Google Wallet May Compete With Paypal

theskeptic writes "According to the WSJ, Google plans to offer an electronic-payment service that could help the Internet-search company diversify its revenue and may heighten competition with eBay's PayPal unit. Codenamed Google Wallet, a payment service could represent a significant expansion beyond online advertising, which generated 99% of its $3.2 billion in revenue last year. Google's move could potentially threaten eBay's successful PayPal service, which generated $233.1 million, or 23% of eBay's revenue in the first quarter."

Too late

[Jason1729]

www.gwallet.com is currently owned by a domain squatter.

What lays ahead

[simulacrum25]

This could lay the foundation for Google to introduce paid services. It would certainly ease them into it if people already use Google Cash.

It's also nice to see some competition to Paypal. Ebay has done a pretty good job with it IMO, but too much of a monopoly for me to be comfortable with.

Re:Too late

[athmanb]

They'll go wallet.google.com anyway.

Coming soon: GBay?

[LostCluster]

With Google coming up with their own PayPal, they're halfway to coming up with a full eBay-killer auction site. Imagine being able to create an auction that'd show up whenever somebody searches Google for the product's name....

This seems reasonable...

[Eberlin]

Provided Google can somehow use their branding to reflect reliability, security, and stability -- I'd trust them with money. Feed the fear about paypal's insecurities and you've got yourself a deal.

Perhaps a business link through Froogle could prove beneficial, too. You know, "preferred customer" type scenario.

In the end, though, I really do think we should start worrying about the amount of information Google collects. Searches, identity, e-mails, and with this thing, buying trends and other financial information. Yeah, we love 'em...but their capacity for evil is growing and becoming a bit more scary.

Google v. eBay

[TeacherOfHeroes]

How long until google branches out to the point where they're in direct competition with eBay. From google wallet to google auction.

You get to use google's extra-spiffy search features to find exactly what you're looking for. Plus, google would probably be able to create something 10x less cumbersome and akward than ebay's interface.

Credit Card Processing Racket

[dduardo]

I find that the rates are incredibly high for what these companies do. Credit Card validation over the internet should be a relatively easy process, but there are so many middle men in the business that it's crazy. Visa, Mastercard, etc issue the cards, why can't I deal with them directly?

The Trust Factor

[lheal]

Just about everybody trusts Google.

I trust PayPal/Ebay, but less than I trust Google.

As long as Google Wallet can keep away from either a financial scandal or a security breech, they should eat Ebay's lunch -- except on Ebay.

Finally!

[OverflowingBitBucket]

Finally!

It's about damn time a company with a reputation like Google's got into this area. I hate PayPal with a passion; they wouldn't accept one of my credit cards for an online payment (there were no other choices for the site I was paying), so I contacted their support. Guess how that went? Long story short, two automated emails and one "we won't help you" email over a few weeks. They don't want to help you, they just want your money. Also check out the horror stories of frozen accounts floating around the web.

Another guide to these type of sites is how many hoops you have to jump through to actually contact them. Try it, drop by and click through. See how long it takes to contact someone.

Anyway, sub-rant over. Imagine how a company like google could shake up this area. It's about time a reputable company came in and did a good job. Maybe even micropayments or something similar in the future? I imagine online comic creators would love that one. :)

Small or Micropayments would be nice

[WoTG]

If you send a couple bucks via PayPal, even if the sender has a positive account balance (i.e. no CC transaction costs exist), the fees are quite hefty, percentage wise. (The minimum transaction fee is USD 0.3).

It would be really nice to get a break on small transactions, especially ones that don't incur CC costs.

Re: Flamebait?

[Black Parrot]

> A lot of you won't like to hear it... But isn't google trying to get a monopoly on everything that is on our planet?

They may turn out to be the Microsoft of the internet era. However, so far they haven't shown signs of being a great evil, and their stuff isn't crap.

Re:Ties to Froogle?

[slavemowgli]

Odds are, eBay won't just let Google Wallet into their system and people would have to do payments manually [...]

In that case, I wouldn't be surprised if Google actually sued eBay for using a near-monopoly in one sector (online auctions) to help maintain one in another sector (online credit card payments). And personally, I think it wouldn't be without merit, either.

But then, of course, IANAL.

Re:Cool!

[tomjen]

Remember, that the NSA recently retired carnivore - suppose that there replacement was google. Now that is a scary idea.

I agree - I look forward to Google Wallet

[Famatra]

I agree with you, I look forward to a viable alternative to paypal. I am not please with Paypal after having had a false charge back happen against me, and being pinged for an aditional $10.00 as well as losing the original money. Paypal sucks [paypalsucks.com] has more horror stories too, and I offer some advice if you have to do business with paypal:

• Make sure your checking account is deposit only. You can have this specified in writing, but another way is to have the account be joint co-signed so both parties have to sign to take something out if you have a significant other. This way paypal cannot take money out of your account (which in the terms of service last time I saw you give them permission to take money out of your account to settle balances with them).
• Keep a minimum amount of money in your paypal account.

