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."

Where voluntary isn't voluntary.

[sethstorm]

While you're free to make an app with any payment system you want, using anything but Google's own results in you being cut off from nearly all of the Android audience.

If there's a clear example of "force by practicality", here is one front and center.

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.

bull..

[gl4ss]

It's just about getting a cut of the sales.
That's the ONLY thing this is about.

it can be wrapped in 7 layers of bullshit, but that's still what this is about in the end.

sure, it's an attack on paypal, on facebook credits etc. but that's only means to an end which is getting a cut of your purchases.

I'm pretty sure they won't extend this to banking apps though!

Re:Open

[mwvdlee]

The alternative was already there.
If the alternative were better, you'd have already known this.

Re:Open

[philip.paradis]

It will be interesting to see what comes out of this.

With the subject "Open" no less. Honestly, your post contributed absolutely nothing of value to the conversation, and one can only surmise that you're trolling for points for mods who are suffering from chronic sleep deprivation. I sincerely hope any mods viewing this will mod the OP into oblivion.

Google like Ebay and Paypal?

[Wowsers]

So what? Ebay also did this with Paypal. Before Ebay ruined itself, you could have a choice of payment processor including the one they most liked you to use - but was NOT compulsory to use their payment processor (which was NOT Paypal).

Then one day, Ebay decides to make it compulsory to have Paypay as a payment option. Around about that time I gave two fingers to Ebay. You WILL NOT force me to use a 100% unethical bent company to sell my no longer needed stuff, and have not used Ebay since.

And so Google are going the same way. Oh well.

Re:How am I supposed to feel about this?

[stephanruby]

If only Timothy had posted this story, with some kind of snarky one-liner that clearly told me whether this was a good thing or bad thing!

Forget about Tim, I'll do it.

It's official. Google is evil now (they're not even going to try to hide it anymore).

It's part of their new branding strategy.

Re:Open

[Anonymous Coward]

People who accept bitcoins punish themselves.

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:What about for non-US people?

[DNS-and-BIND]

How about making your own? Seriously. Nobody's forcing anyone to use Google or any other service. If you don't like it, change. If you don't like the other choices, start your own. It's really that simple. According to your own analysis, there is a huge underserved market out there waiting for a player to enter the game.

Anti Trust Suit

[rioki]

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

Re:Google Wallet vs PayPal

[shiftless]

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.

Google is evil.

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:What about for non-US people?

[aaaaaaargh!]

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

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'.

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

[MisterMidi]

I agree, but it would help if Google would actually allow me to use it. It's impossible to use without a credit card. I understand that in the US almost everybody has one, but here it's not that common. Google is leaving a lot of money on the table here, I (and many others) can't even buy an app if I wanted to. Getting a credit card to be able to use Google Wallet is too much of a hassle, and besides, I don't even want to own one. If I were Google, this would be my #1 priority for Google Wallet.

Some Clarifications

[tangent3]

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

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.

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

[pclminion]

You have an accounting and marketing budget but you use Paypal instead of a merchant account? So what you're saying is, PayPal might be bad but at least it's better than direct access to the credit network? I seriously do not get it.