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.
End of Paypal ? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:5, Insightful)
But changing their mapping service as well as who they pay through, that is a whole other issue. Mapquest and MSN maps have been losing business. In light of the continual growth of the net, that is very telling. I would guess that Google is not going to kill off paypal tomorrow or over the next 10 years. But I would also bet that paypal will lose more than half of their business within five years and continue a downward trend unless they make a major change. Since ebay has taken over paypal, they have abused stores as well as users. Their attitude may start to change back to what it was.
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm confused why people ever really use PayPal in the first place. Oh yes because it's "easy." I wouldn't mind Google, MS, or heck even SGI to go into this. My thing is that they should start off as declaring themselves as doing banking and being properly regulated. I want PayPal to die a swift death just because of that. PayPal is doing banking and should be regulated as such. I honestly think that MS, Google, or some other IT company should produce a set of software that makes it as easy as using PayPal for your existing bank to do business over the internet. The big PayPal killer will be when my 4+ local city banks can do business with each other and your local banks as easily as PayPal transactions happen.
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:3, Informative)
It's several dollars per transaction, and it's not offered by all banks. It's no replacement for Paypal et al.
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:4, Insightful)
The US, sadly, has one of the most backwards banking systems I have ever had the misfortune to do business with. Most US banks seem to regard sending money by telegraph as a horrible new-fangled concept, while banks in the EU and Japan have been allowing customers to do it for free for well over a decade. I have two UK bank accounts and one US account. The amount of stuff the US bank seems to think they can get away with charging me for is staggering; they even charge for doing a balance enquiry at a cash machine!
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:4, Interesting)
Sure, you can do that, but then you'll get screwed by Paypal. I had an issue where the seller never shipped the item to me, and I first went through Paypal's dispute option in order to get my money back. However, they were either unable or unwilling to give me a refund, so I disputed the charge with my credit card company. Once Paypal got the chargeback, they permanently froze my service until I paid THEM the amount of my chargeback. Give money back to Paypal for an item I never received, and had just disputed? I don't think so. Needless to say, I haven't used them since (nor will I ever).
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:3, Informative)
They had to dig deep for this charge as they have already been charging for everything else for years.
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Your wrong about why... (Score:5, Insightful)
Many other services are just as easy to use as Paypal. No the biggest reasons are:
- Its "the brand" so far as online payments go. Most people use paypal, so other people get brought in my default.
- Its trusted. For online payments, this is a HUGE deal.
- Its cheap. Really, look at what people have to pay for online banking. If you want to setup an e-commerce website, alot of payment gateways charge a monthly fee, then take a huge percentage of your revinue. Plus, payout rates ( how fast you get your cash )are much higher with Paypal then most gateways.
- It acts as a credit card proxy, so if you have a MC or Visa, you can pay with Paypal without the fear of giving out your credit card number.
- Its in bed with eBay. Alot of peoples first need for a payment service is because they bought something on eBay. Once they have an eBay account, if they buy something else online, why sign up for a different service when the one you use already works?
So, there are many reasons beyond "it's easy" that Paypal is popular.
Use one of the online gold repositories instead (Score:3, Informative)
There's e-gold [e-gold.com], GoldMoney [goldmoney.com] etc. They're basically banks, can do instant payments. The difference being you can actually get your hands on the gold.
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:5, Insightful)
After all that, I still use it on occasion because I have no choice, thats the difference.
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:4, Insightful)
Sellers will prefer PayPal to Google Checkout (Score:3, Interesting)
It also seems like hiding the email address from the seller may also encourage more fraud (especially for digially distributed works).
So, at first glance, Google Checkout seems worse than PayPal from the seller's perspective -- it'll be interesting to see if sellers choose to stick with PayPal for reasons such as these...
Re:Sellers will prefer PayPal to Google Checkout (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, I'm inclined to disagree. There is a full API, and you can practically (as a seller) hide the fact you're using Google to process payments from the user if you wish. I'm writing an online store right now, and integration with Google appears to be less costly than having to get a merchant bank account and integrate with annoying APIs like Paymentech.
I like that Google placed the service on both a Paypal and full-out merchant level. Now I can do all payment processing on my site via the available web API, but still put the Google badge on the site to put buyers at ease.
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:5, Interesting)
I will be checking out the new CheckOut, with some initial testing in my violin business [celtic-fiddler.com], and if the results are good, I may move all of my business away from Ebay.
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:4, Funny)
We need a new one that goes, "One day, you'll Google for some more Google for your Google, and pay Google with Google"
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:5, Insightful)
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 ...
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:End of Paypal ? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
NYT article (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:NYT article (Score:4, Funny)
Re:NYT article (Score:4, Funny)
Re:NYT article (Score:5, Funny)
Does it have an old plane as the background image??