Since google seems to be holding to its 'do not evil' policy they should make a for good competitor with customers fed up with paypal. I wouldn't mind seeing a google auction site to compete with ebay (Paypal's owner) as well :).

Good. Paypal needs this.

[Ralph Spoilsport]

Paypal sucks - they'll freeze out accounts, or: what's worse: they'll empty your bank account and completely fuck your life up.

For some horror stories on who PayPal really doesn't give a shit about you, go here:

http://www.paypalsucks.com/ [paypalsucks.com]

read it and weep.

Paypal needs the competition - especially from a company like Google that professes a higher sense of ethics.

RS

Re:good, paypal needs competition

[antifoidulus]

Not to mention that they force things on you that you don't want and blame YOU when they fuck up. They offered a "Pay with your bank account" service(mostly so they could get away from the high credit card fees but still charge the recipient), I didn't want to use it though, so I chose to pay with my credit card. However, they chose to use a bank account in which I had the minimum balance in(I kept it around in case I needed a loan from the bank as they have cheap rates for members). So then I got a message from paypal saying that there were insufficient funds and used my Discover card to cover it. Furthermore, they were going to retry in 2 days(I don't know why, I paid the god damn money). I was away from my email for a few days and didn't notice it, by the time I did I had over $80 in fees from the bank. Fortunately my bank forgave the fees but I closed down my paypal account right away.

The worst part about it was that when I called up customer service to complain, they blamed me. I tried to tell them that in fact I am not a moron and made sure to pay with my card(since I never wanted the bank account service in the first place) but they continued to blame me. Not to mention the manager was a real ass......I hope they die a quick death

Re:good, paypal needs competition

[Mold]

Yeah, the fees shocked me the first couple of times. They sound okay in thoery, but when they actually hit, you realize how bad they are.

I hope this works out, but I'm wondering how long it will take to become widespread. I'm not really sure how much I would use it. I mean, I use it for a couple of small sites, and donations, but other than that it's pretty much just for eBay. Oh well, I'm sure someone will find a good use for it.

I'm amazed Google is going with something that can't be in Beta.

kill'em all

[papar]

Google is really trying to take over the world and the way they're conquering different internet services is just frightening. I wouldn't be surprised if they would announce a new googlebay (or whatever) online marketplace in the next few years. They are tightening their grip and it's strong! Could they really kill'em all and succeed in taking over the internet?

A sneak preview...

[Duncan3]

Picture it... A "confirm" button... surrounded by 427 text ads for related products.

I already have to goto at least page 3 to find anything, because the first few pages of google results are fake sites, keyword bait, and crap not even containing the words I used.

Lets not forget what Google is, an ADVERTISING company, that want to know everything about everythign you have done and ever will do, so they can sell YOU to companies.

No, Google past the "big brother" line long ago, now they want to be a bank too? They will force Ebay to stop taking 15% of all transactions, and that's good, but Google is getting seriously scary.

Re:good, paypal needs competition

[nametaken]

PayPal does indeed blow. This is coming from someone who has used it as a small merchant and as a buyer.

As a merchant, I was more than a little peeved when I used the method of buying from myself and immediately refunding payments, as their manual suggested, and they processed the payments anyways (days later) against a checking account. Ok, so the manual didn't mention that they will still process cancelled transactions... fine. I called them to get it straightened out (really to let them know they should say that in the manual) and I was actually yelled at, and then hung up on. I couldn't believe this. I said screw em, and had my bank reverse the charges as fraudulent withdrawls and filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau who has regular meetings with the fucks at PayPal.

As a buyer I have had all kinds of problems as well. I personally can't wait for Google to become the standard... even if I DO normally worry about Google branching out. We're in desperate need of an alternative.

Re:Cool!

[MutantHamster]

Oh my God, I never noticed that before! Before I thought they were doing all this because it was allowing them to make billions of dollars a year, but now that you point it out it seems much more plausible that they're personally spying on you. You might want to look into this [wikipedia.org] too.

Re:Credit Card Processing Racket

[peatbakke]

Strangely enough, Visa and Mastercard don't actually issue the cards -- banks do. Visa and MC are actually middlemen in the grand scheme of things ... they just pass messages between between banks and stores.

They have a heck of a deal going. All they ask is a tiny amount of each transaction processed (I can't remember the number off the top of my head ... but it's a fraction of a percent). Of course, the companies that provide merchant services (bank accounts, point of sale hardware, etc.) tack on their own fees.

When it comes down to it, "Visa" is just a collection of huge datacenters relaying billions of messages between banks and stores every day ...

Lowest forms of life...

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

Of course it depends on how long they have owned it, and what they have been doing with it, but I wouldn't mind Google telling them to fork it over for small but reasonable price. Domain squaters are no better than the lowest type of Spsmmer, they are just the lowest forms of life.

Re:A sneak preview...

[wootest]

Who decides if Google is an advertising company or a search company? *What* decides it? Revenue or what most people use their services for? Don't Google still do good in helping people find what they're looking for above being ad-toting corporate concentrated evil?

