NEWS Google could be about to launch its own internet payments service to rival eBay-owned PayPal.
According to a report in the New York Times, speculation about the new payment service arose following discussion at a conference held by analyst house Piper Jaffray, where the chief executive of a major online retailer spilled the beans.
The CEO, who spoke under condition of anonymity, said Google had approached his company to take part in the online payments service.
Google did not respond to requests for comment on the reports.
Any potential move into the payments sector could prove lucrative - PayPal earned eBay $233m in the first quarter of this year. However, should Google decide to enter the online payments arena, it may affect the company's relationship with one of its largest advertisers, PayPal parent eBay.
Stranger things have happened. Google is already rumoured to be venturing into new territories such as VoIP, and has added a number of new services to its portfolio of late, including a maps and local services feature; a browser toolbar and domain registry.
Comments
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1. anonymous
Well, I for one hope they do go for competing against Paypal. I have stopped using it for receiving payments, as the charges are extortionate and do not make it workable for small items.
Ebay banned surcharging in order to cover paypal fees. I think Paypal should waive the charges if the payment is related to Ebay, or Ebay should cancel the selling fees if the seller accepts the payment by paypal.
I will only take paypal from overseas buyers now.
2. Paypal Gestapo
Thank the gods! Paypal is notorious for freezing accounts and updating its TOS without warning to users.
This, despite last year's multimillion dollar class action suit for freezing accounts in the past.
I suggest not using Paypal, at the risk of losing money, and choosing rival GreenZap instead.
3. anonymous
The sooner the better just check any ebay notice boards and see how sellers feel about payenemy (paypal). I am sure the new Google online payment will have a huge lot of ebay sellers follow to them and glad to be rid of paypals unscrupulous fraudulent service which makes up their own rules as they go along they will have HONEST competition and that will give Goole the advantage right there and be rid of them. They are NOT seller compatible and fast being hated by ebay sellers I do hope Google intigrates their services onto ebay auctions. They are guaranteed business from ebay sellers.