Re:NYT article (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure, you're dull right up until the moment you're not. And then you're defenseless. There is an old saying in Chess - the threat is better than the execution. Meaning that as long as your opponent has the power to do something, you have to expend your efforts in worrying about it and preventing it rather than doing what you'd like to do. If all of your "secrets" are laid bare at the whim of someone in power then you are oppr
paypal's safe as long as it has a monopoly at eBay (Score:2, Insightful)
monopoly at eBay (Score:4, Informative)
Re:monopoly at eBay (Score:5, Funny)
Re:monopoly at eBay (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:monopoly at eBay (Score:5, Funny)
Re:paypal's safe as long as it has a monopoly at e (Score:2, Insightful)
I think, with this and other online payment systems, you won't actually need to use eBay for much longer. The combination of eBays shocking lack of regard for blatant scams, their stock - ineffectual and often incorrect or irrelevant - replies to complaints, and the way they push their inherently unsafe PayPal* system has put me off using them.
*When is the money mine? As a seller I mean? For how long afterwar
Re:paypal's safe as long as it has a monopoly at e (Score:4, Informative)
Good for the customers (Score:2, Informative)
So if they want to be banks... (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, you won't find me going near most of the services offered by the likes of Paypal and now Google until organisations that are acting like banks or credit companies are regulated like them as well. My high street bank and credit card have pretty crappy customer service at times, but compared to some of the things Paypal's been accused off, the other guys are saints.
Re:So if they want to be banks... (Score:3, Informative)
Ten years ago, when electronic debit transactions were still new, that was the case. Now most financial institutions offer protections similar to credit cards. That's not to say that debit card protection is as convenient as credit card protection, though. The disadvantage is that, unlike a straight credit card, you start off with the money gone and must wrangle with the bank to
Money transfers? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Money transfers? (Score:3, Funny)
Staff: What is it Larry?
Larry: Apparently the new Gpay system is no good to some guy in Greece, so scrap it.
Staff: Oh no, all that work for nothing.
Larry: Yeah, I know, but what can you do. Guys, I am heading back to the Garage.
Just kidding, really, your opinion is important to us!
Re:Money transfers? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Money transfers? (Score:4, Insightful)
For example I know it is not only Apple to blame but iTunes Greece store existing and there is no iTunes Turkey store while countries has similar markets (wonder where enemy brothers term come from?) makes you think like "Oh well, Apple doesn't give a heck to our country" and get eMusic.com subscription.
Same goes for Rhapsody of Real Networks.; You see story on Slashdot, immediately click the URL with a list of rare stuff you have in your mind, you see "Available to USA only". It is like you go to a store and a bodyguard pushes you out because where you live.
I hope I could explain the background of "Why not available to my country?!" types of postings a bit.
btw, I know it is RIAA to blame for those "music" stores.
US Only (Score:4, Informative)
The registration form lets you choose a country, but the terms and conditions state that you must be a US citizen. I didn't click on the "I agree" button.
Flashback to the early days of Paypal: Someone pointed me to this new service, and when I get to the registration form, it had "Country: USA" hard coded in the HTML.
Credit Card Replacement? (Score:2, Interesting)
Paypal markets itself as a "safe" alternative for things like ebay, and easier to use for things like donations and small online stores that might not be able to use credit card facilities. Yet google is advertising this as a replacement for credit cards on all of your purchases. Would you be prepared to pay 2% on every single purchase you made at an online store ju
Customers DON'T pay... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Customers DON'T pay... (Score:2)
Re:Customers DON'T pay... (Score:5, Informative)
The interesting things will be how chargebacks are handled, what fraud prevention measures are in place, and who eats the cost of fraud. With a credit card I get a lot of protection and infrastructure that handles all of this. Google will have to at least match this before I will consider using it.
Personally I still don't know how Paypal manages to avoid being classified as a bank by the government.
Re:Customers DON'T pay... (Score:3, Informative)
I heard many horror stories about PayPal, but so far they've been good to me. And considering the total lack of customer support I got from the "real bank", the support factor was moot (IMO).
The economics of it (Score:3, Insightful)
Put a 50% tax on scrub brushes, and the price won't go up because no seller would risk having all his customers buy mops instead. Put a 50% tax on gasoline, and the sellers will cheerfully pass it along in full.
In general the burden of a tax gets split between seller and buyer in a ratio that depends on how much the market will bear.
Ebay? (Score:4, Insightful)
And...
I don't think PayPal will be going away anytime soon. PayPal's business is driven by Ebay, and PayPal is part of Ebay.
Hooray! (Score:4, Funny)
New Revenue Streams Trend to Conservatism (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:New Revenue Streams Trend to Conservatism (Score:3, Insightful)
Take the New York Times, for example. Revenue from advertising, classifieds, subscriptions, sidewalk sales, and now, subscription services on their web site.