'Selling me to companies' is ridiculous - Google has been one of the biggest players in the market of bringing ad spots to ordinary people. Anyone can buy AdWords for a paltry sum, and all they use is keywords - from your search or from the web page you're visiting. I don't see where this tips over from handy way to finance the other aspects of one's company to evil big brother attitude.

Is it the cookies? Block the cookies. Is it the ads? Block the ads. The 427 text ads crack is blown up for a quick laugh - I've never seen any Gmail page show me more than four *text-based* ads and Google have been consistently good at not getting ads get in the way of or distract from the actual content - with the only possible exceptions being the blue boxed "sponsored links" at the top of some search results. I find the ads on Slashdot, for example, to be more annoying and more in-my-face.

Speaking of Gmail, I'm okay with their computers scanning my correspondence for keywords. That's what they do - scan emails for keywords. Nothing else. The Google servers aren't secretly reading my emails, and if I would ever click those ads then it would at least be ads related to what I'm reading about or writing about at the time and thusly be much less annoying. I appreciate that.

(To knee-jerkers: Go ahead and call me a Google apologist or a Google fanboy or what have you if you want to. But refute my facts, refute my point of view, challenge my opinions and *back it all up* before you even think about sticking a label on me. Wouldn't you be mad if I blew you off as a "conspiracy theorist" or "corporate-hating hippie" and left it at that?)

How will they handle support?

[Revolver4ever]

I don't know too much about Google outside of search, maps and Gmail but from what I see Google has never done anything that requires mass customer support (dealing with average joe's like us, not the marketing companies that put up ads on google).

While I'd love to see Google compete with PayPal and Ebay, I think that at least in the beginning the really crazy Google fanboys (the millions of them) will be dissapointed because Google probably is not used to dealing with millions of customers (some stupid, some arrogant, some smart asses, and so on) at the same time.

Thus, at least for a couple of months, I would not sign up for this service for that reason alone. Once they got the customer support thing down (and I'm sure they will, there's a whole bunch of smart people over there) I'll join.

Good luck Google.

Re:Small or Micropayments would be nice

[anthony_dipierro]

It would be really nice to get a break on small transactions, especially ones that don't incur CC costs.

The thing is, if you accept credit cards, then you've got to sign a contract with Visa and/or Mastercard. And that contract is going to say that you have to charge the same fee regardless of whether or not the person uses their credit card.

So you really have to choose one or the other. Micropayments, and no credit cards, or credit cards, but no micropayments.

Maybe Google will take the road less travelled and go with micropayments, but that'd be a big risk on their part.

Wanna kill Ebay?

[seanvaandering]

If Google wanted to kill ebay and paypal in one quick swoop, just offer lower pricing on auctions, and be realisitic. Extra features are nice, but eBay just kills the entire idea of the upsell, every stupid thing you do costs an added fee, until your 99 cent item costs $12.00 to list! Would I put a ton of stuff on auction if it was cost friendly? You bet -- and might end up paying more **IN THE LONG RUN** then paying ludicrous amounts now and waiting 6 months between transactions.

Secondly, dont kill sellers and buyers with fees on both ends of the transaction, maybe link both services together, with free transaction and merchant processing for auctions when you utilize GWallet on your auction - BOOM - right there, youve got them hooked, and you dont need to worry about alot of fraud auctions.

Google in their infinite wisdom I'm sure has already come up with a great idea, and I cannot wait to see it. I am so sick of EBay, and when I log in there - I just feel dirty all over again from the way they rape you with charges that you end up owing money once its all done. Sheech.

Re:Adsense

[mparaz]

Direct deposits have limited coverage. I think what they're trying to do is avoid paying out when the AdSense advertiser is going to buy AdWords anyway.

I'd go for that - it takes a month for my check to get here (Philippines) and 45 banking days to get the check cleared. (though my next check should be in the local currency)

As long..

[necromcr]

..it will support all countries, I'll be willing to pay for any extra costs for money transfers. PayPal sucks for not-so-known countries (e.g. Slovenia).

Re:natural progression

[ignavusincognitus]

That's not "micropayment". That's only transferring billing information between servres which are all owned by google, and charging the client monthly by a standard credit card transaction.

Real micropayment systems have to deal with untrusted (and potentially non-identifiable) parties. Google has zero exeprience doing that.

Re:good, paypal needs competition

[fbjon]

I'm amazed that this is such a problem. In Finland, when I buy something on an auction, online, or anywhere, I can just log in to my bank (with good security), and send the money to the other person's bank account. I send the exact sum of money required, to any bank in Finland, and that same amount arrives in the other person's bank about the next banking day, or immediately if it's the same bank. Transfer fees do not exist.

And there's some talk of sending checks around in the comments here. Are we talking about real, physical checks made of paper here? Is there anyone else here who realises how utterly oldsk00l this is?

What about COD? I can put stuff in a package, fill out a small form with my account number and a pickup charge amount, and give it to the post office. The other person receives it, pays the charge I wrote in any way he sees fit to the Post, and the Post deposits the same sum into my account. It's like magic!

No seriously, why are there such problems? Are there fees for transferring between states? Is paypal really the only alternative?