only way to unseat them is for a big player (like Google) to say enough is enough and discontinue doing business with a company with such abusive practices. And of course, then they need an alternative to replace it with, so they created one.

I mean what's the worst that could happen, Google Wallet starts behaving like Paypal? Seems unlikely. And even then, how is that any worse than the status quo?

Re:Google Wallet vs PayPal

[geekoid]

Sorry. but this is the internet. If there is just 1 thing we should have learned is that you can't trust single sources.
I would like to see that email telling them to ""They told people that if they used other payment services they would be breaking the terms of use,""

So, grain of salt.
Oh wait, here is some clarification:
http://venturebeat.com/2012/03/09/google-wallet-android-in-app-payments/

Re:Open

[icebraining]

Android is open. Google Play (formerly Android Market) isn't, and never was. But no one is forced to use their market to provide and install apps.

Anti Trust Suit

[rioki]

Do is sense an anti trust suit? Yes I do!

Re:Open

[icebraining]

I don't think the market you use has anything to do with whether Android is open or not, as long as you're not locked to that market. I mean, is Debian not open because I can't force them to put applications that don't comply with the DFSG on the main repository?

Re:Open

[thegarbz]

You gave these idiots access to your bank account?

Both Visa and MasterCard offer debit cards linked to your bank account. They act like credit cards and they usually have a clearing time just like credit cards allowing you some leeway to complain to your bank if a transaction doesn't go your way. I'm not sure what it's like where you live but the banks in Australia offer these free (free as in no yearly cost, no interest, no transaction fee etc) to pretty much any customer with an account that allows debit transactions. Actually I don't think I've seen a debit card in the last few years that hasn't had the Visa or MasterCard logo on it.

I highly suggest you investigate this possible option. In Australia our banks are pretty good with dispute resolution, in fact in my experience they have been incredibly painless even when a card is stolen. But if you give someone debit access to your account you have pretty much no recourse with the bank.

Some Clarifications

[tangent3]

According to this article: http://www.i-programmer.info/news/81-web-general/3895-google-insists-on-google-wallet.html

1. Developers outside the US are exempted
2. Google Wallet charges a float 5%, Paypal charges $0.30 + 2.9%. Google Wallet is only more expensive if your app costs > $14.28. Considering the prices of most Android apps, I'd say calling Google Wallet "costlier" is a downright lie.