I would also be inclined to say that they've got an "entrenched" attitude. Government regulations on the news media are just fine, even welcome, as long as they don't apply to the printing press media. Also, they managed to wrangle the NY city government into
Re:New Revenue Streams Trend to Conservatism (Score:5, Informative)
Paypal has one thing on google... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Paypal has one thing on google... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Paypal has one thing on google... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Paypal has one thing on google... (Score:4, Informative)
Even better, no minimum Savings up to 4.95%... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Paypal has one thing on google... (Score:3, Informative)
PayPal isn't going anywhere anytime soon (Score:4, Interesting)
This is what they said when Blockbuster started competing with NetFlix, but NetFlix is doing quite alright by themselves, and PayPal is, in my opinion, in better shape in their space than NetFlix was. PayPal and eBay are pretty good bed buddies, and PayPal is already accepted on thousands of other websites. People know the name, people have used it before, people know it works.
Regardless of how great the product Google produces turns out to be, people will still use PayPal as long as PayPal remains competitive, which I imagine it will. I mean, for all the people who rave and rant about how amazing Gmail is, the mailing list that my mom's quilt shop has accumulated is saturated with yahoo, hotmail, and aol addresses, with not a single gmail address to be found out of a few thousand names.
just great (Score:2, Informative)
"Dear Valued Customer, In an effort to protect your security and combat identity fraud we need to periodically confirm your account activity and identity. Please click here, login using your google account information, and complete the highly detailed personalized questionaire.
Sincerely,
Not a Phishing Attempt
So anyone grab checkoutgoogle.com for this yet?
Interconnected services (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Interconnected services (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, it's convenient to stay logged into Google for gmail, but I wouldn't want to do that at work if it gave access to my credit card! I think a seperate password, required each time you buy something, would be better than using your one password to the Googleplex.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Interconnected services (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Interconnected services (Score:4, Insightful)
Only if you want to be legal about it. When it comes to my cash, I prefer to do stuff above the table.
Google's TOS doesn't allow multiple accounts.
Re:Interconnected services (Score:3, Informative)
No. Now OP receives GBuy email in B -- and has to login as B to see what is going on. Wants to hang out on orkut -- logout and login again.
Either do a lot of cookie-editor plugin dancing or just stick to having one GCompartment for all!!
Micropayments (Score:4, Interesting)
So they didn't want to just take the 2% so it could be used by websites to charge tiny amounts of money per page/hour etc? $0.20 blows that intriguing possibility out of the water. They could accrue the amounts spent until it reached some value where the transaction was worth performing, if they're worried about thousands of $0.001 hits slowing down their system or costing too much to run.
US residents only! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:US residents only! (Score:2)
Re:US residents only! (Score:3, Interesting)
I even tried buying something from Buy.com and got the Oops [imageshack.us] from Google.
Visa and Mastercard aren't the best examples... (Score:2)
Correction. (Score:2, Interesting)
Should read as:
"The service allows Google to track all your orders and shipping in one place"
Need more payment options! (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Need more payment options! (Score:3, Insightful)
A bank account may be more useful for sellers (how exactly do you add money to your Visa account, anyway?), but I don't kn
more info (Score:4, Interesting)
Google Checkout [google.com] has been released today. From their blog: We've heard time and again from users: "I find great stores through Google search, but every time I try to buy from an online store, I have to re-enter the same billing, shipping, and credit card information. There are too many steps. Why can't it be as fast as a Google search?" This motivated us to improve the online purchase process, and so today we're announcing Google Checkout, a checkout option that makes buying across the web fast and easy."
Google CheckOut includes single signon and badges on adwords of merchants that use Google CheckOut.
Features include using many addresses and many different cards for buyers [google.com] and a "Payment Guarantee" against chargebacks for sellers [google.com].
AdWords users get $10 in sales processed for free for every $1 spent on AdWords.
For those of us text weary, there are videos for buyers [google.com] and sellers [google.com]
PayPal vs Google checkpout (Score:2)
This would be very bad if it put PayPal out (Score:2)
Look what has happened to PayPal without any real competition in the game, poor service, lots of fear over how accounts are handled. I think the same thing would happen to Google without competition forcing them to be the best.
I know a lot of people are starting to fear Google. Google used to be the underdog, and people love underdogs, especially Americans and e
Differing Features (Score:3, Insightful)
Google Checkout !Paypal (Score:5, Insightful)
Google - my secret lover (Score:2, Funny)
You have my money.
But where can I upload my soul? Yes, I have googled.
Only in the USA (Score:2, Informative)
- 18 years old or older;
- capable of entering into a legally binding agreement; and
- a resident of the United States.
