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07.11.06
eBay
Bans Google Checkouts
 By
Nathan Weinberg
The latest big hubbub not involving blond newsreaders is that eBay has added Google
Checkout to its list
of payment services not allowed in its marketplace.
Google joins an illustrious list:
AlertPay.com, anypay.com, AuctionChex.com, AuctionPix.com, BillPay.ie,
ecount.com, cardserviceinternational.com, CCAvenue, ecount, e-gold, eHotPay.com,
ePassporte.com, EuroGiro, FastCash.com, Google Checkout, gcash, GearPay, Goldmoney.com,
graphcard.com, greenzap.com, ikobo.com, Liberty Dollars, Moneygram.com, neteller.com,
Netpay.com, Nochex.com, paychest.com, payingfast.com, paypay, Postepay, Qchex.com,
rupay.com, scripophily.com, sendmoneyorder.com, stamps, Stormpay, wmtransfer.com,
xcoin.com
All of these services have been banned due to being unsafe for eBay buyers, that
they are in some way poorly designed or secured and thus aid fraud. Google Checkout,
however, is too new and untested to fall into this category, so it is far more
likely that this is being done for political reasons. Checkout is very similar
to Paypal, just cheaper, so if a large number of eBay's merchants switched over,
a huge portion of their revenue model would just go away.
eBay, unlike many other internet companies, doesn't really believe in transparency.
Unlike Google or Microsoft or Yahoo, they don't release many products, and have
a consistent stream of earnings coming from owning a large marketplace, like Amazon,
and don't need community support to survive.
Google could have went the eBay route, and been a far less stressful company for
it, but they decided to jump right in and go toe-to-toe with the big boys.
Ars
goes over the possible reasons for the decision (beyond the more obvious political/conspiracy
ones):
Unlike PayPal, Google Checkout is not primarily a consumer-to-consumer
(C2C) payments service. Google's new service appears to be focused primarily at
small businesses while aiming at larger sites down the line. As it is currently
situated, it's not going to turn into a C2C service anytime soon. There is no
provision for sending payments to those without merchant accounts and no way to
send money to an e-mail address, as is the case with PayPal.
So why the hate from eBay? In perusing eBay's Accepted Payments Policy, Google
Checkout would appear to meet criteria such as financial, privacy, and antifraud
protection; not involving precious metals or other noncash services; and regulatory
concerns. However, a couple of bullets point from eBay's list of criteria for
who makes the cut stand out: "the identity, background and other business interests
of the payment service sponsor" along with "whether the payment service has a
substantial historical track record of providing safe and reliable financial and/or
banking related services."
AuctionBytes
has a quote from a Google spokesperson:
A spokesperson for Google said it has no restrictions regarding marketplace
use. "We want to work with everybody," she said on Wednesday.
Now, isn't that the most gosh-darn cutest quote ever!
About
the Author:
Nathan Weinberg
writes the popular InsideGoogle
blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines. |
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