So only people from the United States are allowed to use it yet
All you need to know (Score:5, Informative)
10. Disputes
GPC will provide various tools to assist Customers in communicating with each other to resolve a dispute that may arise between Buyers and Sellers with respect to their transaction. If Customers are unable to resolve a dispute, we can mediate disputes between buyers and sellers if either party requests assistance. If this occurs, we will review the dispute and propose a non-binding solution, if appropriate. For more detailed information, please see our Frequently Asked Questions.
GPC may offer a feedback or other ranking system on the Service to assist you in evaluating other Customers of the Service. You acknowledge that any such feedback or ranking system represents solely the opinion of other Customers of the Service, and is not an opinion, representation, or warranty by GPC with respect to other Customers of the Service.
You agree to release, GPC, Google, and other GPC affiliates, and their agents, contractors, officers and employees, from all claims, demands and damages (actual and consequential) arising out of or in any way connected with a dispute. You agree that you will not involve GPC in any litigation or other dispute arising out of or related to any transaction, agreement, or arrangement with any Seller, other Buyer, advertiser or other third party in connection with the Service. If you attempt to do so, (i) you shall pay all costs and attorneys' fees of GPC, Google, and other GPC affiliates and shall provide indemnification as set forth below, and (ii) the jurisdiction for any such litigation or dispute shall be limited as set forth below. However, nothing in this Terms of Service shall constitute a waiver of any rights, claims or defenses that you may have with respect to a Payment Transaction under the Buyer's card issuer agreement, the card association rules or applicable state and federal laws, such as the federal Truth in Lending Act or the Electronic Fund Transfer Act.
If you are a California resident, you hereby expressly waive California Civil Code 1542, which states: "A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which if not known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor."
Re:All you need to know (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not only that (Score:3, Insightful)
Just think of the huge market they're abandoning; if porn sites could use paypal or google for payment, many more folks might be willing to to pay for porn since they won't be giving their credit card info to seedy companies!
But for some odd reason they forbid it. Strange...
-Z
Typo (Score:4, Interesting)
Regards,
The nation's #1 tinfoil hat supplier!
1,9% and $0,30 ? (Score:5, Informative)
The 1,9% and $0,30 rate for Paypal is if you recieve more than $100,000 to your account and you have a merchant account!
Normally, it's 2.9% + $0.30 USD. https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display -receiving-fees-outside [paypal.com]
Re:1,9% and $0,30 ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:1,9% and $0,30 ? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:1,9% and $0,30 ? (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't understand "switch." You make it sound like an either/or decision. Can't you offer both? "If you have a Google Checkout account, go here, if you don't, go to PayPal - Thanks and come again." That way, every time someone does use Google, you'll save
Re:1,9% and $0,30 ? (Score:3, Informative)
$10 chargeback risk for sellers. (Score:3, Insightful)
Typically this means that if a seller is the victim of fraud, (s)he loses the item sold AND has to pay $10 because of it.
Using this for "micro"-payments of, say, $5, would be pretty dangerous considering the risk of fraud.
I've been selling through another service for years now and thus have some indication of the amount of fraud happening on the internet. I may still try google CheckOut, but probably only for $10+ payments so valid orders may cover the risk of fraudulent ones.
Besides, the service is only available in the U.S.A. anyway, so I'd have to wait for it. Odd, considering AdWords and AdSense are available pretty much worldwide.
Sticking with Paypal... (Score:4, Insightful)
They have transitioned themselved from being cool to being fairly evil (sweatshops for iPod manufacture, closing off the Darwin source)
Besides do you think for one second that eBay will make integrating auctions easy with Google? Of course not....
Paypal does suck but all of these services do and odds are Google's will too.
GPC Not A Banking Institution (Score:3, Interesting)
No other difference from Paypal?
It seems they use their brand value and lower rates against Paypal. Hope we won't have another Google Groups in hand since this thing is purely related to real life money.
On Google Groups, you can pollute usenet with any kind of criminal scams, pyramid schemes and they send "Google does not censor groups" type of "we don't care" message in politically correct way. Deja could handle abuse while usenet was really huge compared to today but as a billion dollar company they can't.
I hope they start working with Spamcop.net , Antiphishing.org and fraudwatchinternational.com right now. I hope they recorded all their URLs/IPs as interested parties and we (reporting users) don't see "ISP does not want to receive reports regarding" type of stuff at spamcop.net as first days of Paypal.
can you pay FRIENDS? (Score:3, Interesting)
Does Google Checkout has this? I can't spot this from the 'take a tour' plug
This is a real nice feature and would really like to see it in GOOG version
Re:Huh? (Score:2, Informative)
My math says that Google would be cheaper for anything over $100.
Re:Huh? (Score:2, Insightful)
Kinda looks pretentious,
It doesn't look pretentious if you're European, it looks normal. There is a world outside the evil empire! I will, however, agree that one shouldn't mix standards.
Re:huh? (Score:3, Informative)